Global search intelligence firm Captify has appointed Aruna Paramasivam to run the company’s data business and increase the quality of data used by brands. Her official title is global vice president of data and publisher partnerships.

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Paramasivam, a former data lead at L’Oréal, also worked at MediaMath and Yahoo. At Captify, she is looking to give publishers insights on site visitors to help shape marketing strategy. 

Captify has been using search to analyze consumer behavior and gauge purchase intent, which Paramasivam and company executives believe is more powerful than contextual data.

During the past six months to one year, Paramasivam took a break from work and traveled to more than 30 countries. Cypress and Tibet were among her favorite countries visited.

“I took the time to slow down and evaluate what’s important to me,” she said. “I traveled until September and that’s when Captify approached me. I was in Europe at the time, giving me the opportunity to interview with them while still on the road.”

The meeting worked well, she said, and the company was an ideal fit.

Similar to L’Oréal, her role at Captify requires expertise in data. “At L’Oréal I was on the brand side and engaging with data provider,” she said. “At Captify I’m working with publishers looking to extract value from their data.”

Paramasivam said marketers do not have a clear picture of how to use data and identifying what works. This is one of the biggest challenges.

The goal is to help publishers better understand the gaps they face while helping them to take back more control of the data.

“It’s all about search intelligence, extracting the value from the words,” she said. “It helps you understand the bigger picture and what they are looking for.”

Paramasivam lives by the best piece of advice that anyone gave her –to not be afraid to try new things and take risks — and that’s important when marketers work with innovative strategies such as data.

“Keep innovation at the forefront,” she said. “Always have a budget to take a little risk and indulge.”