Willy Grant, director of digital for Great West Media in Alberta, Canada, has been named an Innovator of the Year by Local Media Association for her work leading sales and marketing teams to evolve and become better during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Each year, the Local Media Sales/Advertising/Marketing Innovator of the Year award recognizes local media executives who pioneer new concepts, experiment in new and creative ways, and deliver impactful results for their companies.
Grant is both director of digital for Great West Media and director of digital marketing for Great West Digital Agency. Great West, headquartered in St. Albert, owns a chain of news outlets, including regional newspapers, throughout Alberta.
Prior to joining Great West, Grant worked in multiple sales leadership roles, most recently advertising sales supervisor for Postmedia Network, Inc., in Edmonton. Postmedia operates the Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun and Edmonton Examiner among other media properties throughout Canada.
Grant also has led her team to enormous success with branded content and is the front runner in securing dozens of local advertiser contracts. She has been generous with her advice and shares her best practices with other media companies looking to achieve similar success. Grant’s innovative strategy has not only pushed her teams to new revenue highs, but the rest of the industry has benefited from her knowledge and success stories.
“We at LMA know Willy through LMA Digital Club. She has long been an excellent contributor to the club conversations, especially when sales execution is the topic,” said Jay Small, LMA chief operating officer. “But when we started doing weekly ‘brown-bag’ calls last April to discuss how club members’ companies were coping with and responding to the pandemic, that’s when we saw her entrepreneurial streak. It seemed like every week, Willy told us about a new program, or a new execution of an idea she had heard, and it always came with new revenue and satisfied customers.”
“This award is truly a reflection of all the hard work our team has done at Great West Media,” Grant said. “Difficult times challenge us to innovate, and our staff rose to that challenge admirably. During COVID-19, we have launched new products and developed new revenue streams network-wide that have helped us deliver great results for our customers. I am very fortunate to work alongside such a great team, and I look forward to what we can accomplish in the future as our momentum continues to grow. Through innovation, we will come through the other side of this pandemic stronger than we were before.”
This award is sponsored by AdMall.
You must be logged in to post a comment.