Broadcasters and Video Service Operators are consistently asking themselves the same question: How can I reduce costs and increase revenue while causing the least amount of disruption to the organization?
In our industry, the ad tech inventory management systems are the financial systems of record for all advertising revenue within our customers’ operations. These systems are not replaced or changed indiscriminately, as the operational workflow is woven into the corporate fabric of their day-to-day operations. In addition, these systems can be expensive to operate, and our customers are always seeking ways to improve automation and cost efficiency.
For ad tech customers, the promise of a new future-state system upgrade, with full automation, unified linear and digital revenue management, and seamless multiplatform monetization can represent streamlined operations, lower cost of ownership, and new revenue growth. The vision is real, and it’s worth pursuing. But there can be a gap between that transformative destination and the potential disruption to a customer’s operations in implementing the change. And this gap is where most vendor relationships quietly fall apart.
This challenge is not new. I’ve long guided customers on how to close that gap. Not by dimming the vision, but by building a smarter path to it.
Customers don’t buy transformations. They buy results.
The media and broadcast industry has changed dramatically in the last decade. Consumer technology like apps, streaming services, and smartphones have conditioned all of us to expect frequent, incremental improvements, regardless of whether those updates are adding value to the end-user. But in an enterprise, customers still need something that consumer tech rarely must prove: measurable return on investment — and they expect it in a reasonable timeframe. Ad tech customers expect well-run transformations with vendor partners that they can trust to get the job done.
What I’ve seen time and again is this: a broadcaster or media company gets excited about the big transformation, the full platform overhaul, the end future-state where everything runs together seamlessly. But if the path to that vision requires three or four years of investment before they realize a meaningful return, organizations stall. Budgets get cut. Stakeholders lose confidence. And the transformation never achieves the full goal.
Our job isn’t just to help customers realize the vision. Our job is to help customers walk before they run, designing a path where each step delivers real, measurable value while building toward the larger goal. Ad tech inventory management systems are mission-critical applications. The first implementation must be well-planned and it must work. It must show ROI. Only then does the next step — and the one after that — earn the customer’s confidence.
Signing the contract is just the starting line
There’s a mindset that’s common in technology sales: success is achieved when the contract is signed. I understand where it comes from, but it’s exactly backwards. The moment the contract is signed is when our real accountability begins.
A broadcaster in the Asia-Pacific region is a clear example of what this looks like in practice. We worked with this customer on a big vision around automation, scheduling, and revenue growth. Rather than attempting everything at once, we started with a single, well-scoped implementation that would deliver clear short-term results and give their team confidence in the platform and the process. That first step worked. They realized the initial ROI. And from that foundation, they’ve continued to expand, adding capabilities as each stage demonstrates its value. That’s the model. Not because it’s the safe approach, but because it’s the one that delivers on the promise.
Customer success isn’t a milestone we reach at go-live. It’s confirmed when the customer says their revenue is growing, their operations run more smoothly, or their team is spending time on strategy instead of workarounds. Until we get there, the work isn’t done.
Solving the whole picture, not just our part of it
To achieve the full vision for the customer, it’s imperative to understand all the customer’s goals before you start talking about what we can solve. Because in almost every case, their goals cover monetization optimization, workflow bottlenecks, expanding revenue across new platforms, and more. It typically requires more than any single vendor can provide on their own.
The Imagine Ad Tech portfolio comprises a suite of products designed to work together to support not just the critical inventory management operation, but also ancillary areas such as sales, optimization, and ad insertion. However, the customer’s needs may go beyond the Imagine products. Therefore, it’s important to have an open approach to working with partner products in the ad tech ecosystem.
There’s a tendency in many industries for technology companies to behave as though opening their platform to partners dilutes their value. I think that’s fundamentally short-sighted. What actually dilutes your value is failing to help a customer achieve the most effective solution for their business.
At Imagine, we start every customer engagement from an open position. We map out what they’re trying to achieve, identify where our solutions fit, and actively work with technology partners to complete the picture. At times this means more complexity for our teams — more integration work, more coordination, more education of partners who are new to our systems. But the alternative is a customer who doesn’t achieve their goal, and that outcome benefits no one.
Trust is built in stages, not in a single moment
What ties all of this together is the way trust gets built. It’s not built at the point of sale. It’s not built at go-live. It’s built incrementally, the same way a well-designed solution is deployed: one stage at a time, with each step earning the credibility to take the next one.
Our customers depend on us with their most vital operation: their revenue generation and management. Especially in these transformative times in the ad tech industry. When we get the first implementation right, we create a relationship. The customer comes back. They bring us the next challenge. They ask what’s possible at the next level. That’s the partnership model this series has been describing — not a transactional vendor relationship, but an ongoing collaboration where the customer’s success is the shared goal.
That’s exactly why this approach matters: deliver value at every stage, keep the vision firmly in sight, and don’t stop until the customer tells you their world is measurably better. Value now. Vision always.
Imagine Executive Blog Series
Want to see where it all started? CEO Steve Reynolds outlines how Imagine changed its internal culture — strengthening responsiveness, accountability, and delivery discipline to rebuild customer trust.
