Chordiant Software

Oct 22, 2018

Rebecca has served as SVP Finance & Operations with W2O Group since July 2011, overseeing a broad range of responsibilities including – planning, reporting, M&A and infrastructure as the firm scales for growth. Previously she held the role of International VP Finance with Chordiant Software, managing their EMEA operations based in London, UK. Prior to Chordiant, Rebecca held numerous financial management positions with increasing responsibility at Cotelligent, L-3 Communications and Lockheed Martin. We’re working on getting more articles from this author! We’re working on getting more articles from this author! Rebecca Ostrom, Senior Vice President, Finance & Operations, W2O Group, shares tips on how marketing agencies can balance creativity and analytics. For advertising and media agencies today, change is extensive and rapid. Not only is technology changing with unprecedented speed and continually altering the way that consumers interact with brands, but clients are demanding that agencies keep up. Predictive Marketing Analytics Buyers Guide for SMBs Technologies offering advanced analytics, was once a domain only large enterprises could afford investing in. This accelerated change adds to the increasing pressures agencies are facing. On one hand, brands (and their consumers) demand personalization, customized digital experiences, and well thought-out storytelling across all channels. On the other, brands require marked results: increased sales, more leads, and proven ROI. Many agencies are still running back and forth between storytelling and data strategies, and aren’t developing a comprehensive view to utilizing both strategies to their full potential. But modern agencies have woken up to the fact that everything they need to be successful is at their disposal: data, digital analytics, marketing expertise, and technology, alongside the creative brainpower of their teams to help their clients tell engaging stories. But how exactly do modern agencies balance these demands and deliver creative ideas to brands while providing proven results to back it all up? Today's most successful agencies and brands are winning not by choosing sides between the creative soul and the data science brain, but by combining the forces of creativity and technology in ways we all can learn from. Here are three main strategies that we’ve seen amongst the industry-leading agencies: Gain insights through the cloud Use data-driven intelligence to empower creative thinking Be flexible and adapt to change   Gain insights through the cloud To provide brands with the efficiency and transparency they demand, agencies should invest in a cloud-based business management system. Cloud-based systems can provide real-time visibility across entire workflows. In doing so, agencies can constantly monitor the performance and profitability of a campaign, project, or account throughout the entire lifecycle – from bid to invoice. For example, with a cloud-based financials system, agencies can obtain deep insights into past projects and profitability to prepare more successful proposals moving forward. With the right internal tools in place, agencies gain visibility into their own business and make smarter decisions for their clients. At W2O Group, we use NetSuite’s OneWorld platform so executives can compare margins across our eight subsidiaries allowing project management to be more proactive and efficient. Further, we’re able to better adapt to the changing needs of our clients. Use data-driven intelligence to empower creative thinking A creative brief is a good start, but it’s not enough. Agencies now have the analytics to give their creative strategies a boost and further inform the creative elements of their campaigns. Building content and creative strategies on foundations of data enabled by artificial intelligence and machine learning is an intelligent approach for agencies and their clients. With a centralized source of consistent information, agencies can develop a deep understanding of industry and audience data to manage performance, identify trends, uncover root causes of problems and make more accurate projections. For example, agencies can determine how best to invest in each account geography or advertising category to maximize revenue and identify the right audience, understand their interests, and reach them with the right content, at the right time, via the right channel. Be flexible and adapt to change Agencies continue to be faced with complex and evolving challenges: competition, tightened budgets, and increasing client demands. To address these challenges, agencies need to deploy strategies that can scale and shift over time in order to continuously serve their own business needs and the needs of the client. Additionally, agencies need flexible solutions that allow their creative resources to innovate, explore new opportunities and, ultimately, adapt to client demands and industry change. Emerging technologies bring new levels of flexibility and agility to the business that provide agencies with better solutions for balancing the creative with the data and ensuring they are poised for growth in an era of rapid change. Agencies that are willing to move beyond status quo will be equipped with a competitive advantage, allowing for faster growth and sustainability. At W2O, moving to NetSuite OneWorld allowed us to streamline our global processes on a unified platform that scales with our growing, evolving business and it’s helping us open the doors to innovation and new ways of doing things.