Ad Sales: 6 must-haves in the new world
April 6, 2021
For years, traditional media companies have been in a standoff with digital natives over ad dollars. COVID-19 and the resulting economic crisis have created challenging advertising dynamics for everyone in ad sales. As global markets recover, dollars will flow to an increasingly performance-driven ad ecosystem.
Accenture’s latest report outlines what this new, post-pandemic ad world order means for media companies and their ad sales teams. We explore the challenges and trends they face and offer concrete ways for ad sales execs to address them.
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The current crisis calls for more than incremental change. It creates a chance for media companies to fully transform their ad sales organizations.
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Focus on audience, not format
Video consumption by consumers of all ages will soon become fully multiplatform. In other words, the distinction between “TV” and “digital” will be far less important than in-depth insights on audience segments. In this environment, marketer and agency expectations will be even higher, as they demand multiscreen, micro segmented audiences backed by analytics to support their value.
Target Transformation
As new digital players have entered the market, media companies have followed suit by introducing their own digital offerings. But the current crisis calls for more than incremental change. It creates a chance for media companies to fully transform their ad sales organizations.
A holistic transformation isn’t impossible. In fact, we’re witnessing a sense of optimism in the sector as some companies successfully differentiate and grow in this competitive marketplace. How are they making it happen? First, they protect and grow near-term revenue, freeing cash for investment through efficiency. Second, they achieve longer-term growth.
The problem is that expanding new, digital revenue streams can cannibalize traditional ones. Siloes and skill shortages are additional obstacles to large-scale change. How do organizations protect near-term revenue while building a modern ad sales organization that can compete effectively? They become media-tech companies that take advantage of content and technology and offer innovative products and business models. And they do so flexibly and quickly to respond to fluctuating consumer and market demands.
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Six elements of a successful transformation
Accenture has developed an advertising transformation framework that details six elements essential to a media-tech company’s ad sales organization. By investing in these elements, companies see measurable results, such as a 10% boost in sales win rates and an 85% improvement in inventory forecast accuracy.
- Boost sales organization effectiveness. Help sales teams learn consultative and digital selling skills; empower your operations teams with more analytical capabilities.
- Enable multiplatform sales. Eliminate any residual “friction” that customers may experience when doing business with your organization. Integrate systems. Clean data. Improve analytics. Make it simple to support impression-based selling across platforms.
- Accelerate creative and ad product development. Good creative takes time. Focus on getting it to market faster – and being more automated in how you test and continually improve its effectiveness.
- Create fast, agile and efficient ad operations. Automate ad ops workflows to improve accuracy and quality assurance, as well as KPI tracking and alerting.
- Grow revenue through AI. AI-driven integration, automation and analytics can lead to significant revenue-generating benefits across your enterprise.
- Manage multiplatform inventory and ad services more effectively through a unified ad tech stack. Save money and boost revenue by investing in a fit-for-purpose technology stack that meets today’s needs through greater integration and automation – including attribution as a service.
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Where should companies start?
In our experience, transforming ad sales begins with understanding where and what to transform – and to what extent – to establish the organization’s baseline maturity. Understanding where media companies are on the maturity spectrum makes it possible to prioritize the highest-ROI initiatives, align stakeholders and set the organization on a path to long-term success.
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