Automating Sponsorship Management Workflows for a Leading International Media Group
Overview
Our client, one of the largest international media companies, delivers entertainment to audiences in over 180 countries through more than 300 channels.
Digital and traditional linear TV advertising is a primary source of revenue for this client. Their bottom line is defined by how efficiently and accurately they handle advertising sponsorships at every step of the way, from price calculation and billing to distributing air time and reporting.
In the past few years, technology has made a huge leap toward automated systems, promising new opportunities for leading media companies with complicated business workflows. A stellar web development partner was all that they needed to tap into the benefits of automation.
Challenge
The media group was concerned that their ad management system was becoming outdated and failing to meet their expectations on efficiency. Assessing key metrics needed to enhance ad campaign performance was a challenging task. Additionally, the company wanted to enable collaboration between its subdivisions in areas like ad slot scheduling and marketing campaigns.
Many years ago, the company leveraged its in-house resources to develop a simplistic PHP application. This enabled ad management to a certain point and did the job for quite some time.
When they realized the system was not entirely sufficient, the company hired us to scale it up to a multipurpose Windows app. This enabled more complex functionality, addressing new business requirements. Developing the app was our first touchpoint with the prospective product.
Taking the system online was the natural next step. In 2016, the client sought to create The Sponsorship Portal, an ultimate base of advertiser, agency, and brand data available to the company's staff globally. As the product was designed to meet the needs of different user types, a multilevel access structure and specific tools had to be put in place.
The company needed a vendor who not only had proven expertise in .NET and other relevant technologies but a solid understanding of the media business as well. At that time, Coral Team had already obtained industry-specific knowledge by delivering to this client on several other projects.
Solution
Our approach
We worked in 4-week iterations:
From desktop to web
RFP module
Execution module
WIP Packages
Managing high loads
Optimization and enhancements
Results
With The Sponsorship Portal, the client experiences an unprecedented level of ad management automation. No relevant RFP is left unattended anymore – no juicy deal is missed. Comprehensive reports on airtime and metrics allow advertisers to accurately calculate the ROI and test different approaches to make the most of working with our client.
Working toward the future
Since 2016, we have delivered work on every task within this project on time and within the fixed budget. Today, we continue to maintain and develop the platform, introducing new features and making tweaks in accordance with user experience.
The media company is in full control of the platform. They can manage user access levels and monitor operations with the system to prevent unauthorized activity. The airing process can be monitored in real time, so the supervising team can quickly identify possible issues, like ads displayed at the wrong time, and take action immediately.
In terms of numbers, the introduction of The Sponsorship Portal was followed by a 6% increase in the company's domestic ad sales revenue in Q3 2019.
