Reps for a Cause, VideoAmp Gives Back for the Holidays
by Eric Lakich, VP of Engineering, Infrastructure
At VideoAmp, we are on a mission. Our mission is to provide advertisers, agencies, and media owners with a privacy-first suite of data and software solutions to gain a true deduplicated read of performance across linear TV, OTT, digital and walled garden media by connecting the dots between ad exposures, audiences, and outcomes…
Whew! That sounds like a lot, but what we really mean is that we are working hard to remove barriers and improve performance for our customers. In many ways, this mission parallels our culture and values. Our mission is more than a technical pursuit, it is part of the fabric that forms the culture of our company.
We are a company focused on our well-being as individuals as well as the well-being of others. This past Thanksgiving, we were looking for ideas on how we could combine the two. How could we embrace our values and our culture to do something fun while also giving back? An idea was born in standard VideoAmp fashion: through some friendly competition. A few weeks before Thanksgiving I made a wager with one of my co-workers and we decided the loser would be subject to 100 burpees. Unfortunately, I did not win and knew I had to make good on the bet. When I completed them (there was video evidence), the idea was born to invite others to get in on the burpee challenge. To make the deal sweet, we pledged to donate $100 to a good cause for each person who completed them. With guidance and organization from our great People Team, the idea began to grow. We added options like sit-ups and squats for people who weren’t down with the burpees…shockingly, not many people are fans. Our People Team pushed this out to the rest of the company and began to create some buzz around the event. With the money raised, we decided to partner with the Santa Monica Boys and Girls Club and dubbed our remote fitness challenge “Reps for a Cause”. In total, our efforts raised enough money to provide 257 meals for families in need this past Thanksgiving holiday!
For so many of us, finding reward in our careers can often come from actions and efforts beyond the daily grind. At VideoAmp our culture pushes us to be better, not only for ourselves, but for our families, friends, and communities. Our values aren’t something posted on a random office wall or buried in an employee handbook, they are the roadmap for everything we do. VideoAmp provides an environment for expressing personal pursuits in a fun and healthy way. We have many sub-cultures at VideoAmp including Artists, Enthusiasts, Athletes, and Intellectuals from many different backgrounds and disciplines. If you browse through the #random- channels in our Slack Team you will find surfers, photographers, gamers, fitness enthusiasts, technologists, auto enthusiasts, a book club, musicians — the list goes on. We even have a Beer Guild! Perhaps one of the most supported sub-cultures in our company is for those looking to gain personal well-being through health and fitness. I am personally very grateful to work for a company who truly embraces culture, individual pursuits and values and I look forward to the next opportunity to give back to our community!
