WarnerMedia - Sales Operations Professional of the Year
Company: WarnerMedia
Entry Submitted By: Xander
Company Description: WarnerMedia is a leading media and entertainment company that creates and distributes premium and popular content from a diverse array of talented storytellers and journalists to global audiences through its consumer brands including: HBO, HBO Max, Warner Bros., TNT, TBS, truTV, CNN, DC Entertainment, New Line, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Turner Classic Movies and others.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Individual Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Sales Operations Professional of the Year
Nomination Title: Amy Leifer, Executive Vice President, Operations and Services
Amy Leifer is a 20+ year sales and operations veteran in the telecommunications space, where she brainstormed new ad sales strategies and helped launch emerging networks for leaders in the cable and satellite industry. She began her career in telecom at Columbia Tri-Star Television selling syndications for shows like "Seinfeld" and "Mad About You". However, when her boss asked her to brainstorm a strategy to launch ad sales for DIRECTV she scribbled her ideas on the back of a napkin that night and presented them the next morning. Her team won the business therafter, and that career defining moment taught her a valuable lesson that sealed her success and posed her to be an industry leader--knowing a product inside and out, being able to adap and set measurable goals are the key factors for a successful career.
Now, as an industry leader in advancec TV and one of WarnerMedia's top executives, Amy acts as the nucleus that combines all sales efforts, research and analytics, product marketing and back-end reporting. Amy and team support WarnerMedia's sales teams and evangelize the unique data, measurement and attribution capabilities, underscoring AT&T's presence as a one-stop shop for premium TV and video inventory.
Outline the nominee's achievements since July 1 2019 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Amy's experience in both sales and operations was invaluable for WarnerMedia and Xandr over the last year. The company relied on Amy's 20+ years of experience, tasking her with unifying legacy Xandr Media and AppNexus services teams to drive operational success across Xandr's business units. By seamlessly integrating both Xandr Media and AppNexus teams, Amy paved the way for Xandr's roll-out of three tentpole products in 2019: Community, Xandr Invest and Xandr Monetize.
Community, which launched in 2019, is a curated marketplace of publishers that enables advertisers to reach their audience at scale in a brand-safe, privacy-protected, premium video environment. Only one month later, Xandr introduced its strategic buying platform, Xandr Invest, followed by its reimagined strategic selling platform, Xandr Monetize, in September 2019.
As Xandr introduced these products to the advertising technology marketplace, Amy made sure her teams were well-versed in the nuances of each platform in order to deliver best in class service to Xandr's clients. Amy drove operation success and processes, while continuing to drive yield optimization across Xandr's vast and diverse sales and operations teams. This resulted in a sizable growth in revenue for Xandr in 2019. In Q4 of 2019, Xandr total revenues were $607 million, up 7.2% year-over-year due in part to Amy's efforts to support the sales teams and grow the advertising business.
Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):
As Amy looks ahead, her focus will be to build a best-in-class service organization that is laser focused on WarnerMedia and Xandr's customer success. She will do this by leveraging data, inventory and platform to drive revenue and business outcomes for her clients, all while maintaining operational efficiency and collaboration.
Amy will also continue to uphold Xandr's goal to "Make Advertising Better" by leading her sales teams as they focus on helping buyers achieve better results by advertising to people, not devices, and keeping relevance at the forefront of each ad buy. Additionally, Amy will continue to think up new possibilities to make the largest household addressable advertising TV platform even better, while simultaneously anchoring the media sales team with her breadth of operational know-how.
Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
See: https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/jean-paul-colaco-warnermedia-advertising-sales-hbo-max-1234797709/