THE MC&C GAZETTE

mcand.co.uk

Thursday 3 August 2017

Vol.1 Edition 3

Simon’s Stats

Innovation Insight

Page 3

Page 3

GDPR: One year and counting...

Snapchat self-serve Ad manager launch

THE MC&C GAZETTE NEWS FROM THE GROWTH AGENCY

Bringing together relevant news and views from the performance world.

Identifying opportunities, unpack issues and discover how we drive sustainable and profitable growth for our clients. This month we get back to basics with digital media, discuss the importance of UX, investigate the power of data management and find out why data is the new crude oil. We round off with our monthly stats, innovation insight and agency news.

Digital Media: Getting the Basics Right

Your MC&C Contact Josh Rammell Digital Strategist [email protected]

Why is it important? Digital moves at a fast pace, every month there is a new channel, feature, integration or creative evolution to consider. It is our job to make sure the changes that fit our client’s business objectives are tested and worked into overall media strategy. However, it is also our job to make sure that anything we implement can be tracked for effectiveness, integrated to fit with an organisation’s technology stack and measured against other digital and offline media in an impartial way. How can it be used to deliver growth? While the basics may not always be the most exciting area of media to focus on, without it growth will be hard to verify at best and at worst campaigns will fail completely due to lack of set up and infrastruc-

ture. To make sure that digital campaigns deliver growth, it is worth analysing how campaigns are set up and linked with the rest of marketing infrastructure. Some key areas to be evaluating are: 1. Adserving is done through 3rd Parties such as DoubleClick Campaign Manager, Flashtalking or Adobe Media Optimiser. This ensures results are verified and no one supplier is at risk of over/ underinflating their results through ‘marking

their

own

homework’ for tracking across website and app. URL exten2. Tracking and sions can be appended tagging should be done to allow for integration pre-launch of media of paid media into the and audited by those analytics platforms with knowledge of the is website and tagging. 4. Creative Management tools such checked for errors such as Google Tag Man- as click tags and iframe ager or Ensighten can load issues that can stop help streamline this. Be them being accepted wary to only have nec- by media partners or essary tags on site to work in live environments stop any site load issues 5. Brand safety 3. Connect an- and viewability standalytics platforms such ards are set with all as Google Analytics or partners and tracked Adobe Analytics to allow through impartial sourc-

es such as Moat or Integral Ad Science. 6. Social campaigns that have opportunities for people to comment are linked to organisation’s internal social teams so they can be on top of feedback from the beginning and brand voice is maintained The above should fit into an overall framework to deliver and optimise campaigns that run effectively and give the potential for credible, sustainable growth.

Thursday 3 August 2017 The MC&C Gazette

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News

The Importance of User Experience in a Digital World

Your MC&C Contact Amelia Burdon Digital Executive [email protected] What is it? There are a number of different definitions, however generally it’s understood that user experience design (UX) is a way to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty through the utility, ease of use, and pleasure provided in the interaction with a product. Although not a new concept, it is still incredibly important for both

brands and agencies to consider its impact when marketing a product. In fact, as technology and the internet continue

to embed themselves into our lives through a growing number of screens and interfaces, arguably its importance

is only going to increase. having grown rapidly in the past few years. Forrester Research reWhy is it important? In a world where con- ports that a positive increases sumers with limited experience willingness attention spans face customers’ an almost unlimited to pay by 14.4% and renumber of choices, duces their likeliness to competing on quality switch brands by 15.8%. and price is no longer enough for brands. How can it be used to deliver growth? Every time a user navi- By implementing stratgates away from a site egies that take UX into or app in frustration – be- consideration, agencause of complex forms, cies can improve how broken links, or confusing brands engage with navigation – it becomes their customers and more and more likely how those customers they won’t return. Stef- interact with the brand. fan Aquarone of eConsultancy, describes ease Products and services of use as “the single that provide a good most powerful way to user experience will satbeat the competition.” isfy customers, increase Companies such as Air- their brand loyalty and bnb, Monzo and Uber ultimately sell better, sustainable offering best-in-class UX delivering are a testament to this, growth for a business.

Data Management: Unlocking The Power of Your Customer Data

For example, we have seen the effective activation of 1st party data to increase pay-up from trial to subscription as much as 3% for a subscription service client. Unifying data from different sources (online and offline) can generate a holistic understanding of existing and potential audiences across CRM, Search, Display, and Analytics.

analysis. These processes are normally utilised in conjunction with a Data Management Platform (DMP), the technology that unifies data sets. The decision to invest in such a technology can generate long term growth but considerations of data volume, resource, media investment budget and the existing technology stack must be assessed before undertaking such a commitment. MC&C employs a DMP as part of the agency trade desk, Click Chilli, which enables our clients to collect, organise and activate data for programmatic campaigns.

Implementing data management to create growth The process of Data management can be broken down into four steps: collection, organisation, activation and

If a DMP is beyond the realms of investment for an advertiser they can activate 1st Party Data through the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Amazon through a simple and anony-

data in digital media is now common practice across most verticals and has been facilitated by an increasing volume of companies now able to match customer data to an online identity. Your MC&C Contact Christian Taylor Programmatic Lead [email protected] Why is data management important? Your customer data is a powerful resource for driving growth. 1st party data is unique to your brand and provides the opportunity to increase customer engagement, life-time value and provide insights for new customer acquisition. The importance of data has grown exponentially in digital advertising and programmatic marketing. The analysis and activation of 1st party

mous matching process. a platform for activation but also insights into Activating data in your existing customers these isolated channels to find potential new aucan prove the value diences for acquisition. of data management When activating 1st and provide an interim party data It is also imsolution before invest- portant to consider the ing in technology and impact of upcoming resource. Not only can data regulations for its these channels provide use in digital channels.

Thursday 3 August 2017 The MC&C Gazette

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Culture

Simon’s Stats

“GDPR: One year and counting” Your MC&C Contact Simon Foster MD, MUSE Part of the MC&C Group [email protected]

access to their personal data. Fines of up to €20m or 4% of annual turnover (whichever is greater) mean failure to comply could prove extremely costly.

On the 25th of May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will become law.

To put this in context, had the GDPR been in place when Tesco had its bank hacked in November 2016, it has been suggested that the fine could have been £1.9 billion.

This regulation will redefine the use of personal data with much stricter rules making ‘implied consent’ obsolete and giving users

ed by IDC Research found that a quarter were completely unaware of GDPR, while 52% were uncertain about the implications for their organisation.

Even amongst those aware of the upcoming changes, organisations are clearly worried about successfully meeting the criteria. In a study by Veritas Technologies, 32% stated that their current tech stack A study of 700 European was unable to effectivecompanies conduct- ly manage their data.

Meanwhile, 21% said that they were concerned about potential layoffs caused by financial penalties incurred by non-compliance. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) also revealed that 2016/2017 was a record year for data protection breaches, fines for unlawful activities and nuisance marketing cases.

DRTV. We will then feed these views back to the ICO via the DMA. If you would like to be included in this working party please get in contact by 11th August 2017.

MC&C are forming a GDPR working party to gather industry views on how GDPR will affect

Innovation Insight

Snapchat finally launches UK self-serve Ad Manager In the current circumstances, a new selfserve Ad platform that encourages advertisers to spend less on Facebook and Instagram, and more on Snapchat, couldn’t come quick enough! Your MC&C Contact David McDermott Director of Digital [email protected] Earlier this month Snapchat (Snap Inc) became the latest social platform to introduce its self-serve Ad Manager for brands of all sizes. This news quickly follows the extortionate opening share price at $24.48 for a market cap of $28.33 billion back in March, and the recent drop in valuation after the latest quarterly results showed that Snap Inc had an adjusted EBITDA of $188,243 million.

Advertisers will no doubt - if they haven’t already - quickly create new campaigns on the platform. The reasons are obvious; Snapchat offers a unique environment, unlike any other platform, to engage with a younger audience. Digital creativity can be difficult when there are parameters on word limits, image size, or the fact that ads can be text only. Snapchat offers the opportunity to create unique native ads that can if done correctly, offer unparal-

engagement. doubtedly provide, with the targeting options As a performance we expect to push innoagency, we under- vation and growth for stand the unique rela- our clients continually. tionship between crethis turns ative and placement Whether and create advertis- into brand engageing strategies that not ment, or even sales, is only reach the right still to be determined. audience at the right However, if the goals time in the right place of a campaign are but with a message looking to drive awarewebsite visits, that will result in a de- ness, sired outcome or goal. video views, or even app installs towards a As a result, we are very younger audience bias, much looking forward Snapchat will be the environment to combining the crea- perfect tivity the platform will un- for brands to engage. leled

Furthermore, due to the unique environment that Snapchat provides, bespoke campaigns can be created for the audience which you are targeting, thus providing a richer native experience and higher engagement. The digital team at MC&C will be continually reviewing the options Snapchat provides with our brands business objectives to offer unique creative solutions to reach this in-demand audience.

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Thursday 20 July 2017 The MC&C Gazette

News

It’s Crude But Data Is The New Oil

Your MC&C Contact Ben Foster Digital Client Director [email protected]

As marketeers we crave information about our customers and potential customers to produce and optimise the most effective campaigns possible. Before the digital revolution obtaining this data was highly time consuming and often important decisions were made extrapolating non robust trends from small data sets. However, the challenge evolved from one of data scarcity to one of resource and expertise as suddenly we had more data than we could process and analyse. For example IBM predict that by 2020 the digital

sphere will be 40x bigger than it is currently with the equivalent of Google launching every day and over 1m new devices becoming connected every hour. This scenario has created new departments of data scientists challenged with finding the hidden gems of insight lost in a sea of data. Just as many organisations were adapting to this new world the challenge has changed again, with new data legislation designed to protect individuals both in the collection and use of personal and behavioural data. So how do we avoid slipping back into a challenge of data scarcity? Taking an in depth look at the leading technology companies, such as Uber, provides the best opportunity for future gazing. Despite having logged in data they have built a model on knowing a few things about a lot of people rather than a lot about

a few people. This data can then be combined with other data sources to create a comprehensive view without the challenge of data collection and permissions. Those at the bleeding edge of the technology sector are using minimal amounts of their own data to stitch together the vast and accurate data points from the big three (Facebook, Google & Amazon), and overlaying AI based on emotional recency. IBM Watson

track over 525 different marketing KPIs, but has determined that the core metric is NPS (net promoter score) and all other marketing goals are influenced by it. Consumers no longer have the same loyalty to brands as only 5 years ago, this has been replaced with emotional connections to brands which are much more volatile. This means that maintaining standards of product, proposition and user experience is

News from the MC&C Team Your MC&C Contact Stuart Lonergan Junior Analyst [email protected]

MC&C introduced a Charity Days scheme: the opportunity for every employee to spend a day each year assisting at a charity of their choice. To take advantage of this opportunity, in April this year I spent the day with SHP at two of their hostels in Islington & Camden.

SHP have been providing accommodation and support services to some of the most vulnerable people in London since 1975, currently supporting around 7,000 clients a year. Their clients are battling, amongst other things, mental ill health, homelessness, drug and alcohol addiction, offending and family breakdown. 60% of these clients fall into the category of ‘multiple needs,’ ex-

periencing several of the aforementioned issues simultaneously. A key tool in recovery and development is SHP’s Opportunities Programme. This programme focuses on ‘life skills development, employability and the building of social networks’ through a breadth of activities ranging from yoga to IT. Under this banner, I spent the day with Ari-

ana of the Green Spark initiative, helping with weeding, clearing of beds and vegetable planting in the hostel gardens. I was fortunate enough to spend the afternoon with a client who was incredibly warm and frank about her experiences and the positive impact that SHP had had on her life. The day was enjoyable and humbling, and something I would recommend to anyone who has the opportunity.

more important than ever. In the marketing world, Byron Sharps message of building brand affinity also remains as pivotal as ever, it’s just the comms planning to deliver that goal that has evolved. So to deliver growth look beyond just purely short term ROI based KPIs. Start looking at engagement, sentiment and consideration scores as long term goals which both the MC&C digital team and MUSE can help you monitor and model.