Sarah Dale has spent most of her career on the sales side of B2B publishing with ten years at The Wall Street Journal. There she was the VP of Digital and Content running WSJ Custom Studios, as well as strategy for all digital and content revenue. She’s credited with transforming WSJ’s Studio from a legacy print operation to a formidable competitor in the digital native space. In her tenure, the studio’s revenue quadrupled, renewals shot to the best in the industry and the team won many awards including a Cannes Lion, D&AD Pencils and many Tellys.
In 2016, she left the WSJ to begin her own successful consulting business, but after a year, couldn’t resist a Donut. She’s now Chief Commercial Officer for the Duplass Brothers’ creative shop, Donut, opening their new East Coast operations just this past January. She lives in northern Westchester “just where NY gets a little bit country” with her husband and two “very sassy” daughters and plans on getting chickens this Spring.
What video / television piece inspired you recently?
Amazon recently did a number of pieces for Echo that are brilliant. They tell a compelling story in 10 seconds that make you want to watch the next one — while getting across the product perfectly. They’re simple and incredibly creative.
What is most exciting for you at the moment within your industry?
I think that brands are starting to really understand they have to be authentic in order to be heard and seen. That’s going to produce much more interesting brand creative moving forward.
What is one thing the Telly Awards community should know about you?
I actively try to convince others that excessive swearing and overuse of analogies are signs of a higher intelligence.
What is a piece of work you are most proud to have worked on?
Cocainenomics for Netflix for many reasons, but most of all because it catapulted the team I ran at WSJ to a world-class studio. In its longer version, it’s really a story of an underdog team banding together with their unique talents to make a miracle happen. It also kicked off a two-year period of over 70 awards and almost 400% growth in revenue because of how that team operated from that moment on. So, I say I’m proud of the work – but I’m really proud of the team.
