Wednesday is economics day! Besides the keynote speech of Seth Shapiro, another expert will inspire the MFW participants in the field of economics: Mascha Driessen. She is a specialist in Change & Innovation Management, specifically in the areas of Strategy, Business Models and Monetization. She has a lot of experience in the broadcast industry, where she has worked for RTL Nederland, Endemol and YouTube.

She prepares companies for the changing behaviour of consumers and their changing media consumption: How to change from a broadcaster to a content provider? How to change from an editorial office to a content creator? What is the role of globalization in the digital era? How to be relevant, to attract and keep the attention? Or even better: how to move people to action? What about paid content and digital rights? And what if consumers don’t respect these rights?

Due to her background in both TV and Online Media, Mascha understands the synergies of Media and (Online and Offline) Video. Audiovisual Content is changing rapidly. According to Mascha we are in the middle of a process whereby media companies have been forced to move away from their core-competences and are now slowly seeing how to go back to their core-business and regain a healthy margin. Which role has the cable company, the content producer, the broadcaster, the rights holder and the Telco in the value chain of Media? And what will happen with the launch and penetration of Google TV, or better: Connected TV with an Android operating system?

Mascha has a Bachelors degree in Law and a Masters degree in Communication Science from the Universiteit of Amsterdam. She also studied the Science of Advertisements at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Public Relations at Leiden University.

Right after graduation in 1995 she started working for RTL Netherlands (television). Her first job was to add Branded Content to shows such as Wheel of Fortune, the daily soap GTST, Extreme Home make-over, Big Brother, Looking Good and Life & Cooking. In 2005 she was asked by Endemol Netherlands to bring a fresh vibe and view to the company. At Endemol she turned the process upside down by using the marketing and communication goals of advertisers as a starting point for Creative Concepts.

In 2007 Mascha made the switch from TV to Online when she became responsible for the launch and roll out of YouTube in The Netherlands and Belgium at Google. In 2010 she received the prestigious Google Global OC Award. In 2012 she was part of the team that launched Google TV in the Dutch market. Being able to combine the experience of traditional TV with her experience at Google, YouTube and Google TV puts her in a position to bring the best of both worlds together.

In 2013 she founded Youtooglobal, a strategic consulting company. She also became a parter at AdBirds, a Google Adwords consulting company active in 15 countries and consisting solely of ex-Googlers. At Adbirds she is starting up the YouTube Division. She is also Lecturer Sponsoring and Media at the Minor Business of Sports & Events at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.