Behind the Screens: Meet Campaign Fulfillment Center Operations Manager Hannah Walker

Welcome back to ‘Behind the Screens,’ a monthly blog series in which we introduce members of our Cox Media team and share their stories.

This month, I was joined by Hannah Walker, CFC Manager, Operations. We discussed her path to leadership, the role of the Campaign Fulfillment Center in our business, and the advancements she is looking forward to in 2023.

Welcome to Behind the Screens, Hannah! Can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your background?

Sure, I’m Hannah Walker and I work as an Operations Manager in the Campaign Fulfillment Center (CFC) Operations department at Cox in Atlanta. I’m originally from a small town in northern California called Loleta. My first experience working in the media world was a local television group in the area. I came on to help them switch traffic systems to WideOrbit as a data entry clerk, which is when I worked with Novar (an operations system used at Cox) for the first time – that eventually played a part in me working at Cox later in my career.

After a few years there, I explored a variety of other career options. I worked for Petersen Tractor Company, which is a division of the Caterpillar Company, then in 2008, I moved out to Georgia with family. I was also a tour guide at the Georgia Aquarium for a time, which was a fun and unique experience.

In 2010 I got an opportunity to come on as a contractor at Cox. They were looking for someone with Novar experience, and it was my background at the television group when I was just 18 years old that got me in the door. I was brought on full time later that year, and my career just grew from there – working with mentors and leaders and moving up the ranks within the Campaign Fulfillment Center. In 2016 I became a leader, and this year was just promoted to an Operations Manager. It’s been a heck of a journey, but a lot of fun.

Congratulations on your promotion! You work in the Campaign Fulfillment Center, or “CFC,” which readers may not be familiar with. Can you give me some insight into what your department does for our business?

CFC stands for the Campaign Fulfillment Center – it’s essentially a centralized traffic center. Once advertising buys are made across any of our markets, all of the information then flows into the CFC. We do the behind the scenes work of making sure it’s fulfilled correctly from start to finish. We encode the media, ensure that the right creative is attached, and verify the ad airs. If there is an instance in which something doesn’t air, we help the market to make it good. We also monitor for technical issues and accept the payments from the clients. It’s a start to finish operation.

It truly sounds like it! So now that we understand your role, can you give me some examples of working with different teams in the organization?

Since I became an Operations leader, I saw an opportunity to bring my department and the fulfillment department together. Fulfillment processes orders, schedules spots, and creates final schedules, and then Operations loads and ultimately verifies those schedules. So leading team members on both sides has helped build connections across those departments. Because the CFC team handles billing, we work closely with the finance team. We work with the IPTV team for schedule loads/verifications, and with Digital Ad Ops team to support the month end billing process. I also often work with people out in the field both within Cox and at partner media groups, typically network engineers, to get insight into network outages and fiber cut issues.

We also work with our teams in Cox Media’s local markets very closely. Over time, we’ve built a reputation within the CFC that we are home base for a lot of institutional knowledge – and we’re happy to share it. I work closely with Sales Service leaders to help when they have questions, or odd scenarios pop up that they’ve not experienced. It’s been beneficial to foster those partnerships and friendships. I mean, I’ve worked with folks that are out in the markets for over a decade at this point.

At the time of this conversation, we are approaching the end of the year, which is a time for both reflection and looking forward. Is there something that you’re looking forward to for 2023 for Cox Media?

There were so many examples of collaboration and growth within the operations team this year. We see the digital team continue to grow as we work in that space. The IPTV team joining us brought a lot of new opportunities to learn which is awesome.

For next year, we are all looking forward to the completion of a project that will introduce a new traffic system. It is very exciting!  We know it will bring its own challenges – every system has a learning curve –but it is great to see the company continue to advance in the technology space. For my team, I’m also excited to see what opportunities we can give them in the new year, and how we can help them learn and grow and develop.

That is exciting! How do you think projects like this and IPTV will impact our clients?

I think the impact is going to be overall a net positive. The challenge when you launch new technologies is getting everyone up to speed and understanding how that new technology works. IPTV is a perfect example of that. There was a lot of emphasis on communicating the benefits to our customers, and how IPTV helps our advertising clients connect with those customers. And that is ultimately what our end goal is: to connect customers with the right products and technology to deliver the results they’re looking for.

It’s so true! Here’s my last question for you: if there is one other thing that you’d like clients to know, what would it be?

I would say that at Cox we don’t just talk the talk, we walk the walk. We have the most passionate, creative, and dedicated people in the right places. We equip our team with the products, technology they need to deliver superior results to our clients and make meaningful connections between our clients and their customers.

Thanks so much for talking with me, Hannah! We hope you enjoyed our conversation about how Cox Media’s emphasis on collaboration, and the investment we’re making in the future of our business.