Media Musings from The Ward Group <4th Qtr 2018>

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Welcome to the latest edition of inWard, a quarterly e-newsletter with news, views, and insights from our little corner of the media world. We invite you to share with others and feel free to email us with feedback or ideas for future topics. We hope you enjoy taking a peek inWard!

The Media Agency Dating Game

With the explosion of digital advertising and the continued fragmentation of advertising channels, advertisers sometimes wonder how many agencies they will need to accomplish their marketing and advertising goals. It is becoming more common that agencies need to build partnerships to help assemble the “dream team” and ensure all bases are covered in the scope of services offered - creative, PR, traditional, digital, and more. The agencies proposing to these clients do not always have the talent or the bandwidth under one roof to fulfill these all-inclusive scopes. Read More

Chatbots: An Opportunity in Digital Advertising

One of the newest trends to infiltrate the digital marketing space is the use of chatbots, automated chat solutions driven by artificial intelligence or pre-drafted answers meant to proactively respond to common user questions in real time.

As users come to further expect and demand a personalized digital experience with instant gratification, many brands are finding themselves struggling to keep up with it all. When you think about the work required to craft a personal experience for every online user who interacts with your brand, it does begin to seem a bit daunting. Chatbots are designed to take some of the heavy lifting off your marketing shoulders by interacting with these users in a more automated way while still giving your brand a hint of personality that users crave. While chatbots are widely used in an organic setting, there are increasing opportunities to utilize the technology within paid media as well. Read More

Expanding the Circle of Excellence

Congratulations to Cortney DuPriest Matern, VP of Sales at Katz Radio Group, for receiving our 2018 Circle of Excellence Award! Cortney's professionalism and hard work in delivering results for our clients won her a place in the coveted Circle of Excellence.

“The Ward Group sees value in recognizing the outstanding efforts extended to us and our clients by our vendor partners. Too often companies allow the contributions of these individuals to go unnoticed or unappreciated," said Rob Enright, President of The Ward Group. "We feel like we have a much stronger partnership when we recognize the efforts of those outstanding individuals who partner with us all year long.”

After receiving the announcement of the award, Cortney stated in an email, “This is one of the best honors I have received in my career! I have always followed The Ward Group’s postings and have seen the pictures of the winner's lunch, and I am so excited to be a part of this awesome club!"

Each team member at The Ward Group is extended the opportunity to nominate a salesperson or vendor that has exceeded in all areas of service for the prior year. Criteria for nomination include extraordinary timeliness, follow through and initiative. Nominations are given to a special internal committee responsible for selecting the winner. The winner is then presented the prestigious Circle of Excellence Award at a luncheon held in their honor.

Rob Fabian, Cortney's manager at Katz Radio Group, attended the award luncheon with Cortney. "She is an extremely talented professional who cares deeply about her clients and customers. Cortney's speed, passion, devotion and dedication are unparalleled."

The Ward Group established this award in 1996 to recognize the efforts of our vendors who consistently go above and beyond the call of duty in helping serve our clients. So often, people in the service sector only hear from their clients when they are in need or if something is wrong. We try to be different by reinforcing positive characteristics, best practice behaviors and professionalism with our vendor partners in celebratory fashion.

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