Every advertiser works with a number of partners – media partners, creative agencies, ad servers, DSPs, DMPs, dynamic creative partners, you name it. In theory, they’re all striving toward the same goal, but rarely are they all navigating according to the same roadmap. 

Let’s take a look at four necessary elements in getting everyone on the same page and moving forward as a cohesive force. 

Set the stage

Get everyone in a room, or on the phone, to talk about the strategy, media, creative, personalization and all other functions vital to campaign success to ensure the whole team is speaking the same language and activating the same strategy. 

Establish a responsibility matrix and revisit it regularly

As you’re laying the groundwork for collaboration, formalize the ways you will leverage the strengths of each partner. A RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) document can help layout how each partner will contribute to a project’s tasks and deliverables, helping to define roles and responsibilities in a cross-functional way. It’s not uncommon for teams to have to work together to complete deliverables, but your RACI should ultimately establish who is accountable for each task. Revisit it at regular intervals on collaborative calls. 

Identify your cross-organizational point person

The job of your cross-organizational point person is to manage partner relationships and ensure everyone is communicating with each other as needed. This person can help to cross-pollinate knowledge among the teams and also serve as an escalation point when questions or conflicts arise. Ultimately, this person is an advocate for the advertiser who champions its best interests across the entire partner ecosystem. 

Involve creative in your operating plan

The absolute best results are achieved when creative is involved in initial strategic decisions. By laying this much-needed groundwork, you can ensure that any decision logic put in place on the media side is going to have the decision signals needed when it comes time to execute personalized creative. The result is increased personalization and fewer wasted impressions.

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