2019 IAB Audio Day: Audio Strategies for Advertisers

As EVP of Industry Initiatives at IAB, Anna Bager spearheads the strategic oversight of the digital media and marketing industries’ most vital and fastest growing platforms which include mobile, digital video, audio, measurement, and data. Under her leadership, she brings together and drives growth for three of the organizations’ paramount centers of excellence: The IAB Mobile Center, representing the mobile marketing, advertising, and media marketplace; The Digital Video Center, encompassing Advanced TV, OTT, and The Digital Content NewFronts, and The Data Center, developing consumer identifiers, data quality, industry benchmarks, and tools for data activation and automation. She is a driving force in building a one-stop shop for producing thought leadership, innovation, research, and best practices for these thriving industries.

Prior to joining the IAB, Bager was heading business intelligence at Ericsson Multimedia and head of research at Ericsson’s Business Consulting unit. Earlier, she was Research and Consulting Manager for IDC EMEA. Anna has received numerous accolades throughout her career, including being named “Most Important Women in Mobile Advertising” for Business Insider, and one of the “Top Women in Media” by Folio Mag for the past consecutive five years.

Lisa Baird is Chief Marketing Officer at New York Public Radio (NYPR) where she leads the marketing and audience development, data, membership, sponsorship and communications teams. In addition, she is also responsible for raising substantial revenue, increasing audience size and diversity across all programs and platforms, cultivating audience loyalty, and amplifying digital membership.

Prior to joining NYPR, Baird was Chief Marketing Officer at the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). During her almost 10-year tenure, she oversaw all commercial activities including the USOC’s media assets, sponsorship, licensing, advertising, hospitality, events and marketing and branding. She launched the Team USA brand, which is one of the most active digital sports brands, collaborated on the launch of an OTT channel with NBC and the International Olympic Committee, and achieved record revenues benefiting national governing bodies of sports and America’s athletes.

Earlier in her career, Lisa was the Senior Vice President, Marketing and Consumer Products, for the National Football League (NFL). She has a rich and extensive background in leading branding, development and marketing for several Fortune 50 companies, including managing iconic brands at IBM, General Motors, Warner-Lambert Company (now Pfizer), Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products, and the Procter & Gamble Company.

Lisa is member of the Board of Governors for the International Hall of Fame of Tennis and serves on the Board of Directors for Elite Sportswear, a Riverside Company and Soundview Paper, an Atlas Holdings Company.

Gina Garrubbo is President and CEO of National Public Media (NPM), a subsidiary of NPR owned in partnership with PBS and WGBH. As a full-service corporate sponsorship organization, National Public Media supports the continued growth of NPR and the public media system via funding from corporate sponsors across multiple platforms, from broadcast radio and podcasts, to the NPR app and NPR.org. National Public Media includes NPM Creative, its in-house creative studio offering brands long-form custom audio production, including branded podcast production. NPM Creative won the 2022 PR Daily Content Marketing Award for Best Branded Podcast in partnership with YouTube.


Outside of National Public Media, Garrubbo sits on the IAB Executive, IAB Finance and IAB Audio Committees, working with leaders across the industry to build industry standards, best practices and resources for audio marketing.


Prior to NPR, Garrubbo spent more than 20 years growing marketing and sales teams, launching brands and building companies, with extensive experience in both legacy and emerging media. She was one of the builders of women.com, one of the first websites for women, and BlogHer, a network of bloggers which brought independent voices to millions of readers. Garrubbo built advertising sales teams for Oxygen Media, Discovery Communications and in syndicated television. She sits on the Board of Directors of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), and Glen Highland Farm.

Ken Lagana is the Executive Vice President of Digital Sales at Audacy, the #1 creator of original, premium audio content representing an audio universe of discovery and connection. Home to the industry’s most influential collection of broadcast and digital content, podcasts and premium live experiences, Audacy engages over 170 million consumers each month. In this role, Lagana leads sales strategy for the company’s large and rapidly growing digital business, including the fastest growing digital audio app in the United States (formerly RADIO.COM), and Audacy’s Podcast Network, which includes Cadence13, an industry leader in podcast creation and distribution, and Pineapple Street Media, an award-winning, renowned independent producer of top-rated podcast content. Prior to joining Audacy (then Entercom) in 2019, Lagana served as Head of Sales and Marketing for Megaphone, the leading provider of breakthrough podcast technology for publishers and advertisers. He played a key role in developing and promoting Megaphone Targeted Marketplace (MTM), the company’s game-changing advertiser-driven targeting and measurement solution. Previously, Lagana was Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing for CBS Digital Media where he oversaw revenue generation and integrated marketing for the company’s entertainment, news and sports properties globally. His media career spans over 20 years and also includes sales and management positions at Turner Broadcasting and planning and strategy roles at Grey Advertising. Lagana earned a Bachelor of Science degree in strategic communications from the University of Delaware.

As Partner and Associate Director on Invention+ (Mindshare’s division dedicated to media innovation), Rachel leads digital innovation for CHANEL, BlackRock, Lufthansa, PANDORA Jewelry, and other brands across North America. She’s constantly leveraging new ways for brands to reach consumers, be it through AI, AR, VR, audio, voice technology, and more. As part of that, she serves as the agency’s internal Audio Innovation Lead, bringing new audio ideas and strategies to teams.

Rachel is also a fierce advocate for LGBTQ and gender equality. She’s one of the leaders for The Collective, an agency taskforce and cultural imperative that works to drive a diverse, intersectional workplace and bring those same principles to clients’ media plans.

A respected industry thought leader, Rachel’s insights have been featured in publications such as Adweek, Campaign, Mobile Marketer, and Luxury Daily. Her work has been honored at the Mobile Marketing Association’s SMARTIES, the OMMA Awards, the FCS Portfolio Awards, and more. Rachel was recently named one of The Drum’s “50 Under 30” for her creativity in media, and was previously awarded the 2016 Cynopsis Rising Star Award for her standout industry contributions. She also sits on the IAB Audio Council.

Rachel is a graduate of Arizona State University, Barrett Honors College with bachelor’s degrees in French and Marketing, magna cum laude.

Haley currently oversees strategy & innovation on the Diageo and J.M. Smuckers portfolios. During her time at Carat, Haley has become an integral part of the team; leading the strategic direction of Carat, providing thought leadership, and collaborating with clients, media partners, and creative agencies on projects that impact client’s businesses in the long term. Since joining the agency, Haley has also worked on and won several new business pitches, and leads Carat’s Culture initiatives. While she was at P&G for eight years previously, Haley led consumer and brand insights on global and regional brands, giving her the experience of creating innovation pipelines, consumer segmentation, new campaign development, media planning, ecommerce innovation, brand adjacency development, and expanding existing brands to new parts of the world.