Her Story
About Olivia
Olivia Kercher is a media professional based in Chicago, Illinois, with over eight years of experience in the field. Her main areas of expertise are comedy media and retail media, where she works closely with retail partners including Walmart, Target, Kroger, and Amazon to advertise on behalf of clients through third-party partnerships. She graduated from the University of Alabama in 2018 with a bachelor's degree in marketing, having specialized in sales, and holds multiple professional certifications such as Amazon DSP certified, Walmart DSP, DSS certified, and Cardio Search Certified. Among her notable achievements, Kercher won in the commerce category for a Purina campaign featuring a partnership with Drew Barrymore approximately two years ago. She attributes her success to her mother, who encouraged her to pursue her career. Kercher values honesty, integrity, kindness, and playfulness in both her work and personal life, and she advises aspiring professionals to obtain relevant certifications prior to interviews while recognizing that much of the learning occurs through hands-on experience.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Olivia
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my mother. She has always been my biggest champion and told me that I can do anything that I put my mind to. She really encouraged me to move away from home to pursue my career and was the champion behind me in that.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received is to do your boss's job. Always. Not just do your job, but drive and strive to do as much as you can for your boss because that's the position that you eventually will be in. So it speeds things up a little bit.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Get certified on as many trainings as you can before you even reach the interview. What we learn in college is great and somewhat applicable, but the majority of the learning is going to be in the actual day-to-day job and hands-on training.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge across retail media right now is fragmentation, segmentation of data, and reporting. Some of the bigger opportunities include platforms and retail media platforms that can streamline those things more. One of the biggest opportunities is for us to try and figure out how to systemize that fragmentation.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Honesty, integrity, kindness, and playfulness. In your job and your life, don't forget to have some fun too.
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