Written by: WOM member, Samantha Iodice

Charlotte Gretter didn’t rise to head of martech for Omnicom Media Group overnight.  With tenacious perseverance and drive, Charlotte established an accelerating career in the martech industry.

Starting her career at Groupe Canal+ in content marketing, Charlotte was responsible for expanding the brand’s footprint and partnerships in the Swiss market. She quickly, and early in her career, was promoted to a management-level position which aligned her with greater responsibility. When it came time to sink or swim, Charlotte’s ambition, talent and dedication helped to advance her career.

Learning Locally, Thinking Globally

Aspiring to take her career beyond Switzerland, Charlotte switched gears into digital marketing, then migrated to the technology side in a position with Telenor Group HQ in Norway. Telenor Group has operations in Scandinavia, Europe and Asia, which appealed to Charlotte’s desire for an international role. This is where her passion for martech began.

“[I started] working much closer [with] developers, [engineers] and data scientists.” Charlotte grew and transitioned from traditional marketing to digital tech marketing. “Responsible for Google and Adobe Partnerships globally, I was deploying martech strategic framework across the different business units in the group.”

Digital Transformation With Career Impact

Charlotte made her way to Omnicom Media Group, sought out by the company specifically for her experience in digital transformation. “I had been part of a big digital transformation journey in one of the biggest players in several markets and also witnessed in-housing projects, agile [methodologies], changes of strategies, reorgs, etc. I wanted to utilize that knowledge and share my experience to more advertisers.” Omnicom was the perfect place to follow her interests. “I felt that I needed to see what the agency world looked like, to have a 360-view of the industry.”

The Challenges And Future Of Martech

Rising to the head of technology didn’t come without challenges. Charlotte described the challenges that she faced when internal business partners did not understand the technology, how to use it or even why it was necessary. “I think the biggest challenge is to translate martech into an [easily] understandable concept for every marketer and extended groups in organizations. At the end of the day, it is the people internally that need [to] ‘buy-in’ and very often the knowledge itself is not there, especially [at the] c-level.”

Charlotte has an important and positive vision of the future of martech, grounded in the spirit of collaboration. “I think we [should] all want martech to be an integrated part of marketing and not seen as a separate project. I see that the usage of technology will broaden to more marketers going forward, thus enabling faster time to market, [more of a testing/learning/iterative] approach to marketing.”

Managing Challenges, Driving Success And Overcoming Obstacles

Charlotte’s typical day has changed immensely with Omnicom. She oversees key martech projects within the agency and business groups in Norway, and she offers martech consulting to clients. She also needs to ensure her teams have the right competencies to enable martech strategies with their clients.

While Charlotte continues to focus on her career growth, she has already achieved many incredible accomplishments. She has three bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree. Charlotte lived in France, Germany, Switzerland and Norway, and gets to travel around the world for business regularly.

Direct achievements in Charlotte’s career include recently performing a comprehensive vendor assessment with recommendation to change the adtech stack of a large client. “[The client adopted my recommendations which] resulted in extremely good programmatic results compared to the other platform the client was on. I don’t relate [these results] to ‘chance,’ but exactly to what martech is all about: finding the technology that matches your particular needs. And that is what I challenge my clients on all the time: What use cases are you trying to achieve here?”

As a young, single mother, her day is nothing short of busy. But even without hectic personal and daunting professional obligations, Charlotte feels immensely successful in her life and career.

Career + Visibility Advice For Women In Martech

“I think we all have entered a call or meeting where you are faced with 10 or more men and you are the only woman. I have never felt uncomfortable in this, because I knew what I was talking about.” Charlotte notes that becoming an expert in confidently conveying your knowledge can make the difference. She explains that by being on top of the topic, knowing the latest happenings, following the trends and understanding the market, women can more confidently join and lead conversations. “All these strategies will make you become an expert. Don’t be afraid to go hands-on, sitting with the tools, talking to technical people and connecting with real users. Understand their needs and drive strategies based on that. Visibility will come naturally.”

Written by: WOM member, Samantha Iodice