Charlie Thurston

Title: President, Comcast Spotlight

Steve Feingold

Title: SVP, Operations and Strategic Planning, Comcast Spotlight

Years in Cable: 29

Hank Oster

Title: Corporate SVP/GM, Comcast Spotlight

Years in Cable: 20

Best Advice in 7 Words or Less: Collaborate, listen, ask questions and be decisive.

Bill Haase

Title: Vice President, Finance & Administration – Comcast Spotlight

Years in Cable: 10

Education: MBA, Michigan State

Best Advice in 7 Words or Less: In the end, logic will prevail.

Why Them? Advertisers are becoming more enchanted with cable every year, and this Comcast dream team hasn’t taken its collective foot off the accelerator. They know that distributors’ ability to maximize revenue from local, targeted advertising is a way for them to add to their coffers with little capital input. Comcast Spotlight passed the 10 million home mark for interactive advertising applications in 2010—wrapping the year as a $2 billion business—and added another 4 million homes by the middle of this year. Its recent affiliation with AT&T U-verse for local ad sales builds on earlier affiliations with Verizon and DirecTV (through NCC Media), and this year Spotlight augmented its offering by licensing Ensequence technology that enables advertisers to customize graphics and messaging, and customers the ability to request things like product samples and coupons.

Year Ahead: Being able to segment advertising down to the DMA is cable’s ace in the hole, priming Comcast Spotlight to head into a big political year.

Bill Haase

Favorite restaurant: Morimoto in Philadelphia
Favorite “going out” town: Pittsburgh
The one thing I tell my kids about success in life: There are no handouts – You have to work hard to earn an opportunity and even harder to seize it.
My best technique for deterring time-wasting office visits from co-workers: I can’t say it because then it won’t work anymore.
Bands I would actually go see live: Rush, Foo Fighters, Toad the Wet Sprocket
The top 3 most played selections on my iPod: Spirit of Radio,” Rush, “Lucky Man,” The Verve, “Sometime Around Midnight,” The Airborne Toxic Event
Favorite sports team: Detroit Lions
Favorite vacation spot: I hope Atlantis, as my family and I are headed there tomorrow.
Guilty television pleasure: “Billy the Exterminator”
When I look at my cable set-top box, I can’t help but think that… it should be able to serve me a cheeseburger
How many companies have you worked for since graduating from college? 3
 

Hank Oster

The biggest innovation in cable over the last year has been… Spot Cable’s “I+” offering
My favorite business and/or motivational book: Wooden: “A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections”
Favorite sports team: Rams
Favorite vacation spot: Deer Valley, Utah
Favorite iPad app: The Snow Report at Deer Valley Utah!
 
 

Steve Feingold

The one thing I tell my kids about success in life: Try hard and always acknowledge the hard work of others, be prepared, focus on the details, and always be honest.
Favorite sports team: Phillies
Favorite vacation spot: Canadian Rockies
Guilty television pleasure: “Mad Men” of course
When I look at my cable set-top box, I can’t help but think that… We could get advanced ad capabilities deployed much more quickly if they were all IP based

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