Get to Know… Julien!

What is your role at Vovia?

I am an Analytics Specialist here at Vovia, which basically means I deal with numbers all day long and hunt down trends for a living! The most important (and fun) part of my job is to drive better results for our clients. I dig into their analytics, add a little segmentation magic, and convert their seemingly confused dashboards into $$$.

What is your favourite part of the job?

My favourite part of the job has to be the knowledge sharing at the agency. We love to discuss new ideas and ways of pushing the limits of our respective fields. By doing so, we ensure we are always working with the industry’s latest concepts and the conversations around the office are always rich.

What do you find most challenging?

The biggest challenge we have right now in analytics is sophisticated attribution. This concept is evolving every day as more and more experts give their thoughts on how to assess this.

Attribution is the science of assigning the value of a sale (or conversion) to each channel in proportion to their effect on the buying decision. As the user’s path to purchase is always unique, they are likely to have touched many different channels before their actual purchase. Which channel is truly responsible for the conversion?

The answer is never simple and the trick is to take time to understand both the business goals and the consumer behaviour. With this information, we are able to setup a custom attribution model based on the funnel and types of conversions we track on your website. Then, we get a $$$ value for each channel and can optimize the media spend.

That sounds… complicated! What do you do on the weekends to let loose?

I love the mountains! They are practically in our backyard and are just jaw-dropping. I’m kind of outdoorsy, so every chance I get I’m out skiing, hiking, mountain biking, cougar tracking, and engaging in my newest hobby; Frisbee-golf!

Um… Did you say Cougar Tracking?!? That doesn’t sound safe.

haha yep. I’m actually terrified of anything that qualifies as a “land-shark” (a.k.a. grizzlies, cougars, wolves, etc.). So, when venturing into the woods, I like to make sure we won’t be lunch by doing some research in advance to lay down a “land shark trend line” of sightings and attacks. Then, I avoid those areas like the plague!

Analytics geek through and through haha!

What a charming accent. Where are you from?

Oui, thank you for noticing. My first language est Français and I’m from Montreal! I did all of my studies in French (not that it really matters because the terminology is mostly English) and I moved to Calgary not so long ago. I hold a B.A. in Marketing and a M.Sc. in E-commerce Management. Both are from the Université de Sherbrooke.

What are some things about you that would surprise people?

I have juice boxes in my lunch every day. They taste way better as you grow older and, as a side benefit, they make everyone in the office jealous!