RESOURCE PROMOTION AND DISTRIBUTION
A large tobacco company had determined that it needed to better align with society’s expectations in order to continue to conduct and grow its business. As a part of this strategic effort, a strategy to help reduce youth smoking was developed. This strategy was to work with experts in the field to produce information and tools that would help parents to talk to their kids about not smoking.
Triad Communication worked with a team of strategic and creative agencies and the client to implement the back end operations of this initiative. The plan identified the different tasks that needed to be completed by various agencies and when things needed to be done in order to get Television ads up and 800 number and web order forms live, and fulfillment of the information ready to flow in response to orders from parents.
The Triad Account Manager led a detailed plan review meeting to assure buy in from all the different players, some of whom were competitors with each other and made adjustments as necessary to obtain buy in and sign off from all parties and the client.
The key to success was to keep the many moving parts and various agency players on track. Weekly team calls were held to review status of the start up effort and discuss ways to address issues. Triad’s project manager was responsible for helping the different agencies focus their resources appropriately by reminding key players well in advance of their deliverable so that the weekly calls with the client present went more smoothly.
The business objective of the strategy was to deliver this initiative as scheduled. The project planning process up front enabled the many players to clearly see their role in the overall process and how various tasks were dependent on key items being done on time. This clear definition of tasks, roles, and deadlines is a part of the “Triad Way” of project management. The plan enabled for various agencies to “play well” with each other and reduced finger pointing to a minimum. By reducing friction, the initiative launched on time and the client was able to successfully execute their business strategy.
