Speed to Decision: Rethinking how Brands, Agencies and Publishers Think about Resources

At the beginning of 2022, we had a call with our partner, SEBPO, to discuss ideas for content. In that conversation, SEBPO relayed the story of how a frustrated potential client was having with their agency and how slowly they moved on executing the brand's vision. The hold ups were all the manual processes required to turn an idea into an action.

For me, that one anecdote sparked a number of ideas that really apply to everyone in any industry. If we have a decision to make, there are typically a number of manual steps to get the information we need to validate the decision. That actual execution might take seconds, but the manual part of that decision can take days or even longer. The solution if I'm a decision maker is to get these manual processes off my plate so I can be more strategic and make more decisions faster. SEPBO and I knew this idea could spark some useful conversations across our industry – from brands to agencies to publishers and anyone inbetween.

I proposed a series of articles to AdExchanger who graciously published 3 of the 4 pieces. Here are those articles:

• Brands, Don’t Let Agencies Slow You Down
• If Agencies Want To Survive, They Need To Adapt – And Look Inward
• Publishers, Your Top Ops Talent Needs Your Attention

The fourth piece didn't make the cut and get published, in part because AdExchanger weren't looking for a wrap up article. Timing didn't help either since ChatGPT hadn't captured everyone's imagination. I'm sure the series would have incorporated more thoughts on AI if written today. 

That being said, the timing for a discussion about whether to outsource, automate or both couldn't be more important than right now. Layoffs reduce the number of people working. It doesn't reduce the amount of work to be done. If you want to keep the people you decided not to cut, you have to give them the tools to take on this additional work. Otherwise, you'll lose them as well. Invest in your people by giving them the tools to better invest their time.

So here's the final article. Thank you again to SEBPO for the inspiration and partnership on this concept. It's been a pleasure to write:

This article concludes a series focused more on the human side of our industry and less on technology. As an industry, we’re always focused on the tech and rightfully so – the tech is fascinating. What we are able to do in a fraction of a second is absolutely incredible and has a huge impact not just on digital advertising but the global economy as well. Advertising drives consumer actions and the right ad at the right time in the right place moves businesses forward.

But for our technological acumen we’re still operating in old-fashioned ways. “If I would have asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” is a quote attributed to Henry Ford. For all of our innovation in our industry, we’ve really only built faster horses. We act as if traditional media organizations are structured for success and digital-first are not, when in fact digital-first companies continue to innovate every day.

It’s time to build our version of the automobile. I feel a combination of regulation and technological changes are going to force it upon us. It’s time to adapt.

Instead of looking for a new piece of technology to move us to the next level, I go right back to people and process. AI automation of a broken process is just a faster broken process. If the process is wrong and the work is a waste of time, it’s all for naught.

I have some ideas for how brands, publishers and everyone should think about their businesses moving forward.

Learn what your people are actually working on and take most of it off their plate. Depending on where you sit in your company, you’ll be copied on an email thread that includes a sales person asking an account manager who in turn asks an ad operations person to pull a report. This email thread should not exist in 2023. The pulling of reports should be automated or outsourced. It should be available for anyone to access. Instead of emailing for the report or pulling the report, each of those people should be looking at those reports for insights – something that’s going to help secure that advertiser for another campaign.

Give your clients what they ask for, but also give them what they need. Your clients will ask for reports and screenshots, but that’s not always what they really want. They want to know they can trust you and that their decision to work with you was correct. Providing reports and screenshots is the minimum amount you can do. You need your people spending their time optimizing campaigns and sharing their expertise. If the sole output of your team is the minimal amount requested, you aren’t properly allocating your resources and you aren’t meeting your clients real needs. 

“Speed to Decision” should be a KPI you aspire to improve. How long does it take to go from idea to a decision to act? Think through that chain of work from CMO to agency to publisher and back to decide if something should be tested or not. Our ad servers may work in milliseconds, but our industry often works in days if not weeks. Make this “Speed to Decision” your new measurement to success.

Operational creativity should be embraced. I used the phrase “operational creativity” in the last article and have grown to like it more and more. The more time I’m given to step back and think about how the business operates, the more I’m rewarded with ideas for improvement. However, don’t ask me for epiphanes while I’m reconciling last month’s billing: I’ll be grinding in Excel on reports I have no business working on. Free your best people to think, envision, and implement - not just do.

Change the paradigm. Henry Ford’s quote is wrong in many respects. His belief is that he himself knew better than everyone around him what they needed. The fact is that we should all be striving for a more efficient way of doing what we do so we can work on the next problem to solve. Those next problems are coming and while it’ll take technology to solve them, we won’t be ready if we don’t solve for our people and process issues.

As many organizations are now looking to cut costs, unfortunately they will be looking to lay off people. The problem of course is that the workload doesn’t go away, putting more pressure on the people that remain. The technology we currency use will not automatically pick up the slack. You’re going to need partners to pick up the slack and you’ll need to invest in your people and have them help you navigate the tough times and prepare for the good times when the good times return.