🎧 Summary:
What does a programmatic trader’s day look like when every platform has a new AI solution, your team needs hands-on guidance, and your clients operate in a highly regulated industry?

Welcome to the first episode of The Trader’s Corner, a special Programmatic Digest series spotlighting fellow programmatic ninjas and the everyday challenges, wins, and lessons that shape their work.
In this episode of Trader’s Corner, recorded at Programmatic I/O, Hélène Parker sits down with Kristin BelleFountaine, a programmatic channel manager who leads a team of five specialists. Their conversation explores the daily work behind campaign activation, troubleshooting, optimization, and helping traders keep pace with change.
Kristin shares how her team approaches new AI tools while navigating pharma clients’ privacy requirements and highly specific audiences. She also explains what vendors should understand before approaching an agency team: client needs come first, and evaluating a proposal takes time.
Plus, Kristin and Hélène share practical ways they use AI to manage overflowing inboxes and stay informed without reading every industry newsletter.
In this episode:
Supporting a trading team while staying hands-on in the platforms.
Keeping traders up to speed as DSPs introduce new AI capabilities.
Why foundational optimization skills still matter.
How pharma audience needs and privacy concerns shape partner evaluations.
What vendors can do to make conversations more useful for agency teams.
Using AI for email management and relevant industry news recaps.
Staying open to a career path you couldn’t have planned.
A takeaway for your next workday: Start with a task that takes time away from meaningful work. Explore how AI could help, while following your organization’s rules for client and audience data.
Need backup?
Have a reporting headache, a campaign question, or something you don’t feel comfortable asking in the office? Reach out to Hélène. Your questions help shape practical, free educational content for the programmatic community.

🧠 About Us:
I’m the person programmatic traders reach out to when they want to become more confident, efficient, and effective, from hands-on DSP activation to smarter optimization.
I’m also the person media and ad-tech partners call when they want to better understand those buyers, strengthen their positioning, build deeper partnerships, and grow revenue.
www.heleneparker.com

👤 Meet Our Guest:
Kristin Bellefontaine – Channel Manager, Programmatic – Butler/Till
Kristin is a programmatic channel manager who leads a team of five programmatic specialists, supporting campaign activation, troubleshooting, optimization, and reporting. Her work includes pharma advertising, where audience needs and privacy requirements shape campaign decisions. She started her career in linear TV and radio before finding her passion for programmatic, and today helps her team navigate new AI tools while staying hands-on in the platforms.
📎 Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristin-bellefontaine-3b82a8b3/
Check out: https://butlertill.com/

💻 Meet The Team:
Hélène Parker – Chief Programmatic Coach
🌐 heleneparker.com
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helene-parker/
Manuela Cortes – Co-Host, Programmatic Digest en Español
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manuela-cortes-/

🎓 Learn Programmatic:
For Individual Buyers: https://heleneparker.com/library
Subscribe to the Newsletter: https://heleneparker.com/newsletter
Be the first to find out about free programmatic training workshops: https://www.heleneparker.com/waitlist/

📲 Follow Us:
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/programmatic-digest-podcast
▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@programmaticdigest