Strategic Media was founded in the spring of 2000, offering clients like ZipRecruiter, Babbel, and VistaPrint, a direct response audio advertising model based on transparency and communication. The company cultivated a positive reputation for its ability to provide a precise look at how a brand’s ad spend changes from week to week.
Powered by a once-cutting edge, now outdated system named Wisdom SMI set itself apart from competitors with its rapport with clients and media management system.
As SMI led the charge embracing burgeoning audio formats like podcast and streaming, Wisdom simply couldn’t keep up.
Two-and-half decades later, Jeff would flip the proverbial lever on Stanley – Strategic Media’s proprietary operating system – beginning a new era for the company. Consolidating the processes of media buying, media management, creative management, analytics, and accounting into one system: Stanley.
Since its launch, Stanley has streamlined client workflows and internal operations, allowing the company to deliver a better product to clients.
Years in the making, the path to Stanley began with the hot spark of necessity and went through hundreds of hours of development before its launch earlier this year. This is the story of how Stanley came to be.
Building Stanley
Ben Siegel had been at SMI for more than half a decade before overseeing both the development and implementation of Stanley.”
“Wisdom just wasn’t working,” starts Ben, “and it got to the point where we couldn’t add any more data points with it getting slower and slower.”
While the idea for a new system had been around for years, Ben and his team officially started development on Stanley in September 2022.
For two years, Stanley was slowly pieced together, painstakingly tested, and re-tested to ensure everything worked. The process was long, tedious, and wrought with setbacks. One step forward would inevitably lead to a large leap back. Nearly every department spent time with Stanley, poring over every bug, feature, and potential pain point.
“Everybody thought I was crazy for flipping the switch.”
“The process is a tedious one,” adds Jeff, reflecting on the difficult task of building an operating system from the ground up. “It’s challenging… frustrating for the people building it and frustrating for those waiting for it to be built. I don’t think there’s much you can do to prepare people for those challenges ahead of time.”
Where most agencies typically rely on a combination of software and platforms to manage their products, Stanley provides stations, vendors, publishers, and internal teams at SMI with a one-stop shop for everything.
In 2024, SMI quietly switched systems from Wisdom to Stanley, kicking off a new era for the company. Jeff describes the atmosphere:
“Everybody thought I was crazy for flipping the switch,” laughs Jeff. “They probably still think I’m crazy, but we would not be done today had that switch not been flipped back then.”
The improvements were felt almost immediately.
“Lightning fast,” says Senior Media Buyer, Pam Wolgram. “Absolutely lightning fast.” Pam and her team spent countless hours on Wisdom, working on multiple computers to process information.
“We would select our stations and create our buys and then import those sheets into the system. When we’re working with 1500 to 2000 stations a week across all of our campaigns…it would take hours to send out insertion orders.” But with Stanley—seconds.
Alongside the time-saving element, Pam points out the long-term benefits of working with a streamlined system.
“With Stanley, vendors can go into their account and see everything they’ve been sent. They can either accept or decline—and if they’re declining it, they can tell us why.” This ease in communication allows Pam or someone on the Media team to negotiate the rate or align over future inventory.
“Really, that’s the piece that’s been missing for a long time,” adds Pam, “because we’re working with such a large number of stations and didn’t have an effective way for that communication to happen with Wisdom.”
Stanley has become a cornerstone of SMI’s operations, improving efficiency, reducing manual workloads, and empowering publishers with easy-to-access data. By all accounts, Stanley has transformed business at SMI.
Why Stanley?
As a student at the University of Maine, Jeff gravitated towards the school’s competitive swim team as a means to train his body while keeping his mind sharp.
“On any given day, I would probably spend four to six hours in the Stanley M. Wallace pool,” continues Jeff, “and when you’re spending that much time under the water, you can’t help but be in your head.”
The rigorous training schedule rooted a strong sense of determination into the then-teenager’s head that proved to last far beyond his college years.
“Stanley became a name synonymous with determination.”
The pool’s location, directly underneath a sign reading ‘Stanley M. Wallace Pool’ inadvertently planted the seed associating the name Stanley with success.
“With every other stroke, I’d lift my head out of the water to breathe and see that name up on the wall. Stanley became a name synonymous with determination.”
Jeff can’t help but marvel at the changes Stanley has brought about from within, and outside, the company. Because Stanley was devised and built within the walls of Strategic Media, clients are offered a bespoke experience they cannot receive with other agencies.
“Our teams and clients are working with a system that is, operationally, much smoother than before. Because it takes less time for data entry, their time is free to focus on negotiations, strategizing, and analysis. I’m pretty damn happy with Stanley right now.”
With Stanley now at the heart of Strategic Media’s operations, the company has seen remarkable improvements in efficiency and productivity. By drastically reducing the time required for tasks and empowering clients with easily accessible data, Stanley has transformed the way SMI does business. Another perk of working on an in-house system instead of leasing one externally? Money saved and re-invested in talent.
Strategic Media maintains that efficiency and improvement are always within arm’s reach. Stanley empowers employees to further refine their skills and talents, creating a culture of expertise. As SMI moves forward, Jeff remains optimistic about the potential for Stanley’s future developments, knowing that innovation is a continuous journey.
The operating system’s namesake, the Stanley M. Wallace pool, reminds Jeff of his determination and perseverance. Just as he pushed through swim practice, he—along with the rest of the Stanley team—led the charge in developing a system that could change the way ad agencies do business.
Learn how Strategic Media Inc. can elevate your brand’s voice with a direct-response audio advertising campaign managed by Stanley.