In November 2015, Mediaocean was awarded three Stevie Awards for Women in Business in the Internal Communications and Community Involvement Categories. Below are three submissions that were granted the award.
Internal Communications - The Connect & Knowledge Series (Awarded Gold Stevie)
In March 2014, Mediaocean introduced the Knowledge Series as a way to foster communication, education, and cross-functional collaboration within the organization. With six different platforms across the entire media spectrum – TV, Print, Radio, Outdoors, Digital - Mediaocean needed to ensure that its 800 global employees were knowledgeable on the latest industry trends. This is a pressing issue for Mediaocean, as most of its employees focus on a specific media type. So the Knowledge Series was developed to ensure the staff has a holistic understanding of the advertising industry, versus vertical expertise.
But that vertical expertise is what drives the Knowledge Series. The monthly program taps into company subject matter experts to educate colleagues on key topics. Whether the latest update on TV ratings or digital fraud, the events are attended live by 100-150 employees in our NY Headquarters, and recorded and posted on the intranet for on-demand viewing. On average each session reaches 45% of the staff globally, who receive an email and survey requesting feedback and content suggestions. The program has been a complete success, with over 85% of employees rating each event “Very Good” or “Excellent”. Given the positive response, the Knowledge Series is now also run from London, Mediaocean’s second largest office.
After seeing the success of the Knowledge Series, Mediaocean created the spin-off Connect Series. Hosted in Mediaocean’s NY and London offices, the Connect series kicked off in September 2014 with the goal of educating and engaging the advertising industry at large. These events also give Mediaocean employees a chance to connect with clients and partners in a more meaningful way, and learn from thought leaders outside the company.
The inaugural Connect Series event received an overwhelming positive response from industry leaders. The initial event saw 200 clients, partners, and press in attendance, with subsequent events growing to almost 300 attendees from the industry. Topics have included the future of TV, programmatic advertising, and the evolution of radio, featuring companies like ABC, Deutsch, Carat, Spotify, Yahoo, and more. A special Connect Series edition was even held at CES, featuring industry titan Irwin Gotlieb, Global Chairman GrouopM, and was one of the most widely attended sessions with 300+ in the audience.
Planning a Connect Series begins with selecting an issue that is critical for the advertising community, and then identifying the experts that represent different point of views – from agencies to publishers to adtech companies. Once panelists have accepted, a prep call is set up to outline the discussion, and outreach to drive attendance begins. Social media, email marketing, and paid promotions, are used to drive external attendance, while promotions on office screens and employee invitations are used to promote the event internally. To extend the reach of the events, the sessions are recorded and shared via Youtube for everyone who couldn’t attend in person. The sessions have been so popular that email subscriptions have increased by 25%.
The goal of both the Connect and Knowledge Series is to create a space for dialogue of industry trends and provide our employees with the opportunity to expand their knowledge and network within the industry – both have grown to be fantastic successes.
Community Involvement - Women in Tech Program (Awarded Silver Stevie)
The Women in Tech initiative stemmed from an internal diversity survey conducted by CEO, Bill Wise, and SVP of Global Marketing, Maria Pousa. This survey found that 36 percent of jobs at Mediaocean were held by women, sparking a conversation about why Mediaocean was such a great place to work for women. It was clear from these initial conversations that this topic was important to the company and the industry. Furthermore, spreading the word would benefit Mediaocean from a recruitment standpoint, and the Women in Tech initiative was born.
Acknowledging that change first happens internally, Mediaocean held a Knowledge Series – an internal session where thought-leaders from the company are invited to discuss products and the future of Mediaocean – and invited the female leaders at the company to share their experiences as women in leadership roles. Employees were invited to join the conversation and have an open and frank discussion – to ask questions and learn from these senior leaders. It was evident that employees as a whole wanted to be involved, so Mediaocean invited anyone interested to participate in a brainstorm to discuss how the company could get involved and create positive change for women in the tech industry.
The response to this call to arms was amazing, and many of the ideas implemented came directly from employees, such as mentoring, school visits, and a STEM volunteer day, which allows employees to take an extra PTO day and volunteer to support STEM in the local community.
Kicking off the public announcement of the Women in Tech initiative, Mediaocean hosted a panel around the topic of diversity in technology at Internet Week in New York. Moderated by Maria Pousa, the panel consisted of female leaders from media, startup, education and design industries and was one of the most well attended panels of the week-long event – it was standing room only with 300+ attendees! Another important piece of the initiative was launched at this event, with Maria announcing Mediaocean’s inaugural Women in Tech Scholarship Fund.
The scholarship fund was specifically created to provide support for young women studying STEM, or women looking to advance their education mid-career. Acknowledging that financial support is a crucial piece of the puzzle, Mediaocean pledged three $25,000 scholarships to women pursuing undergraduate and graduate STEM degrees.
A website was built for the initiative where applicants could submit a sixty second video to share their dream careers in tech. The response from the tech community was astounding, with industry influencers sharing the scholarship with their networks – 40% of company Twitter mentions during this timeframe were about Women in Tech. Out of the 80+ submissions, the Internet Week panelists chose 10 semifinalists. From the semifinalists, winners were chosen via a public vote online, which brought in 80,000+ votes from the community. After a week of intense voting, three winners were chosen – their videos can be viewed here: http://wit.mediaocean.com/.
Wrapping up the initiative for the year, Mediaocean will be hosting another panel in October, inviting women who have had successful careers in technology to speak on their personal experiences in the tech industry and provide advice for students and those entering the workforce.
Internal Communications - Brand Ambassador Program (Awarded Bronze Stevie)
After a full rebrand of the company in February 2014, Mediaocean needed a way to bring employees closer and effectively spread the message of the new brand to a large, global audience. The brand ambassador program was then born, as a way to encourage the growth of corporate culture and spread a cohesive brand message organically.
Launched in July 2014, the Brand Ambassador program was developed to turn employees into advocates and educators of the company’s brand values and messages to both their peers and the industry. A questionnaire was distributed digitally, asking staff members to answer aspirational, inspirational, and practical questions about Mediaocean. Questions were based off the company’s new brand values, which include passion, initiative, giving back, and having fun, to drive home the message about the importance of the company’s desire to evolve its culture.
The Mediaocean leadership team then picked 12 brand ambassadors based on their responses, which were evaluated based on their passion for the company, willingness to get involved, and drive organizational change. The first Brand Ambassador kick off meeting featured a roundtable discussion with our CEO, Bill Wise, and SVP of Marketing Maria Pousa, to discuss the importance of the program and provide encouragement and support to those involved. Executive buy-in is crucial for the success of programs like these, and the CEO’s support served to emphasize the objectives. This meeting was followed by a brainstorm to discuss what the brand ambassadors wanted to achieve – from this session, three main goals were identified and the brand ambassadors were broken up into committees – each responsible for tackling a specific goal.
The committees were focused on creating more events for employees to network, breaking down the barriers within the company (which still had divisions between employees of Donovan Data Systems and MediaBank, the two companies that merged to form Mediaocean), and improving communication amongst employees. To further ensure success, each committee has an executive sponsor who oversees tasks and ensures executive buy-in for proposed initiatives. These committees have been a major success, and have driven many initiatives that improve communications, employee morale, and drive home Mediaocean’s corporate brand message.
Among these successes are a buddy system for new hires, a job-shadowing program, and a printed quarterly newsletter, focused on employee culture. The brand ambassadors also organize events that bring employees together, like happy hours.
Lastly, the brand ambassadors have been the first employees to be featured in Mediaocean’s “Spotlight On” series. “Spotlight On” is a series of employee profiles that provides insight into Mediaocean’s culture for the industry and potential employees. The Spotlight On profiles are among the most popular on the blog, generating 800+ views each time a profile is published.
The program itself has been a great success, and is now nearing its one year anniversary. There has been immense interest in those outside the program to participate, and we have plans to open the program to more employees soon.