Get Control of the Digital Media Operations Chaos

Ever been house hunting and walked through a professionally staged home? You’d know one if you saw it. Every element inside is perfectly curated and placed– even the mudroom lacks the messiness and disarray you’d expect. Everything is organized. You’re able to see how each item in every room works together and flows seamlessly into the next – contributing and enhancing the overall value of the entire space. Paint colors, couches, accent tables, even tiny throw pillows play an important role in convincing you this is home.

Now, compare that to your own space. Most us don’t live like Martha Stewart -- so home is disorganized. Cluttered. Filled with the mess of everyday life. lt’s nearly impossible to find the time to step back and decipher what works, what doesn’t, what looks good, and what should have been thrown out 30 years ago. You can’t wrap your head around the enormous effort required to get from the chaos to command, so instead you buy another wicker basket, even though you have 23 already, and you’re not sure it’ll work, but it’s a quick fix – another way to hide the mounting mess.

As unrelated as it may seem, the digital media industry feels a lot like a house that hasn’t been staged. The digital landscape is cluttered and complex. And, combined with the different and disconnected systems we use in our everyday jobs, agencies haven’t found a controlled and effective way to do digital.

As the chaos in the industry continues to grow, details fall through the cracks, there’s little visibility into what is and isn’t working, work is rife with error, clean data and complete, end-to-end processes are difficult to come by, and people at every level of an agency clamor for the opportunity to be more of a strategic partner for their clients.

Chances are, your digital media operations ‘house’ is out of order and it’s time to take back control.

A great example of this chaos uncontrolled: Last summer, Morgan Stanley estimated there was about $26 billion in ad spending under agency review – from big marketers such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever, McDonald’s and Johnson & Johnson. Not only was this deemed unusual from a financial standpoint – that $26 billion total is more than the combined amount under review over the last three years – but it used to be rare for a marketer to put their business up for review, and now it’s become commonplace. As the traditional AOR business model goes by the wayside, marketers are beginning to pull the plug quicker on agency relationships and look to specialist agencies to handle smaller portions of their ad business.

Part of the reason for this? Agencies lack control, and don’t have a single system of record or platform that’s capable of running all these pieces of business and keeping it under control.

And that feeling of frustration from the lack of control can be felt at every level.

Media teams, responsible for planning and executing campaigns, are faced with too much grunt work and time-consuming manual tasks in order to get from point A to point B. They’ve got little time left to do the thoughtful work for their clients – making sure campaign plans are meeting client goals, analyzing campaign performance and data to decide what to do more of, what to do less of, and what to do next. They’re often left with no time to explore new partnerships – meaning they tend to work with the same 4-5 partners on rotation, which looks unappealing to clients and can result in lower quality insights and strategic work.

CEOs and CFOs, tasked with running and growing the business, lack visibility into the day-to-day operations of the business, and are often correcting the symptom; not the problem. They need to understand where to make a profit, what’s not working and how it can be fixed, who the right customers are, and when and where to hire. But, often facing information that’s inaccurate, there’s less opportunity for them to take control of the strategic and financial decisions the business requires.

Centro Platform is what control at a digital advertising agency looks like.

Centro Platform creates a series of automated checks and balances at every step of digital media operations management – from campaign conception to completion – empowering agencies and enabling them to gain operational control in one single platform.

With visibility at every layer of your digital media operations, you gain peace of mind knowing your teams are properly equipped, making decisions with context and confidence. Deep insights or a quick peek under the hood of your digital media ops whenever you want puts you in full and complete control – every step of the way. Feels like this could be home, doesn’t it?

Platform Features

Roles & Permissions
Bring structure to your teams and keep your data clean. Centro Platform offers the ability for team leadership to assign roles and set permissions, ensuring team members only perform actions for which they are allowed. And you’re able to support the privacy and effectiveness needed for your client, through assignment of users to a client/brand – resulting in a more focused product experience. This empowers team members to execute and track campaigns correctly from end-to-end, reducing time spent on setup – as well as costly errors – by 20% overall.

RFP Automation Feature
Digital media changes rapidly and it can be a challenge to get all the information you need. Centro Platform provides the framework to capture the who, what, where, when, and how of an ad being purchased and served – in a cleanly formatted and timely manner. Centro Platform generates RFPs for vendors, and welcomes them into using the system. As proposals are submitted, you can compare and contrast to see changes and revisions, ensuring all teams have the information they need.

Automate, document and store every step of the digital media buying process, so you have better leverage with publishers and greater transparency with clients.

Vendor Negotiation
With Centro Platform, both buyers and sellers use a single system to communicate and negotiate placements. With the platform, multiple plan versions can be created with different budgets or media mixes, based on changes from vendors and the needs of your client.

Never lose track of negotiation again, because all submissions and responses are stored for review. Assign appropriate media team members to your plan for them to see rates, communication, and tactic options.

Client Approval & IOs
Centro Platform automates the process of creating IOs and storing those contracts in the system for reference. Infuse organization into your client orders and subsequent vendor orders. Control and optimize campaigns smoothly – see data delivery against contracted line items and shift budget to reach your KPIs. Issue digital orders to vendor partners for speedy approval and implementation.

To learn more about Centro Platform or request a demo, visit centro.net or email info@centro.net.