Dave Adler, Search Director, recently celebrated 15 years at Harmelin Media. To mark the occasion, we caught up with him to hear his thoughts on the ever-evolving media industry and to get to know him a little better.
What are some of the notable changes you have seen in the industry since you started at Harmelin?
Most aspects of my job, including managing, optimizing, and reporting, were completely manual when I started; now, this is nearly all automated. While the way things are now is effective and efficient, I feel fortunate to have started when I did as you develop a stronger understanding of a platform when you are pulling the levers and managing the data yourself at a granular level. As manual processes became automated, this experience gave me a much stronger understanding of what to look for when analyzing data, as well as an understanding of what potential unintended consequences a high-level automated optimization strategy may have; this has been invaluable in making informed strategic decisions and in understanding what happened and how to adjust if things don’t quite go as planned.
How have emerging technologies and AI influenced the industry and your daily work?
The rapid impact and evolution of AI have made an extremely hot topic for conversation, news, and POVs, which makes it difficult to add much value that hasn’t already been said. Building on the last question, AI may enable us to do things we were not previously capable of, and it may accomplish tasks that we are capable of exponentially faster than we could ourselves. But the more we rely on it to do these tasks, the less we understand how to do them ourselves. At face value, it is easy to say that it really won’t matter if we understand how to do these tasks as we won’t ever need to do them ourselves again, but it really isn’t that simple; that understanding is what gives us the ability to plan strategically and write effective prompts based on unique client nuances, circumstances, and goals. Scaling back the use of AI could potentially help combat this, but that isn’t a viable option as its capabilities continue to grow. As such, it is on us to put in the effort to maintain these skillsets, even if they may start to fall outside of the regular day to day, and to continue to adjust our training to get the most out of the tools available to us, with an extra focus on strategic thinking and situational awareness. In this way, we can maintain our high level of expertise and continue to apply it to get the most out of the tools available to us.
Where do you see the industry in the next 1 year / 5 years / 10 years?
In the next year, AI will continue to evolve, transforming how we work, what we are capable of, and simultaneously consumer behavior. With how rapidly things are changing, it is very hard to predict what things will look like 5 or 10 years from now, but I’m sure the monetization of AI products, including ads showing in AI search results, will be a driving factor.
Now that we’ve heard your thoughts on the industry, we’d love to learn a bit about you. Where is your favorite place to be?
There’s a lot to see out there; I prefer exploring someplace new over going back to a place I’ve already been to. I’ve been to 24 countries, all 50 states (43 of them twice or more), 48 US National Parks, and have gone to 500+ breweries and 400+ concerts.
What is your favorite movie, TV show, song, or book that you never get tired of?
Similarly, I generally prefer watching something new over rewatching something. Living in walking distance of a movie theater, I have been able to really take advantage since they started having unlimited monthly subscriptions; I saw 124 movies in theaters in 2025. I’m sure I’m missing a few, but some favorites that I’ll go back and rewatch every few years:
- Movies: Donnie Darko, In Bruges, Pig, Scream, and American Beauty
- TV: Mr. Robot, Game of Thrones, Maniac, Fargo (S1 & 2), Banshee, Severance, Braindead, Party Down, Letterkenny, and Community
How do you usually like to start your day before work?
I like to get right into it, start working as quickly as possible and spend at least half an hour being as productive as possible. When working from home, the first thing I typically do when I wake up is log on and start working. When I get off to a quick, efficient start, I immediately feel mentally sharp and productive, and am able to maintain that throughout the day. If I take my time and relax first thing in the morning, I have a harder time reaching the same level of mental focus.
Reflections from the Harmelin Community
Tim O’Malley, Search Senior Director, shares “On my first day at Harmelin 13 years ago when I first met Dave, I could see his commitment to his clients and to the team right away. Since then, I have seen him grow into a leader on the search team in driving our operational and measurement success. He has been key to helping our growth to over 20 search professionals and guides multiple team members as their manager. Dave has made his mark as not just a talented professional, but as a trusted friend who you can count on to speak his mind and to always have your back. Congrats Dave on 15 incredible years!”
Ryan Wood, Reporting & Analytics Manager, also adds: “Dave Adler has been a key pillar to my growth here at Harmelin Media and I’m extremely grateful to have worked with him. He’s helped bring structure to junior members’ growth in paid search by providing working sessions to help new employees understand the platform. For me, specifically, he has provided a level of discipline working together, showing me the ropes on how to structure presentations and interact with clients. Most importantly, Dave has shown immense patience and understanding. He is stalwart in his efforts to do things right and to make sure you know how to do things right as well, while not being hard or overly critical. Lastly, Dave is just an awesome person to be around and to work with, providing great conversation and always prepared to bond with his fellow co-workers whether junior or senior. Dadler truly is the best.”
Heather Shields, SEO Manager, reports, “Dave is one of those people who instantly makes the office feel easier to navigate — thoughtful, steady, and always ready to help figure something out. He’s also the regular recipient of my completely unplanned ‘Heather face’ pop-ins, which I suspect he both expects and dreads in equal measure. Either way, the search team wouldn’t be the same without him.”
Congratulations, Dave! Thank you for your 15 years of commitment to Harmelin and our clients.
For more information, visit harmelin.com, or connect with us on LinkedIn or Facebook.
