iProspect Drives Client Strategy with Predictive Analytics
Hampered with the challenges of tedious manual reporting, the team at dentsu’s agency iProspect in Canada was looking
for ways to deliver additional value to clients through adopting a more data-driven approach to campaign development, delivery, and optimization.
They employed Adverity’s data integration and AI analytics modules to automate the delivery of reports, proactive alerts, and insights on how to improve multi- channel campaign performance.
Now they are able to deliver a whole new array of valuable intelligence on ad performance and creative improvements to a wide range of clients, from leading automotive brands to one of the world’s largest FMCG companies.
iProspect Canada, a performance- focused media agency and part of the dentsu global network, was looking for ways to deliver greater value to clients, based on data. “More and more clients are requesting that agencies are able to provide them with data-driven solutions and insights,” explains Dany Eid, VP of Data and Technology. Typically employing a lot of manual work on harmonizing data from various data sources, the first challenge was to standardize and automate their reporting processes. “Previously, this process would include going to each of the platforms, extracting reports and CSV files, and combining them in Excel,” says Dany, “This was very tedious and time-consuming, so we wanted to remove this manual segment and move towards a more efficient, automated data environment that would save time, but also let the data speak for itself.”
With a proper infrastructure in place, they would then need to work out how to get the most valuable insights from the data in the most efficient manner possible. “Data has been a huge part of the transformation of our business,” emphasizes Dany, “and we wanted to promote the value of being data-driven among account managers and other decision-makers within the agency, building what’s important and relevant for the whole organization.”
To solve these challenges, iProspect turned to Adverity to firstly integrate client data and then draw out predictive insights using advanced, AI-powered analytics. For many of the agency’s clients data from multiple sources is now integrated and harmonized with Adverity, stored in a Google BigQuery data warehouse, and sent to Google Data Studio for visualizations and reporting dashboards.
Establishing standardized reporting was particularly difficult for one of the clients, the already referenced automotive group, due to the unusual reporting formats coming from certain data sources, such as Sizmek. Nonetheless, with the data transformations available in Adverity, the team at iProspect was able to successfully import these reports and harmonize them with data from other sources. This was a considerable win, since the client had previously been unable to achieve this on a global level, even with the help of their other agencies and technology partners.
“Once the data streams were flowing and we had all our data in one place, we could start running more advanced data analysis on top of that data,” says Dany. For a major client, one of the world’s largest FMCG companies, iProspect Canada conducted a POC project using a wide set of data sources.
“Thanks to the automated data flows, on just one test brand we were able to save about 200 hours a month,” says Dany, “It was an instant success, and as a result this client now wants data for their entire portfolio of about 50 brands to be onboarded through Adverity.”
Resolving the data integration challenges and forming a more streamlined reporting was just the first step of improving iProspect’s data infrastructure. It was necessary for assembling enough consolidated data for the next stage - employing advanced analytics methods to deliver predictive insights to clients. “On top of the great data integration functionalities, the real differentiator for Adverity is the predictive analytics features, which are now being used to deliver a new array of insights to more than 30 of our clients,” concludes Dany.
One of the biggest benefits of using Adverity’s predictive analytics capabilities is that iProspect gained a look ahead, which drives strategy and helps in optimizing budget allocation. “We use the insights coming from Adverity to demonstrate the path forward in the next quarter to our client, and to show exactly how we can improve the ROI of their campaigns,” explains Dany.
For one of the agency’s clients, a major company in the hospitality industry, there were doubts over efficient budget allocation, with more of it spent on social, rather than on paid search. “By using the Channel Mix Optimization feature in Adverity, we were able to clearly show it should be the other way round, and this resulted in a significant uplift of CTR for their campaigns,” adds Dany.
For their client, a leading global automotive group, the insights from Adverity have been used to highlight video campaigns with high click-through rates, and show which ones the client should focus on to decrease CPC. This goes to the level of individual creatives, so the client and the team at iProspect clearly understand which creatives have the most impact.
We are now able to clearly demonstrate the value of our work to clients, as well as to internal stakeholders, by saving time and resources,” says Dany, and adds: “But, the best thing has been the predictive element of the insights we have now developed – our clients were instantly impressed with the quality of these insights and the potential they can bring.
We use the insights coming from Adverity to show exactly how we can improve the ROI of client campaigns.
The additional value brought by predictive, AI-powered analysis has been immediately recognized by numerous clients, improving the trust in the agency’s work.
The whole team benefits from the agility brought by Adverity, whether it’s through streamlined client reporting or delivering brand new, proactive insights.
By automating data integration from a large number of sources, leading to accelerated reporting, the team is able to save hundreds of hours each month.