Operating Model Change and Communications Consulting for a Media Company

Very often, we see that at the root of our clients’ inefficiencies lies major gaps in organizational communication. Thus, one of our key service areas within change management is internal communications consulting, through which we help organizations collaborate and operate more effectively.

Our client was a well-known enterprise media and entertainment company that was interested in making better use of its various sources of consumer insights and analytics. Its current operating model was fragmented; analytics stakeholders had traditionally made decisions based on experience and “gut feeling,” bypassing the data received from Analytics teams.

The VP of Analytics wanted to increase the value of his organization by refreshing the existing operating model, analytics portfolio, and collaboration between teams.

Our Approach

We used our proprietary Organizational Assessment 360 to assess organizational health across People and Culture, Process, and Tools. Through this exercise, we identified around 10 major gaps that needed to be addressed and developed recommendations. We then prioritized these initiatives based on business value and associated cost/effort, in order to capture “low-hanging fruit.”

Our solution: We began by understanding the different types of data available. From here, we developed a new, ideal analytics portfolio based on best practices and stakeholder needs. This portfolio included cutting-edge analytics techniques that allowed the company to determine both short-term and long-term ROI of marketing, utilizing the research from the I&A team.

Operationally, we found that there were too many market research vendors being used across the organization.  Much of the work taking place was redundant. Also, the monthly reports provided by Insights and Analytics teams were not in a format that could be easily used. They were mostly lengthy paper-based reports, and business stakeholders did not have the patience or know-how to utilize these reports in decision-making.

We optimized the company’s vendor strategy and re-designed the cadence of reports provided to stakeholders.   Marketing stakeholders needed more real-time, agile delivery of insights and analytics and not a long, clunky report at the end of each month.We developed a communications strategy that would allow coordination of stakeholder needs with report delivery, as well as changed format to a more succinct template that contained only the needed insights for each team.

Tools being used by teams were limited to SAS and Excel, despite the existence of more advanced tools on the market with predictive and forecasting capabilities.We recommended a trial run with a newer marketing analytics tool that would aid I&A to deliver more efficiently on the analytics portfolio.

In terms of team dynamics and culture, our Organizational Assessment found that there had been a history of accumulated resentment between teams. Insights and Analytics teams were resentful that their deliverables were not being utilized or valued by the rest of the organization. Marketing teams were resentful that what they received from analytics teams did not seem useful or relevant for their challenges.After designing the new analytics portfolio and new operating model, we held a series of cross-team workshops in order to align communications and Point-of-View.

These workshops focused on working through the existing resentments and fostering alignment between teams. A key piece to this was to relay the overall value of Analytics to the business, as well as to introduce the new methodologies that would be used.

Finally, we developed and socialized a communications plan for the new operating model and training strategy for the new methodologies.

Results

Through the implementation of the new operating model and tool, Marketing ROI increased by 23% over the span of 2 quarters. Through our communications consulting services, I&A became a more valued asset to the organization and saw greater communication and alignment with its stakeholders. I&A also became a pioneer of cutting-edge analytics for other global teams and became the official CoE responsible for training other regions.