Finding your publisher

This week we focused on the relationship between the publisher and the ad agency (or client direct). We looked at the reach measurements a publisher should provide and what an ad agency should look for when seeking a publisher. The key measurements to check for when seeking the right publisher to work with are Audience and Reach.

Measuring the Audience of the publisher is the harder of the two as it depends on consumer behaviour, however many publishers may have information on their key markets. E.g Cosmo would have mainly female readers.

Measurement of Reach is much more accessible and clear. Although there is no uniform to the metrics publishers use figures generally based on a monthly timeframe. Key metrics for website advertising are: visitors to the site and page views (each page a person views). Hits can be extremely over estimated. Some websites may also include a tag on your advertisement which will track exactly the click-through rate and page impressions.

All campaigns an ad agency runs for a client (or a client runs themselves) should have Key Performance Indicators in order to find the return on the investment of the cost of the campaign.  The KPI’s for each campaign and the tools required to measure these should all be in place prior to the launch of the campaign.  The results of this measurement can then be compared to previous campaigns or used as a benchmark for future campaigns.

Insight into the world of a Digital Project Manager

We had a guest speaker – the Operations Director of a top Dublin agency. The lecture was on Project Managment in the digital sense and how she operates her project management within her company.

One of the main things which stood out for me in this lecture is the importance of proper lines of communication with all parties involved. I understand how difficult it is when working with many different agencies and trying to get everything timed for the project to stay on deadline. The guest speaker’s presentation on all the tools she uses, highlighted for me the amount of time spent managing the people working on a project and how to keep track of the changes each make.

Communication on what the client is expecting and what the agency will create needs to be clearly defined before all the work begins. Further discussion in class proved that interpretation of a client’s idea has to be worked through as some people may have different understanding of phrases or words. Examples are one of the best ways to get the client to illustrate what they are looking for, rather than only getting them to give a brief.

A second point I thought was very interesting was the amount of developer programmes our guest had taken upon herself to learn e.g Java, Photoshop. When dealing with so many different parties it’s important to understand what their jobs are (to an extent).  This way if a problem arises within the project you as the Project Manager can support the people who are working with you as you have better understanding of their work. I completely agree with this as any manager: project manager, digital manager or even store manager, should understand the tasks their employees are working to complete. I believe this will also help planning times and deadlines more appropriately.

And finally I realised the importance of planning. We talked through the early stages of setting up a website and wire framing. Looking back on a project I worked on, I see we were in the right direction with the initial wire frame however our planning ended there  and the process of working through the user map wasn’t planned correctly.

Overall I found the lecture very interesting and insightful.

Best Advice: Get everything signed off by the client so they know what to expect and you know what to deliver.