January 2024 Bonfire Marketer of the Month: Sky’s Voula Dimitrak

Each month, Braze selects one individual as our Marketer of the Month in order to celebrate the exceptional work being done by members of our Braze Bonfire community. Whether it's providing support for their fellow marketers or going above and beyond by sharing their innovative ideas and strategies, these individuals are making essential contributions to their companies, their users, and the customer engagement space as a whole.

This month, we’re recognizing Voula Dimitrak, Product Owner, Braze at Sky, one of Europe’s leading media and entertainment companies. A part of the Comcast Corporation, Sky connects 23 million users across six countries with all the entertainment, sports, news, and arts they love, including award-winning original content. We spoke with Voula about career paths, marketing technology, and how Sky stays ahead of the curve. Let’s dive in.

Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you came to be in this role?

My career started back in Adelaide, Australia, where I worked in various marketing roles in the defense and banking sectors. I was incredibly fortunate to have early career roles that allowed me to try my hand at different specialties; however, I quickly learned that my interest in marketing lay within the CRM and marketing automation space.

At the end of 2020, I moved to London and continued to specialize in marketing automation, this time in construction and development. In 2022, I joined Sky as a Product Owner in the Marketing Technology team for Sky’s Streaming Services in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany, and Austria (NOW, WOW, and Sky X). This role was my first experience using Braze and I instantly loved the platform, especially for how easy it was to pick up and what it could do to achieve our objectives.

What is your favorite part of your job?

Marketing technology is such an exciting industry to be in—it continues to evolve very quickly, keeping me on my toes and always providing something new to learn. I love being part of the team and projects that connect the dots between marketing, data, and technology to drive innovation and business KPIs like subscriber retention, growth, and viewership. I also enjoy working on strategic approaches to enhance customer engagement. In a world where we are saturated with communication from more channels than ever before, leveraging technology to create tailored and effective experiences is vital.

Above all, I get to do this job with the best team by my side, while also helping to promote brilliant entertainment, the latest movies, and the best live sports. What’s not to love?

What is one campaign or initiative you have worked on in your current role that you’re most proud of?

In the second half of last year, we launched our first campaign using Braze Connected Content. By leveraging this capability, we can automatically pull editorially-driven content collections from our streaming platform directly into our emails. This is a game-changer. Not only does it reduce several hours of work per email—previously, we had to manually select and design this content—but it has also allowed us to expand on our dynamic content and personalization capabilities. We've already witnessed a positive impact on our KPIs through this initiative, with improvements in subscriber retention and increased viewership.

Have you taken any of the Braze certification exams?

So far, I’ve completed two Braze certifications: Practitioner and Marketer. The certifications have been a great way to advance my skill set in Braze and have those skills recognized in the industry. I’m excited to continue expanding my knowledge of Braze this year.

What initiative or campaign are you most excited to work on this year?

After the successful implementation of Connected Content, I’m most excited to take our efforts to the next level. Using machine learning models, behavioral triggers, and Liquid personalization, we can create an even more advanced automated, 1:1 email experience for our customers. The first stage of this will be using preference data to dynamically populate content depending on those preferences.

Interested in collaborating to build the future of customer engagement? Join a collective of experts to forge connections, share ideas, and accelerate your career at the Braze Bonfire Community.