Kinesso’s Lifetime Learner Sam Sherman and the Evolution of the Addressable Media Function

Samantha Sherman doesn’t do things halfway. Upon joining a sorority during her college years, she sought out a position on its standards committee. In her first professional stop at Group M, she took it upon herself to become an expert in cinema media. Since arriving at Kinesso, she has served as a sherpa of sorts for pharma clients hoping to fine-tune their presence in the increasingly complicated TV space.

“Once you expose Sam to a tactic or a process or a program she hasn’t been involved in, she picks it up right away,” says Kinesso VP, ATV Peter Parisi, who first met Sherman when she interviewed for a manager, addressable strategy role in 2022. “It doesn’t matter what the project or the challenge is. She always hits the ground running.”

Sherman characterizes herself as a willing learner and listener, and it’s clear that she is more or less genetically engineered to thrive in a demanding, multitasking environment like a media agency. “Organization, collaboration, maintaining relationships, transparency – that’s what builds success in anything you do,” she explains.

She grew up an eager student in Long Island and studied communications and sociology at the University of Buffalo. If she had her way, she may never have left.

“I loved school. I would have gone to school forever if I could have,” Sherman says. The only other career path she ever considered, not surprisingly, was one in academia. “I thought about being a professor from when I was young. It makes me sound like a nerd, but I loved to study, loved to take tests, loved to write papers, loved it all.”

A willing student

Sherman started at GroupM as an assistant media buyer just a few months after her college graduation. There, the second wave of her education began. While Sherman believes she entered the business with some degree of sophistication about the workings of the media and marketing worlds, she quickly realized that there was plenty to learn. Her experience on the Target account helped fill in many of the blanks.

“Looking back, what did I really know about the nuances of building a TV campaign?” she asks rhetorically.

Sherman proved a quick study in the TV space, which harnessed her both her technical facility and love for all things pop culture. Among the media programs to which she contributed was “Scene in Color,” a partnership between Target, NBCUniversal and producer Will Packer designed to showcase BIPOC filmmakers.

Sherman believes that the media business doesn’t lean into pop-culture collaborations as often as it might. “Every brand has an opportunity to be more relevant and more a part of the conversation. It doesn’t matter if you’re Target or a big pharma company or a bank,” she explains.

Sherman also mastered the more relationship-driven parts of working in the high-intensity media environment. Her managers trusted her to communicate directly with clients, a responsibility not often bestowed upon people at that early stage in their careers. They also empowered her to negotiate, which she describes as “one of my favorite elements of the job to this day.”

By the time Kinesso – née Matterkind – came calling, Sherman was ready to shoulder a heavier load. She took the interview as much out of curiosity as anything else. “I was honest with them in saying that I didn’t know much about addressable media,” she recalls with a laugh.

Parisi remembers the conversation very differently. “We could tell she was really strong on the TV side and that she was ready to add to that. Hiring her was a no-brainer.”

Diving deep on data

Sherman immediately set about working on behalf of two of Kinesso’s biggest pharma clients. She found herself far more interested in – and impressed by – the pharma vertical than she expected to be.

“It sounds like a cliche, but we’re out here helping people,” she says. “If there’s a new way to treat you, we’re making sure you’re seeing it.”

In the months that followed, Sherman immersed herself in data and programmatic buying, which she views as central to both the present and future of her business. The combination of addressable media and programmatic buying, she believes, will ultimately rid the digital media ecosystem of many of its inefficiencies.

Sherman also believes that consumers not yet won over (or actively freaked out) by marketers’ ability to target them more precisely will soon be swayed by it. “Addressable media is about serving media to the people who can be identified, responsibly, as people who would want a product or service or would benefit from hearing about it,” she says.

Still, she understands the hesitation. “People who don’t work in media find this confusing. We have to be very transparent about what we’re doing and how we’re doing it,” she continues. “But as a consumer, I love it. I’m sitting there on social media and thinking, ‘How did they know I wanted to buy a new top?’”

Much of Sherman’s time outside the office in recent months has been occupied by planning her wedding, scheduled for later this year. She remains tight with her friends from elementary school and recently started a book club – but one with the type of twist everyone in Sherman’s arc has come to expect from her.

“We meet at a place that relates to the theme of the book we’re reading,” she says. So for the group’s discussion of They All Came to Barneys: A Personal History of the World’s Greatest Store, Sherman and friends convened at Mark’s Off Madison, whose chef previously worked at Freds at Barneys New York.

It should come as little surprise that Sherman is a proud foodie. “I’ve eaten so much better in my life since Sam came here to work with me,” Parisi says. “You want a good recommendation for a place to get a drink or a sushi spot that’s underpriced, Sam’s your gal.”

Sherman added more management responsibilities after her promotion to director, addressable strategy in October 2024. In the years immediately ahead, she hopes to continue down that path. “I’d like to start to be more interactive with decisions that affect the company as a whole, rather than just one or two clients,” she says.

Longer-term, she has no plans to abandon what she calls “this digital programmatic crazy life.” While she offers the caveat that “we’ll see where the industry evolves as a whole,” she stresses that she “plans to be here and evolve with it,” ideally while building a family. “Ten years from now, hopefully I’ll be looked at as a supermom,” she adds warmly.

And if there’s an opportunity down the road to serve in some kind of teaching role, perhaps as an associate professor of media or ad-tech, count her in.  

“That would be full circle, right? That would be perfect.”

This profile is part of the solli Elevate series, celebrating the Next Generation of Pharma Media Leaders. View all profiles here.