CASE STUDY: ASSET COORDINATION
1. Content curation:
Many years ago, when I was in charge of content programming on the site USC ALUMNI CLUB, I would seek out merchandising partners who wanted to feature their products alongside editorial content we would feature on the website. One sponsor in particular, EASTON was granted a full take over of the ALUMNI LEAGUE SOFTBALL SIGN-UP pages and we pushed their name everywhere we got the chance, simply to showcase them as a model for how we could "help your business". Once we had a sample, we started to grow the program and were noticed by the management at USC ALUMNI HOUSE. They featured their WINE PROGRAM alongside our TRIP TO SANTA BARBARA WINE COUNTRY sign up page and we drove a large amount of traffic to their program.
2. CMS, MAM, metadata or tagging content:
From 2010 to 2018, I was in charge of ensuring that all content being stored for retrieval at ad agency BLT COMMUNICATIONS could be found. We called it "future-proof the content" and it showcased an extensive array of technologies which included metatagging and injecting pre-populated data into content headers and database tables. The content management system was a home brew built from software most people have just laying around. Disk Tracker, was my preferred utility for managing hundreds of hard drives. We know that if you are looking for THIS, you are also probably looking for THAT. Associative tracking is something I pride myself in successfully deploying.
3. Merchandising:
While I have not worked in television mechandising, I understand the fundamentals that govern how products are selected to run alongside content features, based on my experience with TONIGHT IS FREE (a site for suggesting underground dance events). This principle -- if you're looking for THIS you might also be interested in THAT -- has been deployed on that site as well. Additionally, the aforementioned examples of pushing EASTON and the USC WINE PROGRAM are examples of using these associative pairing methodologies to push merchandise traffic from one search toward another category that the user may not be fully aware exists.
