Campaigns Dashboard

Location: /Dashboard/Campaigns/Default.aspx

Navigation: From the main Dashboard, click the "Campaigns" link in the navigation menu. The page is accessible to all staff users with project management permissions.

Overview

The Campaigns Dashboard is a specialized management interface designed to organize, track, and analyze marketing campaigns across the enterprise. A campaign represents a coordinated marketing initiative that typically spans multiple individual projects, artworks, and deliverables tied to a specific client objective, product launch, seasonal promotion, or brand initiative.

This dashboard provides a hierarchical view of campaigns organized by client structure, enabling users to see all campaigns for a corporation, division, brand, or individual marketer. When a campaign is selected, the system displays all associated projects with detailed breakdowns of time spent across work categories (Design, Project Management, Strategy, and Fixed Costs), along with both hours and dollar amounts.

The Campaigns Dashboard serves as the primary tool for campaign-level budget tracking, resource allocation visibility, and multi-project coordination.

Business Value

Why Does This Matter to the Company?

1. Strategic Initiative Tracking - Marketing campaigns often involve multiple related projects that share a common business objective. Without campaign-level tracking, organizations struggle to understand the true cost and effort invested in strategic initiatives. The Campaigns Dashboard aggregates project data to provide accurate campaign-level visibility.
2. Budget Control at the Initiative Level - Individual project tracking alone cannot reveal whether a campaign is on track financially. The dashboard's campaign bid feature allows teams to set approved budget amounts and monitor actual spending against those targets across all campaign projects simultaneously.
3. Resource Allocation Intelligence - By displaying hours broken down by work category (Design, PM, Strategy, Fixed Costs), the dashboard helps managers understand how effort is distributed across a campaign. This enables identification of campaigns requiring additional creative support versus those needing more project management attention.
4. Client Portfolio Management - The hierarchical client organization (Corporation, Business Group, Division, Business Unit, Marketer) allows account managers to view campaigns at any level of the client relationship, supporting both tactical project discussions and strategic account planning conversations.
5. Historical Initiative Analysis - The ability to view both active and inactive campaigns provides historical context for future planning. Teams can reference past campaign performance when scoping similar future initiatives.

Business Benefits

For Project Managers

• Multi-Project Coordination: View all projects within a campaign simultaneously, understanding dependencies and resource demands
• Status Visibility: Each project displays its current status, allowing quick identification of items requiring attention
• Direct Navigation: One-click access to individual project details for any campaign project
• Personal Campaign Focus: Default filter shows campaigns owned by the logged-in user, prioritizing personal responsibilities

For Account Managers

• Client-Centric Views: Filter campaigns by client hierarchy to prepare for client meetings or reviews
• Budget Monitoring: Campaign bid amounts with approved estimate totals provide instant budget status
• Activity Distribution: Percentage breakdowns (PM % and Design %) show the planned allocation of effort
• Campaign Lifecycle Management: Activate or deactivate campaigns as business needs change

For Creative Directors and Design Leads

• Design Hour Tracking: See total design hours invested across all campaign projects
• Resource Planning: Compare design hours across campaigns to balance workload
• Dollar Value Visibility: Understand the financial value of creative effort at the campaign level

For Finance and Operations

• Dollar Rollup by Category: View aggregated dollar amounts across Design, PM, Strategy, and Fixed Costs
• Budget vs. Actual: Compare approved campaign estimates against actual tracked time and costs
• Multi-Project Financial Summary: Single view of financial data spanning multiple related projects

For Leadership

• Strategic Initiative Health: Quick assessment of campaign budget and resource status
• Employee Workload Analysis: Filter by employee to understand individual campaign responsibilities
• Portfolio Analysis: View all campaigns for specific client segments or corporate relationships

Usage Scenarios

Scenario 1: Campaign Budget Review

A project manager receives notice that their summer product launch campaign budget is under review. They navigate to the Campaigns Dashboard, select their name from the employee filter, and locate the campaign. The dashboard displays the approved estimate amount along with actual hours and dollars spent across all projects. The PM can immediately see whether the campaign is tracking within budget and identify which projects are consuming the most resources.

Scenario 2: Client Account Planning

An account manager prepares for a quarterly business review with a major client. Using the client dropdown filter, they select the specific corporation. The dashboard displays all active campaigns for that client, organized by their internal structure (divisions, brands, marketers). The account manager reviews campaign status, identifies any campaigns approaching budget limits, and notes which campaigns have recently completed for inclusion in the review presentation.

Scenario 3: Resource Allocation Decision

A creative director needs to assign a senior designer to a campaign but wants to understand current campaign workloads. Filtering by employee, they review each team member's campaign assignments, noting the design hours allocated to each. By comparing design hour totals across campaigns, they can make an informed decision about which team member has capacity for the new assignment.

Scenario 4: Campaign Transition Management

A project lead is leaving the organization and their campaigns need reassignment. The manager filters by the departing employee's name to see all their active campaigns. For each campaign, they review the associated projects, status, and remaining work. The manager can then reassign ownership and ensure continuity of campaign delivery.

Scenario 5: Historical Campaign Analysis

Marketing leadership wants to understand the typical resource investment for product launch campaigns. Using the "Active campaigns only" checkbox toggle (unchecked), they can view all historical campaigns. Comparing similar campaigns from the past helps establish benchmarks for budgeting and resource planning on future initiatives.

Scenario 6: New Campaign Setup

When creating a new project, a user needs to associate it with an existing campaign or create a new one. From the Campaigns Dashboard, they can review existing campaigns for the client, verify the appropriate campaign exists, and note its identifier. If no suitable campaign exists, they can create a new campaign during the project creation process, which will then appear in the Campaigns Dashboard.

Industry Context

How Similar Functionality is Used Across Industries

Campaign Management Concept

Campaign-level project grouping is standard practice across marketing, advertising, creative services, and brand management industries. Organizations recognize that individual project tracking alone provides insufficient visibility into strategic initiative performance.

Common Industry Applications

1. Advertising Agencies: Group creative projects by campaign to track total client investment in brand campaigns, product launches, or seasonal promotions. Campaign tracking enables accurate client billing and profitability analysis.
2. Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Companies: Internal marketing teams use campaign tracking to manage packaging refreshes, new product introductions, and promotional initiatives that span multiple SKUs and artwork variants.
3. Retail Marketing: Seasonal campaigns (Back-to-School, Holiday, Spring Collection) encompass multiple creative projects. Campaign-level tracking ensures these time-bound initiatives stay within budget.
4. Brand Management: Brand managers track initiatives at the campaign level to understand marketing investment by brand, product line, or market segment.
5. Agency-Client Relationships: Campaigns often correspond to client purchase orders or statements of work, making campaign-level financial tracking essential for billing accuracy.

Industry Best Practices Implemented

• Hierarchical Organization: Campaigns organized by client hierarchy mirrors how agencies and brand teams structure their work
• Budget Baseline: Campaign bid with approved estimate establishes baseline for variance tracking
• Activity Category Tracking: Separating hours and costs by work type (Creative, PM, Strategy) follows agency accounting practices
• Owner Assignment: Each campaign has an assigned owner for accountability and contact purposes
• Active/Inactive Status: Lifecycle management with explicit status enables historical analysis while maintaining clean active views

Business Logic Details

Campaign Structure

Campaigns serve as logical groupings that connect multiple projects sharing a common business objective. Each campaign belongs to a specific client (identified through the client hierarchy) and has an assigned owner (employee).

Key campaign attributes:

• Campaign Name: Descriptive identifier for the initiative
• Campaign Owner: Employee responsible for the campaign
• Client Association: Links to the hierarchical client structure
• Active Status: Determines visibility in default filtered views

Campaign Bid System

When campaigns require budget tracking, the system supports a campaign bid that captures:

• Approved Estimate Amount: Total approved budget for the campaign
• Management Percentage: Planned allocation for project management activities
• Design Percentage: Planned allocation for creative activities

These percentages help establish expectations for resource distribution across work categories.

Project Association

Projects are linked to campaigns through a cross-reference relationship. This allows:

• A single project to belong to one campaign
• A campaign to contain multiple projects
• Projects to be added to existing campaigns at any time

Time and Cost Aggregation

The dashboard aggregates time entries from all campaign projects, categorizing them by activity type:

For each category, the system displays:

• Hours: Total hours tracked across all campaign projects
• Dollars: Monetary value calculated using applicable billing rates

Status Visibility

Each project within a campaign displays its current workflow status. Projects in early stages (status below 5) receive visual highlighting to indicate active work, while completed projects (status 5 or higher) represent finished deliverables.

Client Hierarchy Integration

Campaigns inherit their client association from the hierarchical client structure:

• Corporation: Top-level organizational entity
• Business Group (BigB): Major business unit or brand portfolio
• Division: Organizational subdivision
• Business Unit (BAT): Specific brand or product category
• Marketer: Individual brand manager or marketing contact

This hierarchy enables filtering at any level, supporting both broad portfolio views and targeted analyses.

Key Features

Campaign List Panel

Campaign Detail Panel

Project List Grid

Footer Totals

Filtering Controls

Functional Components

Employee Filter

The employee dropdown allows filtering campaigns by ownership. Options include:

• Show all: Display campaigns regardless of owner
• Specific Employee: Display only campaigns owned by the selected person

The filter defaults to the current logged-in user, providing a personalized view.

Client Filter

The client filter enables focus on campaigns for specific client relationships. The dropdown updates based on the selected employee filter, showing only clients with campaigns owned by that employee.

Active Status Filter

The "Active campaigns only" checkbox toggles between:

• Checked (default): Show only campaigns marked as active
• Unchecked: Show all campaigns including inactive/archived

Campaign Selection

Clicking a campaign name in the left panel:

1. Loads campaign details into the right panel
2. Retrieves all associated projects
3. Calculates time aggregations by category
4. Calculates dollar amounts by category
5. Displays project list with totals

Campaign Editing

Authorized users (campaign owner or administrators) can:

• Rename Campaign: Click the campaign name to enter edit mode
• Toggle Active Status: Use the Active checkbox to change status
• Delete Campaign: Check Delete and submit to remove the campaign

Status Change Notifications

When changing campaign status:

• Deactivating displays: "[Campaign Name] has been changed to inactive"
• Activating displays: "[Campaign Name] has been changed to active"

These messages provide confirmation that status changes were successful.

Add Project Link

When viewing a campaign, the "Add Project to This Campaign" link provides direct navigation to the project creation page with the campaign pre-selected, streamlining the workflow for adding new projects to existing campaigns.

Relationship to Other System Components

Main Dashboard

The main Dashboard links to the Campaigns Dashboard for campaign-level analysis. While the main Dashboard provides project-level views, the Campaigns Dashboard aggregates project data into initiative-level perspectives.

Project Creation (Add Project)

When creating new projects, users can select an existing campaign to associate with the project. The campaign dropdown in the Add Project screen populates from the same campaign data shown in the Campaigns Dashboard.

Project Details

Each project listed in the Campaigns Dashboard links directly to the full Project Details page. The campaign association is visible in the Project Edit Details section, where users can also change or remove campaign associations.

Time Tracking

The time entries displayed in the Campaigns Dashboard (hours and dollars) derive from the time tracking system. Team members log time against projects, and the Campaigns Dashboard aggregates these entries across all projects within each campaign.

Billing and Dollar Calculations

Dollar amounts shown in the Campaigns Dashboard reflect calculated values based on:

• Time entries logged against projects
• Billing rates applicable to each activity type
• Any rate adjustments or special pricing arrangements

Client Management

The client hierarchy (Corporation, Business Group, Division, Business Unit, Marketer) used for campaign organization connects to the client management system. Changes to client structure automatically reflect in campaign organization.

Employee Management

Campaign ownership and the employee filter connect to the employee management system. Only active employees appear in filter dropdowns, and ownership transfers when employees leave the organization.

Summary

The Campaigns Dashboard transforms project-level data into strategic initiative visibility, enabling organizations to manage marketing campaigns as cohesive business units rather than disconnected projects. By aggregating time, costs, and status across all projects within a campaign, the dashboard supports:

• Strategic Planning: Understand resource requirements for multi-project initiatives
• Budget Management: Track spending against approved campaign budgets
• Resource Optimization: Allocate team members based on campaign workload visibility
• Client Communication: Present initiative-level status rather than fragmented project updates
• Historical Analysis: Reference past campaigns when planning future initiatives
• Operational Efficiency: Coordinate related projects through centralized campaign management

The Campaigns Dashboard bridges the gap between tactical project execution and strategic marketing management, providing the visibility needed to deliver successful campaigns while maintaining financial control and resource efficiency.