Chris Smith Email & Phone Number

Gauteng, South Africa

As the Technology Consulting Director at VML, I operate under the purview of the Head of Data Strategy & Consulting from London (UK), spearheading pivotal responsibilities to drive technological and data-driven initiatives. My role encompasses a spectrum of duties focused on client engagement and leadership within a dynamic consultancy environment.My expertise revolves around aligning technology and data strategy with overarching business goals and guiding non-technical stakeholders through complex technical concepts to build trust and clarity. I lead workshops on leveraging marketing technology and optimising data for impactful marketing strategies. Proficient in distilling client needs into actionable technology solutions, I specialise in creating high-level architectures that fill gaps and align with the client's business vision.Leading technical project teams, I spearhead in-depth analyses of client technology and data challenges, driving the identification and implementation of impactful solutions. My leadership spans beyond project management, actively contributing to the creation of scalable, repeatable solutions that elevate our consultancy's capabilities. Furthermore, I prioritise mentoring team members, fostering an environment conducive to continuous growth and expertise development.Moreover, my role extends to leading pre-sales endeavours in technology and data consultancy. I actively contribute to refining RFP responses, engaging in pitches, and structuring proposals, thereby playing a crucial role in shaping the consultancy's growth trajectory.

London Area, United Kingdom

As the Technology Consulting Director at Wunderman Thompson Data, I operate under the purview of the Head of Data Strategy & Consulting from London (UK), spearheading pivotal responsibilities to drive technological and data-driven initiatives. My role encompasses a spectrum of client engagement and leadership duties within a dynamic consultancy environment.My expertise revolves around aligning technology and data strategy with overarching business goals and guiding non-technical stakeholders through complex technical concepts to build trust and clarity. I lead workshops on leveraging marketing technology and optimising data for impactful marketing strategies. Proficient in distilling client needs into actionable technology solutions, I specialise in creating high-level architectures that fill gaps and align with the client's business vision.Leading technical project teams, I spearhead in-depth analyses of client technology and data challenges, driving the identification and implementation of impactful solutions. My leadership spans beyond project management, actively contributing to the creation of scalable, repeatable solutions that elevate our consultancy's capabilities. Furthermore, I prioritise mentoring team members, fostering an environment conducive to continuous growth and expertise development.

35 Fergusan Rd, Illovo, Sandton, 2196

Specializing in informal data (township) collection, verification, visualisation, enrichment, communication, and actionable insights allowing the formal economy to adapt and trade in the informal economy. Building partnerships with formal businesses who require smarter and enriched township data, by providing accredited and advanced data solutions that will deliver high-quality insight for more effective township development strategies, initiatives, and projects.

Kingdom Of Bahrain

Providing digital consulting services in transformation, data & analytics, digital and marketing strategies, marketing automation, cybersecurity and GDPR.Consulting to businesses in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait & Qatar in developing holistic digital objectives and building strategies which respond effectively to the demands of a rapidly changing digital economy.AMG Digital Consulting has gone through a complete revamp under my control, from a traditional small-scale boutique digital agency to a competitive full-scale digital consultancy to compete with large internal counterparts.

Johannesburg

Specializing in performance marketing, data enrichment strategies, audience segmentations, strategic partnerships, commercial and product strategies, Customer Data Platforms (CDP) and project management.I consulted with businesses creating people-based marketing strategies and identity matching techniques, which combine offline data sources with online customer data, providing accuracy, probabilistic and deterministic reach for marketers and businesses. This in turn provides brands and platforms the ability to better understand their customer, enabling personalised customer acquisition and retention strategies.

South Africa

Specializing in performance marketing, data enrichment strategies, audience segmentation strategic partnerships, commercial and product strategies and data management platforms (DMP).I help businesses create people based marketing strategies and identity matching techniques, which combines offline data sources with online customer data, providing accuracy, probabilistic and deterministic reach for marketers and businesses. This in turn provides brands and platforms the ability to better understand their customer, enabling personalised customer acquisition and retention strategies.Current affairs of marketing:Marketers have relied on cookies, IP addresses and device ID’s to track online consumer behavior for years, but they just never knew the person behind it. Browser technology companies are making marketing processes even more difficult with Apple’s (intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP), Firefox Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) and now Google Chrome Sandbox to be implemented within the next two years – blocking all 3rd party cookies and in its wake limiting programmatic advertising initiatives. The truth is that well intentioned marketers just can’t reach the people they aiming for. Many successful data driven technology platforms specialising in people based marketing still operate in silos, such as – Facebook, Google and Twitter. Outside of the three giants, we again find a handful of silos who are able to target a person successfully, within their particular channel, with the right message. The problem is consistency of this message across multiple channels to the same person. The future of marketing:People Based Marketing (PBM) relies on unique identifiers (PII / 1st party data), and does not require 3rd party cookies to track and gather data of customers. The future is customer identification and their associated attributes, which means access to quality 1st party data across many data driven technology businesses.

Johannesburg Area, South Africa

Oversee all digital product research and development for CTP Ltd and partner businesses, focused on delivering high tech solutions, products and supporting services. Pioneered the first and largest roll-out of the Oracle BlueKai Data Management Platform (DMP) across 130 digital owned assets in South Africa. Responsible for ongoing DMP product strategies and delivering innovative commercial solutions.

Jhb

Consult to independent businesses on strategy development, solution design, production execution, software integration and client relations for digital support and solutions.

Jhb

Management of digital team to deliver high end digital strategies and products for three major brands in South Africa.

Johannesburg Area, South Africa

Define strategic direction and technical strategy for clients, as well as product development and management

City Of Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa

Technical strategy and development of online products.Manage 8 department personnel including lead developer.Project and partnership management.

Johannesburg Area, South Africa

Management of IT services, infrastructure and strategy. Define IT services, specifications and deployment strategies for Africa exploration business ventures.

City Of Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa

Management of IT services, infrastructure and strategy.Implementation of COBIT, based on ITIL

City Of Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa

Global exploration engineerAirborne Multispectral Scanner (AMS) engineer and operator.Logistics & Procurement – Recruitment, Hiring, Warehousing, Transport, CourierQuality Assurance – Equipment Installation, Calibration, Data Quality Assessment, Environment ImplicationsFinance – Budgets and Payments (Internationally

Prince 2, Project Management, Prince 2 Practitioner

Qualified Prince 2 Practitioner

Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, Network And System Administration/Administrator

Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer

Matric, Matric

Electrical Engineering Diploma, Electrical Engineering, Diploma