Centre will focus on client martech an increasingly important investment now central to marketing performance
WPP AUNZ has launched the Centre of Excellence, a new division advising clients on how to navigate the digital landscape, improve value from existing data, and fully leverage their martech investments.
Led by Adam Good, executive director, WPP's marketing technology guru and former Telstra media leader, the centre’s main focus is marketing automation, through close partnerships with Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, Adobe, and Sitecore to create client-focussed programs.
The centre will employ a hub and spoke model, allowing WPP's agency brands to tap into the tech capability.
"Marketing technology is a large client investment that requires continuous iteration. Collaboration between software vendors, internal client teams and agency teams is needed to maximise marketing performance,” said Good. “Our combination of creative thinking, technology expertise, content production and data insights will deliver greater customer value.
“The responsibility for marketing technology has shifted from the IT department to the marketing department in recent years as software and services moved into the cloud. The centre addresses that.”
The launch of the centre is a key strategic initiative under the leadership of WPP AUNZ CEO, Jens Monsees, who took the reins in October 2019.
“All client and consumer interactions are based on data and tech capabilities. The centre creates new client opportunities in areas previously serviced by management consulting groups and systems integrators,” said Monsees.
“We will work with clients to help them grow their business using our creativity, experience and data insight. We have already seen COE integration within AKQA, GroupM, IKON, Ogilvy, VMLY&R, whiteGREY, Haylix and Wunderman Thompson.”
WPP AUNZ has assessed more than 300 employees on their tech platform competence and there are plans to aggressively grow this number. Employee training and development will be aligned to this so that individual and group capability is strengthened.
Spearheading the centre’s partnerships are three new strategic partner leads, Faye Mehl, Sean Gillespie and Nhung Nguyen, who will be responsible for Microsoft, Adobe and Salesforce respectively.
Mehl, Gillespie and Nguyen joined WPP AUNZ earlier this year. They are responsible for client strategy, building partner communities across the group, developing client events and facilitating employee training programs. In addition, WPP AUNZ chief data scientist, Rob Pardini, will lead the COE from a data and research perspective.
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