Driving consumers indoors and online, it goes without stating that the COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly changed the way that brands connect with their audiences. Now is the time for brands to catch up to the digital needs of their audiences and strategically prepare for the future so they bounce back stronger than ever.

Until now, many brands have already made some sort of investment in digital, whether it’s super-charging their social media feeds, building personalization into their content delivery or more. But there is always opportunity for brands to raise their digital maturity—something that’s become especially clear today.

As CTO Solutions at MediaMonks, Tim Goodman has helped brands adapt at every stage of the digital transformation journey. Despite the different approaches taken, the first step is always the same: “We really look closely at the business goals,” he says. “Are they looking to reach their clients more quickly? Improve their message? Streamline their processes?” By aligning business goals with market changes, here is how Goodman and his team help brands focus their efforts and transform at speed.

Fill the Capability Gap Between Tech and Creativity

In his keynote address at this year’s (digitized) Adobe Summit, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen noted the importance of aligning creative teams and IT to unite such disparate experiences and the data that powers each, with both sides ultimately focused on the customer experience. “In the past, the CMO brought marketing and communications expertise, while CIOs knew how to architect systems and unite data,” he said. “But IT is becoming more customer-centric and marketing is becoming more data driven. They are working together more than ever. Your C-suite must be aligned around this customer-centricity.”

At MediaMonks, we’ve always believed in a confluence between creativity and technology, and how both work in tandem to deliver the experiences that customers need. Right now, there is a strong desire for emotionally resonant, relevant experiences in digital—and if brands aren’t prepared to offer them, then they must find a partner who can fill in those capability gaps.

Strategic Partnerships Keep Brands Current to Market Shifts

As an Adobe Platinum Partner and having won the Adobe Partner of the Year award nearly every year since its existence, the MediaMonks Solutions team is ideally situated to support brands as they aim to adapt and transform. It’s led by Goodman, who holds the record of most individual certifications (ten) and is the only individual in the Adobe Partner network globally to hold four Architect certifications (Adobe Experience Manager Forms, Adobe Experience Manager Sites, Analytics, and Campaign).

“In working with Adobe, I’m most proud of the trust we have built up together,” says Goodman. “We’ve built trust in their products, in their teams, in their understanding of the needs of the market. They’ve built trust in us to understand their technology, to implement it the way it’s meant to be implemented, and to make sure we give our clients the best advice that’s right for them.”

This close partnership and expertise has led the team to often break new ground, implementing new features from Adobe before anyone else. For example, we were the first organization in the world to implement the Adobe Experience Manager Asset Share module for a major Australian brand. This is just one of the benefits of how we keep a continuous process of learning to help brands adapt to rapidly changing market needs.

Making these adaptations can be challenging for brands, which is why it’s important to put them at ease through testing and clear communication. “Before we implement a new feature, we make sure that we’ve tried and tested it in labs before we let it loose in the wild,” says Goodman. “We also ensure that key Adobe engineers are engaged directly, because they want to see the success of these features as well.” Crucial to this process is communicating core software disciplines, including proper quality control, to marketing teams in plain English.

Translate Random Acts of Digital into a Consistent Ecosystem

Online behaviors have rapidly changed since the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, but many brands have an initial foundation to build off of for digital transformation and a more connected customer decision journey. Right now, your digital experiences may primarily function as “random acts of digital”: individual experiences that build brand love or fulfill a specific business goal, but are ultimately self-contained and disconnected from other touchpoints along the customer decision journey.

Brands looking to accelerate their digital transformation in lockstep with emerging user behaviors can save time and efforts by connecting these already-existing digital experiences together—either serving the right content for the right context or carrying user data from one touchpoint to another.  Tools like Adobe Experience Manager are critical for synchronizing data to and enabling this level of contextual relevance, resulting in unique, personalized experiences.

“A unified message is critical, and this often means unifying the silos within the organization,” says Goodman. “Whether it’s moving to cross-channel communications, or multi-tenant solutions, or a Data Management platform that streamlines the audiences for the right messages, Adobe has the answer.” Goodman suggests that brands first start with the quick wins rather than boil the ocean. “We help build a strategy for organizations to move through their digital transformation in the stages that are right for their business.”

Quick access to MediaMonks’ vast, global team of creative expertise enables brands to identify opportunities to embark on overarching transformation initiatives. “Not only do we have Tim, the most-certified Adobe expert,” says Tom Nelms, Head of Partner Growth at MediaMonks. “In total, we have 188 certifications across our network. When we combine that tech ability with our creative, front-end approach, we can help brands transform at speed and scale across their ecosystems.”

Focused on system, people and process, the MediaMonks Solutions team is well versed in helping brands overcome the creative challenge of integrating experiences along a single coherent journey. Critical to the process is that creativity and technology work together to enable the experiences that consumers crave throughout the total brand experiences. And when brands are better equipped to optimize and transform at speed, they’re able to build lasting customer connections and adapt to future changes in the market.

Ready to take digital transformation to the next level?

En un mundo en constante movimiento con equipos repartidos en un sinfín de sociedades (y en todo el mundo), la comunicación efectiva y la colaboración son críticas para el éxito, Para reducir la fricción entre equipos, Firewood Marketing, ahora parte de MediaMonks, lanzó su guía para aprovechar al máximo las campañas digitales comunicando de forma más efectiva: “Talk”. (Puedes encontrar este artículo en inglés aquí)

Dado que la colaboración efectiva es un esfuerzo de grupo que requiere alinear a todos los equipos, pensamos, “¿Qué mejor manera de discutir la colaboración que colaborando en todo MediaMonks y los socios con los que nos hemos fusionado en el último año?” Juntamos a los líderes de varios de nuestros equipos para obtener sus puntos de vista en algunos de los temas y las estrategias que los lectores encontrarán en esta guía.

Desde el inicio, “Talk” identifica varias cosas que los negocios se pierden cuando sus equipos no se comunican tan efectivamente como podrían. ¿Podrías resumir la exigencia para una mejor comunicación?

Kristoffer Belau (VP Digital Media, Firewood): Una falta de comunicación significa que existe el riesgo de cometer errores: la creatividad no está hecha a la medida, la campaña no está enfocada en la audiencia correcta, estás compitiendo con otras áreas de la empresa. A fin de cuentas todos estos son errores, y vienen de esta falta de coordinación por parte de las diferentes partes involucradas. La alineación de los equipos reduce estos riesgos.

“Talk” ofrece una serie de estrategias en diferentes situaciones para establecer colaboraciones más fuertes. ¿Cuál es tu estrategia de arranque?

Mansi Mehta (Business Development & Global Expansion, WhiteBalance): Nosotros no nos esperamos a alinear y reunir equipos. A menudo, las marcas y sus socios enfrentan períodos de gestación largos antes de que se refina el concepto. Esto se da principalmente porque las agencias convencionales no tienen a sus artistas in-house, lo que conlleva el riesgo de causar un juego de “teléfono descompuesto” que resulta en algo diferente a lo que originalmente habían imaginado.

Vera Cvetkovic (Managing Director, BizTech): A través de los años, trabajando con varios clientes en diferentes verticales, aprendimos la importancia de hacer las preguntas correctas, poner expectativas claras y guiar a nuestros clientes como asesores de confianza. Tener grandes habilidades de escuchar es también muy importante antes de encontrar la mejor solución a prueba del futuro que esté alineada con requerimientos específicos del cliente. Dada la complejidad de lo que hacemos, que abarca silos de negocios de clientes, IT y marketing, tenemos que ir más allá para que nuestra comunicación sea totalmente transparente en el contexto de la audiencia. Cada uno de los silos de los clientes posiblemente tendrá un ángulo diferente del mismo problema y de la solución potencial, así que es nuestro trabajo juntarlos todos y ser los “traductores” que unan a la estrategia común y a la ejecución. 

La guía también señala a los silos internos como uno de los grandes desafíos que enfrentan muchas organizaciones. ¿Cuáles son algunas estrategias o beneficios de encontrarles a todos un lugar en la mesa?

Lieseloth Wisbraun (Brand Partnership Manager, IMA): Organizamos workshops con todos los equipos para juntar a todos en una misma habitación. A partir de ahí, buscamos ser claros, amables y compartir conocimiento.

Louise Martens (Global Head of Embedded Production, MediaMonks): Cualquier preocupación acerca de los silos puede ser cortada de raíz al establecer una arquitectura de equipo. Cuando el equipo está parcialmente in-house, por ejemplo, las líneas se difuminan naturalmente, impactando positivamente la naturaleza de la colaboración. Entregar el poder es menos aterrador porque se siente como un equipo unificado.

Manejar expectativas es la verdadera prueba de una comunicación efectiva. ¿Cómo establecer expectativas desde el principio?

Jason Prohaska (Managing Director, MediaMonks NY): Entender a través de la educación es una de las mejores formas de generar una gran colaboración juntos y de parte del cliente, y esto no es algo que tratemos como un evento único. Todos se benefician cuando podemos tratar, probar y aprender juntos con oportunidades para dialogar abiertamente durante un proyecto. Las establecemos desde el principio como una parte obligatoria del alcance, lo que nos permite revisitar frecuentemente el entendimiento mutuo en el arco de la colaboración.

Martens: soy una gran fan de las alianzas en las que ser más eficientes es uno de los KPIs. Esto desbloquea un tipo de conversación totalmente diferente, y ambas partes se benefician de mejores flujos de trabajo y facilidad para trabajar. Cuando estos esfuerzos ganan velocidad, una gran relación fluye con naturalidad. Nuestro primer paso para alcanzarlo es adentrarnos a la marca. Establecimos embajadores de marca que realmente vivan y respiren la marca.

Belau: Nos esforzamos ofrecer una visión muy clara de cómo se podría ver la experiencia cuando todos se unen, buscando hacer el proceso de llegar hasta allá tan cómodo como sea posible para el cliente. De nuestro lado, esto significa dejarlo todo listo y organizado sin ninguna incertidumbre, para que el cliente se siga sintiendo en control de la situación.

Hay mucho más de qué hablar.

In a fast-moving world with teams spread across a myriad of partnerships (and across the globe), effective communication and collaboration are critical to success. To ease the friction felt between teams, Firewood Marketing, now part of MediaMonks, recently released their guide to getting the most out of digital campaigns by communicating more effectively: “Talk.”

Because effective collaboration is a group effort that requires alignment of all teams, we thought, “What better way to discuss collaboration than by collaborating across MediaMonks and the partners we’ve merged with throughout the past year?” We picked the brains of leadership from across our various teams, getting their own take on some of the points and strategies readers encounter within the guide.

From the start, “Talk” identifies several things that businesses miss out on when teams don’t communicate as effectively as they could. Could you summarize the imperative for better communication?

Kristoffer Belau (VP Digital Media, Firewood): A lack of communication means you risk making errors: the creative isn’t to spec, the campaign is not targeting the right way, you’re competing with other parts of the company. These are all ultimately errors, and they come from this lack of coordination from the various parties involved. Team alignment mitigates these risks.

“Talk” offers a handful of strategies in different situations to establish stronger collaboration. What’s your go-to strategy?

Mansi Mehta (Business Development & Global Expansion, WhiteBalance): We don’t wait to align and join together teams. Often, brands and their partners face long gestation periods before the concept is refined. This is predominantly because conventional agencies do not have their go-to artists in-house, which risks causing a game of “telephone” that results in something other than what they first envisioned.

Vera Cvetkovic (Managing Director, BizTech): Over the years working with various clients in different verticals, we learned the importance of asking the right questions, clearly setting expectations and guiding our clients as trusted advisors. Great listening skills are also very important before finding the best future-proof solution that is aligned with clients’ specific requirements. Given the complexity of what we do that spans client silos of business, IT and marketing, we have to go the extra mile with our communication to be crystal-clear within the context of the audience. Each of the clients’ silos are likely to have a very different lens on the same problem and potential solution, so it’s our job to bring them all together and be that “translator” that binds the common strategy and execution.

The guide also cites internal silos as one of the greatest challenges that many organizations face. What are some strategies or benefits to getting everyone a seat at the table?

Lieseloth Wisbraun (Brand Partnership Manager, IMA): We host workshops with all teams to get everyone in one room. From there, we aim to be clear, stay nice and share knowledge.

Louise Martens (Global Head of Embedded Production, MediaMonks): Any concerns about silos can be nipped in the bud when establishing a team architecture. When the team is partially in-housed, for example, the lines naturally blur, making a really positive impact on the nature of the collaboration. It’s less scary to hand over power because it feels like one unified team.

Managing expectations is the true test of effective communication. How do you establish expectations from the start?

Jason Prohaska (Managing Director, MediaMonks NY): Understanding through education is one of the best ways to afford great collaboration together and on behalf of the client—and this isn’t something we treat as a one-time event. Everyone benefits when we can try, test and learn together with opportunities to dialogue openly throughout a project. We set these up at the outset as a mandatory part of the scope, letting us frequently revisit shared understanding across the arc of collaboration.

Martens:  I’m a huge fan of partnerships in which gaining efficiency is among the KPIs. This unlocks a totally different type of conversation, and both parties benefit from better workflows and ease of working. When these efforts gain speed, a great relationship naturally follows. Our first step to achieve this is diving deep into the brand. We establish brand ambassadors that truly live and breathe the brand.

Belau: We strive to offer a very clear vision of what the experience could look like when everyone pools together, aiming to make the process getting there as comfortable as possible for the client. On our end, this means getting everything nice and organized with no uncertainty, so the client still feels control in the situation.

There’s so much more to talk about.