Indigo: What's the Story?

Okay, so Indigo Trigger had their Lead-to-Cash Bash, and the big takeaway is apparently AI everywhere in media now. Hearst, Data Axle, the works. The claim? AI isn't an experiment, it's a "fully operational growth engine." That's a bold statement. Let's see if the numbers back it up.

Hearst is rebuilding its sales infrastructure around AI, which is interesting for a 137-year-old company. They're seeing gains in onboarding, sales confidence, and productivity with AI-powered cold-call simulators and coaching tools. But measurable gains… how measurable? The article doesn't quantify the size of these gains. Is it a 5% bump? A 50% revolution? Details remain scarce, but the implication is significant. The key phrase here is "cohesive sales-enablement hub." I'd want to see the before-and-after data on sales cycle times and conversion rates to truly gauge the impact.

AI's Impact on Audience and Operations

Then there's the claim that AI is supercharging audience targeting. Data Axle and Site Impact are using AI to predict which audiences will take action, with case studies showing boosts in reach, open rates, and click-through performance for travel and automotive advertisers. Again, we need numbers. What's the baseline performance before AI? What's the percentage increase after implementation? Without those figures, it's just marketing fluff. But if they can predict which audiences will take action, then why are not more details released about it?

The juiciest claim is around automation. Cox Media Group is supposedly reclaiming 20% of staff time previously spent on manual keyword review – that's one full workday per week, per employee. If that's accurate (and it's a big "if"), that's a massive efficiency gain. But what's the cost of implementing and maintaining these AI agents? Are those savings offset by new expenses in AI development and training? A true cost-benefit analysis is needed.

Brian Kennett from Star Tribune boldly claimed that “By leveraging agentic tools, Star Tribune will be able to do more in a month than we used to do in a year.” That's a 12x productivity increase. If true, that's not hypergrowth, it is ludicrously fast growth. But I'd want to see that broken down by specific tasks and departments. Where are they seeing the biggest gains, and where is AI falling short?

The Seattle Times is using AI copilots for lead scoring, outbound email generation, collateral retrieval, and ADA compliance checking. Capturing workflows via Scribe has helped reduce intimidation around AI adoption. This is interesting, but "reducing intimidation" isn't the same as boosting revenue or cutting costs. It's a soft metric. It’s a process change, not a financial one. Are they scoring higher quality leads and are they generating more revenue?

The Subscription and Revenue Angle

SMS reactivations are up 350%+ for the Spokane Spokesman-Review, thanks to a shift from email to SMS. That's a significant jump. But SMS is a much more direct and intrusive channel than email. Is that growth sustainable, or will subscribers eventually get annoyed and opt out? What is the churn rate associated with SMS reactivations compared to email?

Anchorage Daily News is treating payment operations as a core reader-revenue function, focusing on preventing declines, expirations, and failed transactions. This is smart. Payment friction is a major source of churn, and anything that reduces that friction will improve retention. But how much of a difference does it make? What's the percentage reduction in churn after optimizing payment processes?

Finally, Forum Communications and Vistar Media showed how Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) campaigns can expand audience-extension revenue. An electronics client saw a 25% lift in in-store sales and an 18% increase in search conversions during a 90-day test. (That's a pretty specific timeframe.) However, this is just one case study. Is this result replicable across different industries and demographics? What's the average ROI on DOOH campaigns compared to other advertising channels?

The claim that AI is no longer optional infrastructure, but the "connective tissue" of the next-generation media organization, enabling faster workflows, better decisions, higher profitability, lower operational risk, and more confident teams… it all sounds great on paper. But without hard numbers, it's just a sales pitch.

Show Me the ROI

Ultimately, the success of AI in media will depend on its ability to deliver a tangible return on investment. The Indigo Trigger Lead-to-Cash Bash presented a lot of promising anecdotes, but it lacked the rigorous data needed to prove that AI is truly a "fully operational growth engine." I've looked at hundreds of these reports, and the lack of specific ROI figures is a recurring theme. It's not enough to say that AI is "transforming" the industry. We need to see the numbers.