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Sophie Wooller

Consultancy Lead

About this Author

Sophie is the Consultancy Lead at iProspect UK. She spent over 5 years with Deloitte working on a variety of complex programmes (including the London 2012 Olympics), and a number of years in industry, focussed on business transformation. Since joining iProspect in the summer of 2015 she has used this consultative approach to support clients undertaking transformational journeys as they embrace the digital economy.

Data Management Platforms: The Marketer's Silver Bullet?

There has been a great deal written about Data Management Platforms (DMPs). They are often talked about in terms that suggest they can solve all of a marketer’s problems; clean data, improve measurement, target specifically and probably even do the washing up. In reality, a DMP is a powerful database front end that: Ingests data: website, customer database (online & offline), data partnerships, third-party, etc.; Then organises it to create a single customer view (SCV); And sorts it in a structured way – a usable taxonomy. Marketers can then use this organised data to deliver tailored, efficient and impactful messaging via activation platforms such as a Demand Side Platform (DSP). The reason marketers get so excited about a DMP is its potential for helping to deliver the holy grail of right message, right person, right time, every time. The SCV prevents unintentionally targeting the same customer multiple times; this is less annoying for the customer and vastly reduces wastage in media spend. The DMP needs a well-structured data set and this allows advertisers to uncover insights about their customers, have greater ownership of that data and provide tailored messages based on known behaviours and preferences. This tailoring is particularly beneficial. Advertising cars to non-drivers or cat food to a dog owner simply does not make sense – why wouldn’t you want to avoid this and provide the right message? The DMP powers this by providing the audiences (segments) that inform the targeting that can be delivered across platforms such as display, video, mobile, search, digital out-of-home and social. As these channels become ever more connected the easier it is becoming to inform them from a single or consistent source So where’s the catch? It is notoriously difficult to get to a SCV. Consumers are becoming increasingly savvy with handing over their data, and multiple devices make this even more challenging. Data is the DMP’s fuel – without the right fuel, performance will never be there. Some advertisers simply do not have the first-party data available, and for those that do, work is required to structure that data effectively. This leads to the primary barrier for most: investment. A DMP can require significant spend and time. This is not an overnight process – implementation to optimisation can take months, require changes in ways of working and the DMP set up and running costs can add more expense to marketing Profit and Losses that are already constrained. A DMP is an undeniably powerful tool, but only if delivered in the right way and at the right time. We recommend undertaking a thorough needs analysis before committing to an expensive tech implementation. Consult @ iProspect has been on this journey with a number of clients, truly understanding business readiness and asking whether a DMP is right, and right for now, to implement a solution which not only leverages best practices but works in practice. 0 3 min read

Personalisation: How far should you go?

There is a temptation to think that everything in digital marketing is an entirely new frontier – I know I can be guilty of this! I was recently reminded of this after an interesting discussion that covered topics from ID syncing, to data flows, segmentation and real-time activation. My senior Client Director pointed out that much of the personalisation we can now achieve in digital media is new in scale rather than principle. He had started his career in direct mail – segmenting his customer base before sending the relevant communication. Digital media allows us to do this in real time, with more granularity and knowing even more about our customers than ever before. But just because we can personalise our comms, does not always mean we always should. There are now a number of apocryphal examples of personalisation going too far; the Target pregnancy prediction (2012) and bone conducting movie marketing in train windows in Germany (2013) are personal favourites. But there is an awful lot that can be done before we reach “too far”, and “too far” is at the end of a spectrum of personalisation. The key is understanding where on this spectrum a brand wants to (and should) aim for. To do this, we think about the “4 Cs”1) Context (the “who”)For luxury brands whose business models are centred around exclusivity and personal relationships, personalisation is, arguably, easier; there is more time and energy available to cater for a niche and highly engaged customer base. Personalisation here is expected. But for high street brands, the challenge becomes more complex; creating a joined-up customer experience that serves both the masses and the individual is no mean feat. The first step then is to understand the requirements and expectations of the audience. Does personalisation mean retargeting with products placed in a customer’s basket but not purchased? Or a bespoke website landing page? Or a direct call from a contact centre? Or a blend of all of these? 2) Constraints (what you have to work with)Most organisations have to work within a set of constraints – typically time, money and the (human) resources available to them. There are a number of exciting technologies that can automate best next action decisioning, use AI to deliver messaging and/or change the creative shown within a fraction of a second based on 100s of data signals. But all of this comes at a cost – there needs to be a business case to justify it and the skill sets to deliver it.3) Complexity (how far do you go)Based on the needs of the audience and the resources available, the next decision is on complexity. For brands starting from scratch there can be some quick wins. For example; using a DSP to serve programmatic media, retargeting based on (correctly tagged) site activity, delivering on-site optimisation, and developing segmentation to send more granular email comms. At the other end of the spectrum, a Data Management Platform coupled with a Dynamic Creative solution allows highly granular bidding and segmentation to be delivered seamlessly. This solution can require input from teams across the organisation and more complex data architecture so is a longer term development than a comparatively simple data audit and tagging exercise.4) Coherence (personalisation, everywhere)Being personal doesn’t stop with an email or an ad; it needs to extend into stores as we, and our customers, blur the line between online and offline. An email for an offer that retail stores are not aware of, or cannot be found on the website can betray the siloes in an organisation and be hugely frustrating for customers. In the age of social media, small annoyances can very quickly become big problems. Whilst technology can help to facilitate coherence, the most successful companies have a customer centric approach which considers all their touchpoints with a consumer and ensures the experience is joined up.Getting this right yields real benefits. Brands that optimise and personalise their customer experience increase loyalty and revenue (see for example Forbes 2015 study: 62% of customers buy more and/or more often when met with connected and personalised retail experiences). Whilst this can require an expensive transformation programme this is not always the case. Marketing has always been about personalisation – getting the right message to the right person. Inherent in that is an understanding of the customer so that we can assess the “right” message. The technology opportunities of the digital economy allow us to go further than ever, the decision that now sits with marketers is not why, but how much they buy into personalisation. 0 4 min read

Happy #IWD2018! Senior Women Across iProspect Voice Their Hopes

Today, we celebrate women around the world and at iProspect with a very special post from some of our senior female leaders. The path for women has been widened thanks to inspirational women of the past and present so we honour them, and those in the future, today and every day. 'Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher'. - Oprah Winfrey My hope for the future of gender equality is… that it stops needing to be a discussion point. That’s not to say that we should no longer recognise difference and challenge ourselves to have a diverse workplace. Rather, that gender equality should be a given, and whether you have x or y chromosomes, it’s what you do and how you do it that takes up our energy. Initiatives like international Women’s Day are an incredibly important step to help us on that journey; they give us a platform to call out inequality and the impetus to change. -Sophie Wooller, Director of Data and Technology Products My hope for the future of gender equality is… that we create true equality in the work place and at home. My hope is that we, as a society, make it acceptable for men to take shared parental leave, work flexible hours to accommodate nursery and school runs and most importantly, allow them to participate in society as a parent and be respected for it as women are. -Britt Soeder, Executive Director, iProspect London International Women’s Day to me is a day to... celebrate the progress that’s been made through the efforts of so many, in different professions, walks of life, and countries around the world. It’s also a day to reflect on where the equality gap remains, across gender, disability, the LGBTQ community and many more. This year has already given us much pause on the diversity debate. From Gender Pay Gap Legislation through to Oscar Night #Inclusion Riders, I hope this year comes to be seen as the tipping point for equality. How we translate cultural moments like these into day to day equalities is something I’ll be thinking about today. -Caroline Reynolds, Director of Performance Media Products Check out the other dedicated IWD posts from this week here. 0 2 min read

Sophie Wooller

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