The boiler room to the bridge

September 24, 2009

building a culture of excellence in ad operations

Welcome

Wilkommen

Bienvenue

About AdMonsters

The only professional association exclusively

dedicated to online advertising operations

and technology

1999

2009Melanie Conner for The New York Times

What we do

Publisher Forum Leadership Forum

Training Consulting

Network Operations Forum

Over a thousand members

Hundreds of companies

AdOps 360 Webcasts

Blog Series

66850

Visit for more information…

admonsters.org

Boiler room

The bridge…

The ‘bridge’ today

Business Partners

Sales &

BD

Finance

Editorial

Technology

Ad Ops

People managers

VP Ad Operations

Trafficking Manager

Traffickers

Outsourced

trafficking

Dir. Ad Technology

Rich Media Specialist

Client Svcs Manager

Client services specialists

Pricing & Yield

Net. Opti

mization

Pricing

specialist

Inventory

Manager

Innovators

Technology managers

Revenue assurance

Act

Plan

Do

CheckCulture of continual improvement

The early days…1996 - 2002

Ad Ops, the early days

Head of Sales

Trafficking

Ad Technolo

gy

Il faut imaginer ad ops heureux

Boiler room to the bridge2002 - 2008

2001-2002

Relative ad spend 2001-2004

2001 2002 2003 2004

-20%

-10%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

-12%-17%

21%

39%

the most dynamic and revolutionary

changes of any era in the history of

advertising

"Marketers large and small have come to

accept digital media as the fulcrum of any

marketing strategy”Randall Rothenburg, IAB US, 2007

“growth continues to be stimulated by the expansion

of newer online ad platforms, such as

broadband video, rich Internet applications, mobile,

and social media”MediaPost, Q3 2007

Case studies in success

Orbitz: Kaizen in Ad Ops

99.9%

90%?95%?99%?

$30M

Orbitz: Kaizen in Ad Ops Ad Operations goal

Provide the highest levels of quality to our customers Eliminate redundant and wasteful activities

3 Principles of Kaizen –operational excellence through: Process and results (not results-only) Systemic thinking (i.e. big picture, not solely narrow view) Non-judgmental, non-blaming (blaming is wasteful)

PCDA –Plan, Do, Check & Act FOCUS on quality –strive for 100% (99.9% is not

adequate)

Plan

Do

Check

Act

P D C A

Orbitz: Kaizen in Ad Ops How to achieve this

Operations teams achieve high quality through continuous improvement, learning, modifying process and adapting to change.

The Japanese refer to this as Kaizen, which means, ‘change for the better’ or ‘improvement’. The English translation is continual improvement’

Results at Orbitz Since debuting this concept in 2005 organization has eliminated waste,

cross-trained teams and balanced the workload Scalable framework for managing and measuring excellence Eliminated redundant activities and automated many processes Better balance of responsibilities for the department Strong team mentality

Microsoft: The Staffing Challenge How to get more from their ad ops team? High churn levels at lower Ad Operations positions Ad Operations people tend to not have a career path The “Millennial” problem…

Microsoft: The Staffing Challenge Invest in People Outline career paths

Management path or Professional path Functional Leader or broad Business Leader

Extend Job Responsibilities Quickly Share Reality with employees Measure Performance; Reward Success

Measure results Hold managers accountable

Microsoft: The Staffing Challenge Results

Team Leaders and Team Members have well defined goals Team Members know their importance to the company Department can scale efficiently Manager accountability Reduced churn in the department

Martha Stewart: Ad Ops as Revenue Center

Major offline U.S. Media Brand Needed to drive online revenue Needed to shift from a ‘trafficking’ structure to a

revenue center structure

Martha Stewart: Ad Ops as Revenue Center Hired Matthew Gay, VP Media

Advertising Operations Not originally in Ad Operations, but

finance and process expert Metrics of department success all

around revenue Hired the right people for the right

jobs but not necessarily from ad operations

Implemented process changes throughout organization

Implement Yield Management tools

Martha Stewart: Ad Ops as Revenue Center Results

Ad Operations seen as the provider of logical and rational information for the organization.

Ad Operations seen as Revenue Center not a data center Inventory review & management reporting Focus on yield & monetization within ad operations

Washington PostAd Product Innovators

Washington Post: Ad Product Innovators Growing Revenue by being Innovative Standard units are commoditized...non-differentiated Networks have lowered the bar on pricing Can help a non-differentiated site stand out in the

crowd Clients/Agencies are looking for things that have

never been done

Ad Product Innovation

Ad Product Innovation

Washington Post: Ad Product Innovators Developed culture of innovation Created team solely focused on developing

innovative ad products. Team works with all internal departments and with

clients to bring ideas to fruition fast. Departments meet together to share new ideas. Ad Operations seen as an enabler of revenue.

Yahoo!: Ad ops, Top Down Top tier clients demand

top tier service Ad Operations is about

business process, not trafficking

Wenda Millard in the US and Fru Hazlitt in Europe

VP SalesAgency Sale

s

Direct

Sales

Client

Svcs

VP Ad Ops

Traffic

Yield

Tech

Yahoo!: Ad Ops Top Down Raise the game of operations

Create VP of ad ops Getting a handle on inventory/pricing/yield critical

Big investment in both people and tech to get there In house technology and creative teams Rational economic decisions trump irrational emotional ones Sales & Operations in partnership Align corporate priorities and sales incentives…with Ops

providing the insight

What do these all have in common Executive level cheerleader who support ad operations Ad Operations has been challenges and/or allowed to

step up These companies view the organization more as business

ops than simply ‘ad ops’ and certainly ‘trafficking’ Understand that ad operations is about more than just

managing ads and campaigns its about growing the business

Have created a role for a senior ad operations leader within their org

Near term challenges

2010 Challenges New technologies and pressure to monetize them

Video & mobile Economic climate drawing C-level attention to Ad Ops. Need

to communicate challenges and justifications, better reporting Pressure on revenue leading to increased demand for ad

network deals. More sales ‘custom ads’ and pressure for ‘rule bending’

Desire for increased targeting Reduction or freezing of staff levels

Suggested Takeaways

Ad Ops, the early days

Head of Sales

Trafficking Ad Technology

Are you an ad ops leader? Where are you in the evolution of ad ops? What will your plan be to get ops to the bridge? Is ad ops a business partner or an order taker? Is 90% good enough? What’s your plan for implementing Kaizen in your

operations? How do you find and keep the BEST talent in ad ops? If you are, what more can you be doing to

Grow as a revenue center Create career paths

Thank you

Matt O’Neillmatt@admonsters.org