A story of transforming people, process and technology to generate growth in media sales and operations. With quotes and anecdotes from Mark Bernstein, VP of Business Operations at Kelley Blue Book.

1. 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

2. Nothing in nature does well when it stagnates.

3. It’s the same
in media sales.

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

5. you’ll be left behind.

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

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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.

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

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

12. The average ad ops team is saddled with a high volume of redundant work, preventing them from taking on more strategic tasks.

13. 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.

14. You can’t just throw bodies at the problem.

15. 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.

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

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

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

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. When your workflow is optimized, handling scale comes naturally.

22. Ad ops can stop executing...

23. and start expanding.

24. Here’s a good story:

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

26. 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.

27. So, one day I asked:

28. So, one day I asked:
What if you could
do anything you
wanted, within our
people, process and
technology,

29. 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?

30. I gave them a week.

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

32. For the first time in a long time, they were bounding into the office with enthusiasm and excitement,

33. 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,

34. They’re not traffickers anymore.

35. They’re part of the product ideation
process from the beginning.
They’re not traffickers anymore.

36. There’s no single answer to growth.

37. No one solution that will solve all of your problems.

38. 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.

39. 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.

40. 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.

41. Savvy publishers are taking full advantage of the people in their business that understand how the entire machine functions,

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

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

44. 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.

45. All quotes in this presentation are from a talk by Mark Bernstein at our OP/ED Ad Revenue & Ops Summit in February of 2014.
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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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