AffinityX

CASE STUDY: CUMULUS MEDIA

Digital Marketing and Sales Enablement Services Turn Up Sales Volume For Radio Broadcaster

THE CLIENT

A leader in the radio broadcasting industry, Cumulus Media delivers premium content to 245 million people each week through 441 owned-and-operated stations broadcasting in 90 U.S. media markets (including eight of the top 10), approximately 8,000 broadcast radio stations affiliated with its Westwood One network and numerous digital channels.

Increase in Digital Revenue 2X Over The Previous Six Months

THE CHALLENGE

Many of Cumulus Media’s competitors had been deeply entrenched in the digital space, so Cumulus wanted to gain ground quickly to maintain its position in the marketplace. Previously, the company had spread its digital marketing services across vendors as part of its C-Suite Media solution, but the lack of a standardized system made the process chaotic and difficult to manage.

Some Cumulus territories already had relationships with demand side platforms (DSPs) for programmatic advertising. Washington DC was one of those markets, and Cumulus had clear expectations of what was needed to drive business success in this region — a sales management dashboard, campaign reporting, and significant attention to ad campaigns on the back-end. Cumulus also wanted transparency on how campaigns are optimized, meaning solutions for pay-per-click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) were essential.

CaseStudy

THE AFFINITYX SOLUTION

  • Suite of White-Label Services: With the AffinityX AudienceX platform, Cumulus can sell an array of digital marketing services such as programmatic advertising, HTML5 display creative, video, native, mobile, Google pay-per-click, Facebook and Instagram ads, and landing pages. Furthermore, AffinityX handles all digital media planning and buying, creative, trafficking, optimization and reporting for Cumulus.
  • Sales Enablement: AffinityX provides an ongoing sales training program, both in person and through virtual courses. A member of AffinityX’s field sales team is assigned to work with the Cumulus Washington DC sales reps, participate in joint sales calls and help achieve revenue goals, while a key account sales director contributes to larger, longer-term opportunities. Made-to-order proposals are generated by the AffinityX team. There is also a sales help desk available via Freshdesk to ensure fast answers are provided, day in and day out.
  • Cloud-Based Digital Marketing Hub: As part of the program, AffinityX provides Cumulus Washington DC with access to IDEA TitanTM, a comprehensive system for ordering, proofing and tracking digital services. It also serves as a central database to track the businesses that are pitched and store important information about them, streamlining future orders. The system also feeds the Sales Management Console, with in-depth sales and revenue reporting dashboards.

THE RESULT

In the first six months of working with AffinityX, Cumulus Media saw its digital revenue from the Washington DC market increase 2 times over the previous six months. The company is able to go to market with more digital services, including PPC and SEO, helping to expand its visibility and target new verticals for ad sales. AffinityX’s campaign metrics and optimization has also led to improved advertiser satisfaction and retention, while Cumulus has improved efficiency by centralizing operations with one order management system.

“AffinityX is the white label engine behind Cumulus. With AffinityX, we get a whole hierarchy of support, including access to the people doing the optimization and operating the dashboard and the IDEA Titan system for a complete, turnkey solution. We are selling to businesses we could not sell to before. We needed a full-blown PPC program and SEO, so I’m thrilled. These solutions paired with the great AffinityX delivery makes customers celebrate.”

Former Director of Digital Sales and Operations Cumulus
C-Suite Digital Solutions

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