In this exclusive we cover:

👉What advertising operations is in a media company
👉What Isabel does in a day
👉How Isabel built, planned and executed Apple’s Series 7 Watch Campaign across 9Now videos
👉Entry level pathways for marketers in a media company

2. Transitioning into work, what the heck does a Digital Campaign Manager @ Nine do?

How is the advertising operations function structured? 

The department I work in is the Advertising Operations Department. Companies come to Nine’s sales team and pay to run ads on our digital platforms. In short, the ad ops team is responsible for bringing these ads to life.

My title specifically is a Digital and Publishing Campaign Manager and I am accountable for end-to-end campaign management with tasks that include:

• Supporting my Sales Team to secure future briefs
• Approving insertion orders – approving requests for ads from external companies
• Building and testing all campaign creatives to ensure they meet Nines’ Advertising specifications

Coming from a background as a marketer it’s fascinating to be working in a more hands-on role, where the focus is on planning, building, executing and reporting on the delivery of Nine’s premium guaranteed video and display campaigns.

The core responsibility of the Campaign Manager is to maintain the highest level of project management by liaising with stakeholders (Sales, Advertising Tech Team) to drive successful campaign delivery outcomes. 

What does your role entail?

My role is a diverse and high attention to detail role that involves collaborating and working closely with my Sales Teams to ensure all upcoming, live and finished advertising campaigns perform effectively.

I have learnt how to use third-party applications such as Google Ad Manager, Xandr, PIO and many more to help provide campaign reporting insights, data analysis and recommendations to promote revenue growth. We also use these applications for checking inventory, booking in campaigns and traffic and testing creative to ensure it meets Nine and IAB Australian Standards. 

On a day to day basis, I’m constantly working closely with Sales in media planning to gather deliverables for campaigns to help optimise and improve the results. These improvements could be:

• Adding audience segments
• Opening up the number of people our campaign reaches 
• Changing an impression goal to ensure campaigns deliver in full

You have the chance to work with different clients from technology companies to lifestyle to high fashion brands. It’s a role that involves effective communication and strong project management skills because you could be managing up to 50 advertising campaigns at once.

3. What’s an example of a campaign that you’ve worked on and what was your role in bringing it to life?

Campaign Name: Apple Watch Series 7 Campaign 

What was it?

It was a big budget video advertising campaign from Apple called ‘911’ showcasing the power of the Apple Watch S7 as a life-saving device in a real life emergency scenario.

What was your role?

I was in charge of building the video creative on Channel Nine’s 9Now platform as a pre-roll video that would play before a TV Show starts. Sales provides me the video creative and I have to test the creative tags to ensure it meets Nine’s Ad Specifications. 

This campaign ran for a month and I used Google Ad Manager to track the performance of the campaign, optimising where needed and ensuring that this video received high levels of engagement. Optimisations include (1) increasing the pacing of a campaign or (2) adding/removing targeting to increase the number of people our video reaches. You can pick up on a lot of key learnings from advertising campaigns particularly about our Nine audiences.

4. For young people curious about a career in marketing within the media industry, what do the entry level pathways look like?

1 – Getting an internship in a related industry

The media industry is always looking for new talent, particularly individuals who are outspoken and put themselves out there! The media industry seems to be looking for students who have done at least 1 year’s worth of work experience, I’d advise completing 1-2 internships at a marketing/media/sales company. It’s all about emailing companies you’re interested in and speaking to different people on Linkedin or at your university to learn from their experiences and take action in your career. 

2 – Taking whatever roles comes up

I believe that coming from a marketing role at Apple into this new role as a Digital Campaign Manager has taught me a lot about how to create effective marketing/advertising campaigns and find new strategies to reach larger audiences. I was able to see how things work in the back end here at Nine as I am building the display and video ads into our platform. 

Subsequently, it makes me a better marketer in the future because I get to see how different aspects of the creative process work from briefing to building. I’d advise students to take a chance on roles that they think they may not like because you may surprise yourself and no matter where you are in your career new skills are the key to unlocking new opportunities and building confidence.

5. What’s one thing you recommend a student who’s curious about becoming a marketer do right now?

1 – Use Linkedin for research!

I’d recommend students to go onto Linkedin, research companies you’re interested in and find people who are in jobs that you’d think you’d like to work in someday. Look at (1) their journey (2) what degree did they study? (3) What was their first role? Remember it never hurts to reach out to other students too who are in positions you’d like to work in. 

I remember I was contacted by another intern working at Apple in America in 2021 and we had a zoom call to share our experiences at Apple and she asked for advice on landing a position with the company.  I enjoyed finding out about her role and speaking about where our careers were heading.

Forming new connections is super important when finding marketing jobs, you just might meet the right individual who could shed some light on a new upcoming opportunity at their company. It’s incredible what you can learn from other students around you because everyone is in the same boat. 

Bonus Tip

Another tip I have is if you’re currently working in a casual, part-time or full-time role at a company that has a wide range of different work teams. Find the best person to speak to in the company and voice your interest in working at the organisation’s marketing department.