Building Your Dream Team

James Blasco, Daytona News Journal, and Rebecca Capparelli, GateHouse Media, share how their dream teams are finding success with goals and collaboration

Any session about building a dream team wouldn’t be complete without a mention to the original dream team – the 1992 U.S. basketball team. This iconic team clicked so well because they embodied four main characteristics:

• Driven to win
• Excited to be at the Summer Games
• Rallied behind a champion
• Knew the importance of working as a team

These are many of the same characteristics that a team that is devoted to promotions and interactive content for a media company needs to have.

For many media companies right now, there’s a struggle in creating cross-team collaboration. There are a lot of individual people trying to handle everything on their own, departments not working together, and the lack of a designated champion for promotions and interactive content.

The #secondstreetsummit Dream Team @Rebeccacappa pic.twitter.com/W0LCpjzly9

— Martin Jelinek (@mjelinek) June 6, 2016

So, how do you create your dream team? We heard from James Blasco and Rebecca Capparelli who shared their secrets to success from a local market strategy and a corporate wide strategy.

Form your dream team. Get their buy in from the beginning. Use their strengths. ??#secondstreetsummit @Rebeccacappa

— Sarah Sinclair (@sarahsin) June 6, 2016

James Blasco, the Digital Sales Manager from the Daytona News Journal, attributes all the paper’s success as a direct result of their digital promotions team. The entire team participates in weekly and bi-weekly meetings to brainstorm new ideas for advertisers.

During these team meetings, the Daytona News Journal talks about successful promotions and interactive content and brainstorms ways that idea can be used in another way. For instance, after the success of their “Top Doctors” contest, they created a similar contest featuring “Top Lawyers.”

To date, they have made over $120,000 in revenue directly from their promotions.

Rebecca Capparelli, the Executive Director of Promotions at GateHouse Media. As a corporate team that works with hundreds of properties in many markets, Rebecca was able to share how they are able to make this work. While many people might assume that the corporate promotions team is huge, there are really only three main roles:

• Executive Director of Promotions
• Promotions Marketing Manager
• Technical Support Coordinator

How GateHouse makes it work, focus and eye on the prize. #secondstreetsummit pic.twitter.com/CmDY8yaH42

— Martin Jelinek (@mjelinek) June 6, 2016

Rebecca puts a strong focus on making sure all of Gatehouse’s properties are creating omni-channel promotions involving every aspect their paper has to offer: online, in-print, social media, email, digital, and more.

Every promotion we execute is an omni channel approach. @Rebeccacappa #secondstreetsummit pic.twitter.com/KL0Xhx4JXR

— Second Street (@secondstreet) June 6, 2016

In addition, Rebecca’s team also creates many turnkey campaigns that can be used by all of their markets. With just a bit of quick customization, these turnkeys can work for any of GateHouse’s properties – not to mention it simplifies processes for the local markets as well.

Much like the success of the 1992 U.S. basketball team, Rebecca and James are both showing how having a dream team can make a big impact on your success. If you’re ready to create your own dream team, follow these steps:

• Designate a champion
• Create a cross-departmental team
• Assign clear roles and responsibilities
• Meet regularly with your team

Dream teams make six figures! #secondstreetsummit pic.twitter.com/Dfn7Nv5rvb

— Second Street (@secondstreet) June 6, 2016

Alignment across departments is imperative to generate maximum revenue. When you collaborate and realize every organization at your company can work together to create outstanding promotions and interactive content, you’ll set yourself up for long-term success.