Empowering Ad Operations to Create Growth

With quotes and anecdotes from Mark Bernstein, VP of Business Operations at Kelley Blue Book

A story of transforming people, process and technology to generate growth in media sales & operations

Nothing in nature does well when it stagnates.

It’s the same in media sales.

If your organization is only focused on execution, and not on growth...

you’ll be left behind.

In media sales, it’s important to optimize your workflow to maximize potential growth.

When you don’t have systems talking to each other, that tells me you’ve got more than a technology problem.

Operative Ad Tech and Revenue Summit, 2014

When you don’t have systems talking to each other, that tells me you’ve got more than a technology problem.

You’ve got a process problem, and you’ve probably got a people problem.

When you don’t have systems talking to each other, that tells me you’ve got more than a technology problem.

You’ve got a process problem, and you’ve probably got a people problem.

And you sure have a funding problem, because you haven’t done things to really scale your business.

Ad Ops should be the steering wheel, not just the engine.

Getting the machine running smoothly is really just the first step.

The average ad ops team is saddled with a high volume of redundant work, preventing them

from taking on more strategic tasks.

As a result, only 20% of campaigns are optimized.

The average ad ops team is saddled with a high volume of redundant work, preventing them

from taking on more strategic tasks.

You can’t just throw bodies at the problem.

You can’t just throw bodies at the problem.

You have to spend time building relationships and trust to empower the people you already have.

It’s important to have buy-in from ad operations.

You don’t want to fight with your people for their right to be extraordinary.

Everyone has a fear that the word ‘outsourcing’ means they will lose their jobs . . . but our teams saw that it actually works.

Everyone has a fear that the word ‘outsourcing’ means they will lose their jobs . . . but our teams saw that it actually works.

Today, we outsource 70% of our ad trafficking.

Everyone has a fear that the word ‘outsourcing’ means they will lose their jobs . . . but our teams saw that it actually works.

Today, we outsource 70% of our ad trafficking.

It gives us a 30-40% efficiency gain, that allows reinvestment in our people to go do the next big thing.

When your workflow is optimized, handling scale comes naturally.

Ad ops can stop executing...

and start expanding.

Here’s a good story:

We had never let our ad operations team do anything revenue-oriented.

We had never let our ad operations team do anything revenue-oriented.

In reality, everything they do is revenue-oriented, and my phrase for them is ‘revenue-engine,’ but everything had to go through product and sales.

So, one day I asked:

So, one day I asked:

What if you could do anything you wanted, within our people, process and technology,

So, one day I asked:

What if you could do anything you wanted, within our people, process and technology,

and the only two constraints are: you can’t bother engineering, and you can’t bother sales?

I gave them a week.

Not three hours later, I had a list of 19 things they wanted to do.

For the first time in a long time, they were bounding into the office with

enthusiasm and excitement,

free to add value in unique and different ways.

For the first time in a long time, they were bounding into the office with

enthusiasm and excitement,

They’re not traffickers anymore.

They’re part of the product ideation process from the beginning.

They’re not traffickers anymore.

There’s no single answer to growth.

No one solution that will solve all of your problems.

The only way we’re going to beat our growth goal is if we continue to find ways to unlock the potential of all the employees sitting in our organization that are doing tasks that can be done by systems or outsourced partners.

The only way we’re going to beat our growth goal is if we continue to find ways to unlock the potential of all the employees sitting in our organization that are doing tasks that can be done by systems or outsourced partners.

And I think we’re gonna blow it away.

Once you’ve established a workflow and framework for growth, it’s about determining

what the most profitable channels and actions are to sell your inventory.

Savvy publishers are taking full advantage of the people in their business that understand

how the entire machine functions,

and are utilizing them to decide what direction their businesses should take, not just to get from Point A to Point B.

Instead of treating Operative like a vendor, we treat them like a partner . . .

Instead of treating Operative like a vendor, we treat them like a partner . . .

I truly believe that if you engage with people that are going to help make you successful in that way, complexity does disappear.

All quotes in this presentation are from a talk by Mark Bernstein at our OP/ED Ad Revenue & Ops

Summit in February of 2014.

CLICK TO WATCH ALL SUMMIT VIDEOS

Learn more about how Operative helped KBB create a framework for growth through ad operations:

Contact us at info@operative.com

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