Building the Operating Model Behind Monetization at Scale

Context

At the dawn of Web 2.0, the internet was still the wild, wild west. Most blue-chip advertisers wouldn’t touch it. Too risky. Or too much hassle. Or not where their audience was. Or all of the above.

It was in this environment that AOL made its move. A total 180. Go from subscriptions and paid content to an advertising-led business model.

The potential was there (operational scale, heavily trafficked sites, and valuable user data) and so were the hurdles (dated legacy systems, a siloed organizational structure, and skeptical brand advertisers).

My Role

I joined as a consultant, moved on-staff, and earned promotions as my responsibilities grew - ultimately serving as Program Director. The consistent mandate throughout: help make AOL’s idea for an ad-revenue model work in the real world. That meant turning market needs into internal action, aligning efforts beyond my direct purview, and giving people across the entire organization better systems, better information, and better ways to make business decisions.

What I Did

Standardization: we ensured that all sellable products fully met customer needs, were internally compatible, and exceeded industry standards.

Outreach: we regularly consulted with internal and external partners to understand their goals, opportunities, challenges and needs.

Discipline: we developed frameworks for sales, yield, forecasting, packaging, governance, systems rollout, acquisition integration, and internal decision-making.

Results

An immediate $29.2M in direct and $125.0M in indirect, incremental, annual revenue driven by the initial systems and standards we built around high-value inventory.

First-time category wins and ever-larger commitments from blue-chip advertisers including Disney, P&G, Unilever, Apple, Intel, Toyota, American Express, and Johnson & Johnson, thanks to improved clarity of mission, operational transparency, company-wide standards and systems innovations.

Overall, we optimized 10,000+ sellable products while revenue grew to $500M+ in annualized sales.

Impact

This is where I learned to build trust and consensus across a large, complex organization. From individual contributors to the C-suite. From Sales to Ops to Editorial and beyond. The sort of trust and consensus required for large, complex organizations to embrace and implement dramatic, sustainable, positive change.

My efforts and our successes were recognized with the company’s highest honor: AOL’s President’s Award for Distinguished Performance.