Empowering Women Within the Company and Throughout the Industry. An Interview with Dish’s Alexis Rosenberg

Alexis Rosenberg always knew she wanted to go into sales. "It fits with my personality," says Rosenberg, senior manager, premium services, at DISH Media. Her ability to successfully pursue a career in sales is not only a professional accomplishment, but also has led to a personal mission of helping other women succeed and thrive in the media sales world.

Historically, sales has been more male dominated, but DISH is working to encourage diversity, both within the organization and in the greater media ecosystem. Rosenberg is among those working to drive that change. She devotes time and effort to the DISH Women's Network (DWN), a resource group that focuses on gender empowerment, mentoring, and advancement within the company.

DISH Women's Network
For the past four years, Rosenberg has led the DWN efforts in the Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York media offices. "It's a great way to help promote women into higher-level positions, as well as provide some leadership opportunities and resources to women and men in the office," she says. "It's also important for us to see a range of women in leadership roles and learn how they got started and how they're navigating their career journey." The DWN is part of a larger effort from DISH corporate headquarters, based out of Denver, on behalf of female employees.

The DWN hosts events every month within the company — some events feature business-focused speakers or group discussions, while other events include activities to raise money for charitable organizations or organize group initiatives to support causes such as breast cancer awareness and heart health awareness. "I think it's important to enjoy where you work and not just what you do," Rosenberg says. "So, having a supportive environment is vital." The DWN also helps inform DISH Media's industry presence. At the recent RampUp 2020, for example, DISH Media sponsored a luncheon that brought women across the industry together to network and share their personal and professional experiences.

The proof of the initiative's success is how the women who participate in the DWN feel about the company overall and its commitment to gender equality. "Sixty-one percent of the women in the DISH Women's Network say that it's one of their reasons for staying at DISH," Rosenberg confides. Retention and the feeling of being supported are two notable accomplishments of the initiative.

Direct Response Sales Women Network
Rosenberg is an active and avid promoter of female empowerment, both within and outside DISH. She runs a Direct Response Sales Women group that is dedicated to empowering women across the media industry in the sales space. "I do an annual event that is open to all women at all levels in direct response in the industry, and I've been doing that for the past seven years," she noted.
Direct response (DR) — called Performance within DISH Media — has gone through a great transformation in the digital age. Once restricted to immediate viewer response, this type of marketing now also includes what Rosenberg terms "hybrid DR based on cost per thousand and ratings in verticals such as insurance and telecommunications."

As much as it has evolved, the fundamentals of DR have stayed the same. "DR has always been about attribution," she says, "like cost-per-call monitoring and web visits to see how campaigns are working. Addressable is the next step — knowing that you are targeting the right people and then getting back to that attribution. We can measure it better on the backend." In many respects, addressable advertising has power-charged DR because of its hyper-targeting capabilities, making this facet of marketing more compelling and integrated into the overall marketing funnel.

"I am really proud of the work I've been doing [with Direct Response Sales Women] because it gets people together from all different network groups," Rosenberg says. It also helps women looking for new roles. Rosenberg makes an effort to invite women who have recently been laid off to the annual event so they can network. "The direct response industry is a close-knit industry. We all know each other. These are my friends and I want to help them," she adds.

Rosenberg offers sage advice for women who want to advance in their career, whether within DISH or with the industry at large. "Having a mentor is very important," she says. "I've had a lot of mentors in my career — unofficial mentors both here at DISH and at my previous jobs. Just having someone who you can ask for advice is so important and gets rid of that feeling of being alone in the industry." To me, Rosenberg herself is a mentor and a force for equality in the industry.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Using Blockchain in Media Sales. Interview with Dashbid CEO Rodger Wells

Data-driven advertising is a huge business and the need for accountability has never been greater. The advent of blockchain is being used by more companies to insure that the advertiser message is reaching the right consumer. 

Rodger Wells, CEO of Dashbid, has constructed his business with that issue in mind after gaining experience in digital marketing and sales. “I entered the digital media world in 2005 at JumpTV. Then I moved from JumpTV to ooVoo and built an ad-powered video chat company with over 150MM users before I was recruited to DashBid,” he explained.

Charlene Weisler: Give me a short description of Dashbid.

Rodger Wells: DashBid began as a supply-side platform (SSP) for video advertising. We have evolved over the years to become a platform built on blockchain allowing advertisers, viewers and publishers to  benefit from advertising transactions via open ledger visibility and value transfer among all constituents in the advertising value circle.

Charlene Weisler: How do you use blockchain technology?

Rodger Wells: We use blockchain as both a value transfer mechanism and a reconciliation tool for publishers, advertisers and viewers. We see this changing greatly in the coming 18 months as we create the blockchain on which advertising will operate.

Charlene Weisler: How do you see blockchain technology impacting media in general?

Rodger Wells: Blockchain will provide a level of accountability and transparency in media that has never before been attained. Digital advertising is estimated to be a $107B business in 2018. With so much money at stake, the opportunities for fraud and poor performance abound. By using blockchain, it becomes possible to have a transparent trail of events which will expose fraud and poor performance. Although fraudsters will continue to target the pool of money, blockchain systems such as PreVUE will make it increasingly difficult to succeed.

Charlene Weisler: What is the relationship you develop between a consumer and an advertiser?

Rodger Wells: The advertiser has always sought interaction with the consumer. Historically this was achieved through publishers who sold these consumers to advertisers. We are now facilitating a method for consumers to take back ownership of their virtual identity and sell themselves directly to the advertisers. Ownership of personal data is what makes PreVUE most valuable. Giving audiences the ability to set boundaries on their data as well as easily see where it has been used, or misused, is a new arena. No longer will we have to “trust” third parties with our personal data sets. Giving this ownership back to the individual enables personal protection of property at an entirely different level.

Charlene Weisler: How do you see the sales funnel changing?

Rodger Wells: We see a simpler, more reliable way for advertisers and viewers to interact directly while providing increased benefit to publishers through more valuable, engaged audiences. Transparency, accountability and engagement will be more important, focused and required than ever.

Charlene Weisler: Where do you see messaging, advertising and sales going in the next three years?

Rodger Wells: I think the power of data ownership will shift back into the hands of the viewer. For too long our virtual selves, the data set that is “us” online has been controlled and owned by others. This leads to abuse that we don't even realize we are participating in. We’re only now seeing the impact of this data, and how it can be used against our will, with the Cambridge Analytica story, followed by Cubeyou this weekend. Only through ownership of our own virtual self will we ever be able to truly control its use.

Charlene Weisler: What words of advice would you give a consumer today?

Rodger Wells: Be cautious, always remember that the internet is forever but don't let it stop you from trying new things. Just be sure you understand what consent you are giving to providers.\

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

ABC and Accenture Strategy Discover the Secret of Sales ROI

One of the more challenging aspects of advertising sales is calculating ROI. This is made even more complex with the proliferation of content platforms and consumer devices. What really contributed to Sales uplift? ABC, in addressing this issue, just released Phase 2 of an attribution analysis conducted by Accenture Strategy. Phase 2 is the follow-up to a custom study completed in 2016 and used four big data sources to prove the role and value of content in context in driving Sales ROI. 

Cindy Davis, Executive Vice President Consumer Experience, Disney ABC Television Group, took me through the study and how it contributes to their overall research strategy. “Our objective in this study is to measure what matters and there was industry pressure to measure ROI,” she stated. To that end, “we found a very interesting connection between engaged audiences and their content and the sales and ROI we can drive to clients who participate.”

To achieve that goal, Disney|ABC commissioned Accenture Strategy which, according to Davis, “had a robust database of marketing spend. This year in our Phase 2 of the study, we examined 26 national brands over six industries and their corresponding sales data representing $25 billion in marketing spend, with $11 billion in television spending.” 

Mike Chapman, Managing Director, Accenture Strategy, global lead for Media and Entertainment Strategy Practice added that his company provided three years of data, which provided a “closed loop view of advertising ROI – types of impressions delivered, how many, which channels, what prices were paid and the impacts from those impressions delivered on incremental sales week over week.”

In addition to Accenture’s marketing data, Davis asked Accenture Strategy to incorporate four other datasets in their recent study – Nielsen ratings, E-Poll, Nielsen Social and Magid’s Emotional DNA, which Davis described as, “intriguing because we are in the business of connecting with viewers emotionally and Magid’s DNA work speaks to that.” 

Phase 1 Takeaways

Davis and her team, focusing on the impact of multi-platform TV (premium long-form video across screens and devices) and how advertisers can leverage that impact, discovered three major takeaways from the Accenture Strategy 2016 study:

      1.       There is a halo effect on sales with multi-platform television. “This doesn’t get talked about a lot,” Davis noted, “You hear about last click attribution in digital advertising. But TV goes a long way to establish and amplify the impacts of all media.”

      2.       Multi-platform is under-valued, under attributed and under-represented in the industry. Eighteen percent of all of the ROI impact is traditionally attributed to digital but it should actually be attributed to multi-platform television. “Television has been traditionally undervalued and digital over-valued,” Davis concluded.

      3.       Multi-platform TV has a long-term amplification impact. The study compared sales lift over years and found that by year two or three, you no longer see a sales lift impact from digital. But the study proved that there is a long-term effect on sales lift with TV.

Phase 2 Takeaways - Drivers of ROI        

Davis highlighted three key drivers to ROI that were identified in the Phase 2 study. 

      1.       Audience size matters. “Higher-rated programs deliver more ROI than lower rated programs by 2X,” she stated, “so not all programs are created equal which makes sense.” And notably, these higher-rated programs deliver more ROI than their cost premium indicating that higher rated and therefore more expensive programming is worth the cost in greater sales lift ROI. This is because these programs have a greater footprint, greater social amplification and therefore have the ability to reach people beyond a narrowly defined target audience.

      2.       Consumers’ to commitment to the content matters.  “We looked at both the expressed and the observed commitment to the content,” Davis stated, “and found that the greater the effort to watch, the greater the ROI.” And there is 2X the ROI with Magid’s Intentionality measurement.

  

      3.       Content quality matters. Davis’ group examined perceived quality, as defined by the viewer, and quantified quality indicators using Magid’s emotional dimensions.  They found that the higher the perceived quality of the content, the greater the ROI. And, using Magid, the three most impactful dimensions for higher ROI were Smarts (programs that are informative, real and inspiring), Edge (unpredictable, outrageous and funny) and Relatability (originality, suspenseful and intelligent). “There is a direct connection between the emotions viewers feel about a show and the benefits advertisers gets in terms of greater ROI,” Davis concluded.

“We are already starting to have good conversations with clients as to what this means for them,” Davis stated. “It goes without saying that not all GRPs are created equal and now we can prove that. Yes, higher-rated shows command a premium but they deliver even greater ROI at that level.” Adding to all of this insight the impact of social connection and emotional dimensions, ABC is poised to help their clients take advantage of the best that multi-platform TV can offer.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

 

Thinking Out of the Box in Syndication. Interview with Jodi Chisarick of 21st Century Fox

Jodi Chisarick, Senior Vice President and General Sales Manager, 21^st Century Fox, realized after changing her college major three times that communications was her forte. She started in the media business straight out of college at a small ad agency where she learned the national side of TV and advertising. From there she went to CBS Networks in planning and then to Fox in 1995 where she has been ever since. 

Such longevity is rare in media nowadays and she sometimes reflects on the road not taken. “Did I do the right thing for my career by staying in the same place for so long and in such a specific area?” she mused. “Maybe if I moved around I would have been exposed to things beyond syndication. But then I realize that I had the ability to raise my three children as well as run the department that I grew up in. And I love my job,” she concluded. 

Weisler: What is your definition of TV and where do you see the future of linear TV?

Chisarick: My definition of TV is watching a TV show on my TV set. I do watch on mobile and on the computer but it tends to be when I am traveling or commuting. If I am at home I would never choose to watch it on any other screen than my big TV screen. There has been a lot of conversation over the past couple of years about what is the future of linear TV. When you look at the quality of shows being produced – whether it is on Netflix or HBO or cable or broadcast, and you look at the amount of people you still reach through linear TV, you realize that it is not going anywhere any time soon. There will still be challenges and changes and we may see some of the long tail, third tier cable networks not surviving. There might be fallout but I still think that content is what it is all about. Without the right content there is nothing to watch no matter where you are trying to watch it. The most money is still being spent on linear TV content. 

Weisler: What are the opportunities and challenges going forward in syndication?

Chisarick: Over the past two upfronts we have definitely seen the opportunity for syndication. We are viewed live, have shorter pods and reach more people than a lot of broadcast television and a lot of cable TV. We are a more efficient vehicle and we have seen a tremendous increase in demand in syndication from last upfront and even heading into scatter for next year. People are retooling how they are using linear TV. One of our biggest challenges is that there are a lot of (younger) people out there who aren’t quite sure what syndication is and what bucket we fit into. We go into agencies and give a Syndication 101 presentation – what is it, how it is bought – and we try to make ourselves stand-out. We are told we are not sexy enough, we have too many repeats, we are only daytime so we have met with a lot of outside companies to come up with different opportunities to offer advertisers. Unless it is first run programming we can’t offer integration, sponsorships and branding in the off-net shows. We have come up with a couple of different ways to create custom content so advertisers can tie into to favorite off-net shows. But it is a slow go. We are doing these native-in-video ads that are digitally integrating a product into the content but the agencies don’t know where to fund it because there are no GRPs against it. It is not a commercial but it doesn’t come from digital. We want to be able to offer 360 and turnkey opportunities but also be able to execute them as well as get the agencies and clients to execute them. We need to think out of the box to make this happen.

Charlene Weisler: Did you always want to go into sales?

Jodi Chisarick: I studied advertising in college and I think I have the right personality for sales. Once I was in sales in CBS I just knew that this is what I wanted to do. What I always loved most about this business is that I could have an interesting conversation with anyone around a dining room table and talk about what I did. I love television. I am a big network TV watcher and I can go home and still be in my work world. 

Weisler: So how to you achieve life balance?

Chisarick: It is really hard, especially with a long commute. I do the best I can and I have always worked for very understanding management. So if I needed to leave early, it was not a problem. I am very lucky that I have three very independent children. My husband pitches in to help when he can and I always had help at home. Despite being tired all the time, I am happy that I did not take time off when having children so I could continue in my career. I think it would be hard to re-enter the workforce after a few years out of it. I am lucky too that I live in a town where everyone helps each other out. It does take a village.

Weisler: What advice would you give a college student today about a career in media?

Chisarick: Definitely get digital experience. TV is still King but having digital experience is good on your resume. Be patient, work hard, thank people for the opportunities that come your way and double-check your work. Be responsible for your work. It is a hard business. It is not what it used to be. Companies are running leaner than they were before. But it is still a great business. You will love it. 

And my advice to management is to bring the younger people into meetings so they can see how the process works and how decisions are being made.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com