P.C. Legacy: Petre Earns Spot on Top 20 List

A couple of weeks ago, Tara (Shores) Petre, a 2007 Malta High School graduate, made the Bozeman Daily Chronicle's Top 20 Under 40 list last October.

The PCN caught up with Petre to talk about her career, what she remembers of her hometown, and how being from Malta may have helped her in her current world.

"That was a little bit of a humbling experience," Petre said of making the Top 20 Under 40 list. "Some of those people were involved in the nomination process, so it was humbling but also very flattering."

Petre, the daughter of Randy and Mary Shores of Malta, has lived in Bozeman since going to Montana State University in 2007 after graduating from MHS. Petre is the wife of Jason Petre, mother of ten-month-old Harlow, and is the Vice President of Sales and Market Technology at TA Digital, a company based out of Newark, Calif.

"I lead a department that focuses on one side of marketing technology, which is the facilitation and orchestration of all marketing that goes out to either individual consumers or businesses and consumers within those businesses that are making purchases on behalf of their organization," Petre said.

Petre said that her company provides a seamless digital experience for customers and businesses, a trend that has skyrocketed since early 2020.

"If you think about the pandemic, it really created a major shift in a sense that people weren't doing business in person anymore," Petre said. "People were doing as much as they could possibly do digitally."

She provided a hypothetical situation in which a customer would utilize the services of digital marketing.

"Let's say that you are a sneakerhead or that you are into sneakers, you probably interact with Nike in a number of different ways," Petre said. "You probably interact with them on (various forms of social media), you get their emails, you may get sms or text messages, you may have their app and may shop in the app.

"When you think about these digital experiences, consumers really expect these brands to provide Apple or Amazon-like services. Brands are expected to know what people want and where they like to communicate," Petre continued.

She said that when you walk by or into a store, you may get a push notification offering you discounts on items in the store.

Though she didn't name Nike as a client that she had worked with in the past, she did name a few of her favorite clients throughout her 11 years in marketing.

"One of my most long term clients at a previous organization, was Aetna," Petre said. "They are in healthcare. We did award-winning work with them, so it was actually recognized by the software provider Marketo (now owned by Adobe). It was a specific campaign that allowed them to market to small-businesses and employees of those small-businesses across various states."

She said that the return on their investment was ground-breaking at the time.

Another client that she has worked with included Las Vegas Sands, a gaming company that is better known as The Venetian or Palazzo.

"It doesn't influence the outcomes of the games but we were able to use that data and given that there are a lot legalities and considerations based on how you can market to someone based on wins and losses, we were able to both legally and ethically market to people in a way that ultimately increased the amount of times that they would visit and play with providing them with extremely personalized offers."

Perhaps the most well-known company that she has worked with included Facebook, specifically for developers.

"Another big industry that I worked with was in education," Petre said. "In education, it's a purchase that a consumer is ultimately making but it tends to act more like a business purchase because it takes so long to make that decision."

Initially, Petre had no idea that she would enter the world of marketing when she left for Bozeman, originally accounting on her radar.

"I took Mrs. Perry's accounting class, so I thought that I was going into accounting because I loved the class. All of the teachers at Malta High School were great but I liked that class and thought that it was something that I could do long term."

In Bozeman, Petre quickly learned that accounting was not a career that she wanted to keep pursuing. When it had officially become time to declare her major, she knew that she had wanted to work in business.

"I was more interested in marketing and management," she said. "Rather than trying to move forward with one or the other, I ended up moving forward with both of those paths and thankfully I did because both of those are a part of my day-to-day."

At MSU, Petre took advantage of the opportunity to take a course load that included classes in both marketing and management. She earned her Bachelor's of Science in Business, Marketing, Management and Entrepreneurship/Small Business Management in 2013.

Petre was asked what she misses about Malta.

"Bozeman has been growing so rapidly, so you have a major injection of new people from different places," she said. "While that is fun, exciting and brings new opportunities to the area, I also miss the hometown feel of Malta and knowing who all of your neighbors are and having a little bit of a stronger sense of community."

Petre said that her family moved a while ago and only know a few of her current neighbors.

"But we can drive up Hillcrest and I can remember who lived in what house and I think that is something that until you leave, it might be something that people take for granted," Petre said.

She also said that it is nice to see familiar faces when she comes home.

Malta is more known for their high school sports, but Petre remembers another club that she was a part of as being one of her favorites.

"I played volleyball, ran track, and was really bad at basketball, so I quit around junior year," Petre said. "Mardy Demarais started a Science Fair Class; this was one of my favorite classes at Malta High School."

The Science Fair Class ran from the fall to the spring and allowed students to master their projects and present them in Havre.

"My senior year, with the help of Mrs. Demarais, she helped select the project that we won and allowed us to go to Internationals, which was held in Albuquerque, N.M.," Petre said. "That was not a sport but a really cool experience."

Lastly, Petre was asked how being an M-ette has helped her through her career so far. She gave a lot of credit to her parents, teachers, and coaches at MHS.

"It has given me a sense of grit," Petre said. "They teach all of their students and my parents have taught me to be a really hard worker and to persevere. I think that it is easy and tempting to give up in a lot of situations and I think that the way that my teachers, coaches, and my own parents have motivated me throughout my youth, is something that has stuck with me.

"In my professional career, just having grit and perseverance, and the ability to bear down, work hard and get through the hard times is what I would attribute a lot of the success that I have had to," Petre said.