Alexis Rosenberg on Empowering Women Within DISH and Across the Industry

Historically, sales has been more male dominated, but DISH is working to encourage diversity, both within the organization and in the greater media ecosystem. Rosenberg is among those working to drive that change. She devotes time and effort to the DISH Women's Network (DWN), a resource group that focuses on gender empowerment, mentoring, and advancement within the company.

DISH Women's Network

For the past four years, Rosenberg has led the DWN efforts in the Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York media offices. "It's a great way to help promote women into higher-level positions, as well as provide some leadership opportunities and resources to women and men in the office," she says. "It's also important for us to see a range of women in leadership roles and learn how they got started and how they're navigating their career journey." The DWN is part of a larger effort from DISH corporate headquarters, based out of Denver, on behalf of female employees.

The DWN hosts events every month within the company — some events feature business-focused speakers or group discussions, while other events include activities to raise money for charitable organizations or organize group initiatives to support causes such as breast cancer awareness and heart health awareness. "I think it's important to enjoy where you work and not just what you do," Rosenberg says. "So, having a supportive environment is vital." The DWN also helps inform DISH Media's industry presence. At the recent RampUp 2020, for example, DISH Media sponsored a luncheon that brought women across the industry together to network and share their personal and professional experiences.

The proof of the initiative's success is how the women who participate in the DWN feel about the company overall and its commitment to gender equality. "Sixty-one percent of the women in the DISH Women's Network say that it's one of their reasons for staying at DISH," Rosenberg confides. Retention and the feeling of being supported are two notable accomplishments of the initiative.

Direct Response Sales Women Network

Rosenberg is an active and avid promoter of female empowerment, both within and outside DISH. She runs a Direct Response Sales Women group that is dedicated to empowering women across the media industry in the sales space. "I do an annual event that is open to all women at all levels in direct response in the industry, and I've been doing that for the past seven years," she noted.

Direct response (DR) — called Performance within DISH Media — has gone through a great transformation in the digital age. Once restricted to immediate viewer response, this type of marketing now also includes what Rosenberg terms "hybrid DR based on cost per thousand and ratings in verticals such as insurance and telecommunications."

As much as it has evolved, the fundamentals of DR have stayed the same. "DR has always been about attribution," she says, "like cost-per-call monitoring and web visits to see how campaigns are working. Addressable is the next step — knowing that you are targeting the right people and then getting back to that attribution. We can measure it better on the backend." In many respects, addressable advertising has power-charged DR because of its hyper-targeting capabilities, making this facet of marketing more compelling and integrated into the overall marketing funnel.

"I am really proud of the work I've been doing [with Direct Response Sales Women] because it gets people together from all different network groups," Rosenberg says. It also helps women looking for new roles. Rosenberg makes an effort to invite women who have recently been laid off to the annual event so they can network. "The direct response industry is a close-knit industry. We all know each other. These are my friends and I want to help them," she adds.

Rosenberg offers sage advice for women who want to advance in their career, whether within DISH or with the industry at large. "Having a mentor is very important," she says. "I've had a lot of mentors in my career — unofficial mentors both here at DISH and at my previous jobs. Just having someone who you can ask for advice is so important and gets rid of that feeling of being alone in the industry." To me, Rosenberg herself is a mentor and a force for equality in the industry.

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