Affiliate Sales Person of the Year (Below VP Level)

For McKnight, it’s all about the details. And she has to keep track of a lot of them, considering that she works with more than 150 small distributors who represent 320K subs in the northwest and mid-Atlantic regions. That requires plenty of travel, and an eye for customizing affiliate marketing opportunities and local events. She has driven renewals of regional sports nets worth more than $3.2mln, and her work with Sprout has garnered more than $100K while global deals have reached approx $775K. In addition, McKnight has helped collect more than $200K in delinquent fees—and we’re sure she does it with a smile. Even more incredible is that McKnight has won these battles amid a challenging year that included an unusually large number of contract expirations, including several accounts that had previously been quite difficult to close. She was new to the territory, leaving little time to break the ice with clients before launching right into renewal negotiations that involved rate increases. Despite that, she closed all of her RSN renewals and 89% of her global renewals. On top of all that, McKnight was also integral to the successful rollout of NBCU’s Olympics across TV Everywhere platforms. We’re impressed. And we can’t wait to see what’s next for this capable exec as she moves up the ranks in the years ahead.

 

Nakano’s ability to find new value is becoming quite well known within Scripps, with the company assigning a whopping 528% ROI to his activities in ’12. That’s partly because of his ability to work ad-sales benefits into his affiliate negotiations, most notably with major client DISH recently.