D.A.N.G.
Digital Ads Needs & Goals
Background
I was selected as one of just two representatives from CMG San Antonio to attend the 2014 Innovation Summit in Boulder, CO. After the end of the summit, every attendee was challenged to go back to their local markets and find an area of inefficiency they could use the Design Thinking process to help innovate around.
While brainstorming my Everyday Innovation Plan, I saw a need for a better way to communicate the digital marketing campaigns that our Account Executives sold; thereby improving efficiencies around campaign fulfillment and mitigating potential errors.
I called my project “DANG” and spent October – December of 2014 building it, interviewing reps along the way about what they wished this hypothetical portal would do, what it wouldn’t do, and searching for ways to make their jobs easier.
DANG launched Jan. 1, 2015 and we used it until DOT launched in all CMG markets in August of 2016.
How It Works
The Account Executives could submit their Digital IO’s via a form that contained all the information we needed to fulfill a digital campaign.
My goal was to make it as user-friendly as possible, so they would only see the fields they absolutely needed to fill out, based on which combination of digital products they selected.
Some other key features included a CPM Calculator so reps could calculate how many impressions their campaigns would receive based on the CPM they sold, a Wallpaper Takeover calendar to manage homepage sponsorships on our O&O websites, Product Pricing, various Digital Sales Resources, and even an educational section about the Design Thinking process designed to spark new brainstorming ideas.
I implemented incremental improvements as I discovered various pain points along the fulfillment path.
Eventually, word of DANG spread to the corporate office and I was asked to join the team to help develop and launch a similar product for all of Cox Media Group’s radio, television, and newspaper properties nation-wide.
While DANG has since been sunsetted, I’m still really proud of this one!
