In 2024, Mail Metro Media underwent a digital transformation, evolving from a legacy media owner into a modern, cross-platform publisher, offering comprehensive, innovative ad solutions across social, video, and audio. Their Ad Ops team faced the challenge of adapting to this new landscape quickly and with limited resources.

As a team of six, they needed to seamlessly manage complex campaigns across various platforms, including standard display, video, commerce, social ads, and Apple News. This highly competitive environment demands cutting-edge solutions and processes to stay ahead, and their team has risen to that challenge by redefining their roles.

Across their news brands they collectively reached over 35 million TikTok followers, 14 million on Snapchat, and 25 million on Meta, leading to the launch of their EDITS social video product. Producing social-first video ads that are delivered at speed and scale, Ad Ops had to quickly become absolute experts in social video and content distribution.

2024 also saw the launch of Daily Mail’s Global Video Studio, producing YouTube shows that their advertisers can partner on and demanding Ad Ops add yet another string to its bow by mastering the YouTube Partner Programme.

Mail Metro Media’s cross-platform expansion also saw us move into audio, launching a lucrative podcast business that racked up more than 30 million listens last year. Ad Ops had to be able to seamlessly integrate audio ads and host reads into a variety of award-winning shows, each with a unique production style and audience.

If the new platforms, formats, and demands were not enough, they also began premiumising their domains and apps, launching new ad products for the sales teams overlayed with 1,000s of data segments to improve performance – all of which are managed by Ad Ops. This required year-long delivery of new processes, training, and expertise across the team at an unprecedented scale. Their success permeated the business, impressing and inspiring colleagues across departments.

Mail Metro Media’s world-beating Ads Ops unit smashed expectations:

• Executed 3,000+ campaigns with 14,000+ line items, worth over £5 million, across five websites
• Delivered brand-safe environments through the creation of 65+ custom brand-safety segments
• Successfully onboarding social distribution across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, to deliver visionary new ad formats seamlessly
• Developed expertise in Private Marketplaces (PMPs) and Programmatic Guaranteed (PG) deals, optimising campaigns for maximum ROI
• Took up and successfully managed their YouTube Partner Programme (YPP)
• Launched their podcast ad business, managing audio campaigns for 10 advertisers worth nearly £1 million
• Upskilled to execute more than 200 Apple News campaigns with over 600 million impressions
• Launched the EDITS social video product, testing formats across devices to ensure seamless delivery for more than 30 advertisers and helping to generate £1.5 million+ in revenue

Campaigns run and optimised by this enhanced team deliver stress-free business outcomes daily. And as Mail Metro Media have evolved from traditional publisher to modern, omnichannel content producer, Ad Ops has raised the bar by redefining its role to navigate a constantly evolving digital landscape.

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