Rivi Bloch is the current division chief executive of Taptica’s Performance Advertising business, as well as interim CEO of Taptica International Ltd.
Rivi was born and raised in Israel, and spent several years living in San Francisco. She pursued academic degrees in Political Science and Law, and regularly draws on those experiences as Taptica continues on a path of globalization and international growth.
Today she spends much of her time traveling between the company’s headquarters in the Asia Pacific region, primarily within China, Korea, and Japan.
Prior to joining Taptica, Rivi held various marketing, product, and client success positions at Logia Group.
Taptica is a global end-to-end mobile advertising platform that helps the world’s top brands reach their most valuable users with the widest range of traffic sources available today, including social.
Their proprietary technology leverages big data, and combined with state-of-the-art machine learning, enables quality media targeting at scale.
Taptica works with more than 600 advertisers including Amazon, Disney, Facebook, Twitter, OpenTable, Expedia, Lyft and Zynga. Taptica is headquartered in Israel with offices in San Francisco, New York, Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo and London.
Tell me how your solution was created?
Rivi Bloch: Taptica was created for app developers. When we first started, the digital world of app promotion was still in its early stages, and we wanted to give app developers a one-stop solution as opposed to working with several different media entities.
What’s unique about Taptica?
Rivi Bloch: Taptica is unique mainly because of our global presence. Our headquarters are located in Tel Aviv, Israel, with offices in San Francisco, New York, Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo and London. We realized in the first year of business that we have to be as close to our clients as possible — hence, our mission is based on the assumption that supply is global, but demand is local. In order to get to the end-client, we have to get to the actual user acquisition manager, by speaking the same language and/or being physically located in the same time zone. Yes, it’s possible to run a global campaign from anywhere, but in order to understand the client’s specific needs we strive to physically be close to increase collaboration and allow them to hit all of their KPIs.
What kinds of things do you do in your role?
Rivi Bloch:Â I started in the company on the demand-side and quickly moved to the U.S. to open our first office outside of Israel. Eventually, I moved back to Israel to help mirror our U.S. operations with the rest of our offices, keeping in mind the multi-cultural aspect of being global.
Today, I manage the performance division, connecting the dots between the different departments, and resolving any pain points an app developer has with the help of our local and global team.
How had your previous career lent you the skills for this role?
Rivi Bloch:Â Through managing offices worldwide, from Japan to Israel and the U.S., I have been faced with extreme cultural differences on a daily basis. Understanding and accepting these differences is the key to doing business globally. This is something that you have to learn on the go. It is important to maintain personal contact among offices to create a level of trust. Once that is established, the path for success is wide open.
How do you navigate cultural differences across Taptica’s international offices?
Rivi Bloch: It’s all about visibility and creating a sense of belonging. Externally, we try to do as many joint events as possible to make sure the international teams feel like they are a part of the bigger company. Internally, we strive to promote a culture of togetherness, where everyone can feel like they belong.
What’s something people learn after working with Taptica?
Rivi Bloch: Taptica is all about the culture. We believe in an open door policy, and there’s no feeling of hierarchy in the company. If an employee has an idea, they are encouraged to bring this idea forward to transform it into a reality. Taptica is also a company where 50% of the managers are women, which is something that we are especially proud of.
What have you learned as a manager?
Rivi Bloch: I’ve learned that in order to see personal growth, you must take risks. It’s never just about what you see — there’s always something hidden that you have to take risks in order to attain. You also must be authentic and loyal to yourself. People can see right through you — don’t try to be someone that you are not.
What advice would you give a budding entrepreneur?
Rivi Bloch: Don’t be afraid to take risks and be authentic.
How do you describe your leadership style?
Rivi Bloch: I’m open minded; I like to absorb a lot of information from the people around me and am a true believer in letting people grow themselves. Mistakes are the best way to learn — take a deep breath and dive in!
How do you want your team to perceive you?
Rivi Bloch:Â I strive for my team to perceive me as driven and enthusiastic, and someone who they are not afraid to come talk to.
How does Taptica encourage growth within the company?
Rivi Bloch:Â We encourage growth via innovation. We encourage all of our employees to take risks by coming up with new ideas, and then creating mini-accelerators to make them happen.
