Dentsu Aegis delivers high-level marketing analytics to clients with ‘Heartbeat’ powered by Tableau
10 data sources combined into “single source of truth” dashboard
Client relationships greatly strengthened
Access to data increased and time-to-insight reduced
Dentsu Aegis Network is the first global marketing services group built for the digital economy. Headquartered in London, the company helps clients build valuable relationships across the entire customer journey, with services like communications strategy, media planning and buying, content creation, brand tracking and marketing analytics. In 2016, the company’s marketing analytics department started a program to develop more advanced dashboards, to help internal and external teams make better data-driven decisions, using Tableau. The goal was to combine client analytics data from numerous separate marketing channels into a single ‘Heartbeat’ report, breaking down data silos and reducing the longest delivery time from six weeks to just three days. Doing so has had a valuable impact on both client relationships and collaboration, as well as strengthening the data driven culture throughout Dentsu Aegis.
A new approach was needed to reduce time-to-insight for our clients, as well as create a more comprehensive overview of the entire marketing funnel, not just the top.
Delivering deep insights with integrated data and interactive client reports
One of the key services that the Dentsu Aegis data teams offer clients is detailed marketing analytics in key areas such as brand awareness and campaign recognition. These insights help clients to accurately measure overall brand health, understand ROI and deliver effective future campaigns.
In the past, much of this analytics was based on brand health metrics from survey data that was manually collected, processed and compiled into numerous static reports, each focusing on a different area of marketing activity. However, the survey data’s heavy focus on traditional channels, such as TV and print, made it hard to understand the effect of digital channels. Furthermore, the delivery of key findings in up to 10 separate reports made it difficult for clients to see the whole picture in a clear and concise way.
“A new approach was needed to reduce time-to-insight for our clients, as well as create a more comprehensive overview of the entire marketing funnel, not just the top” says Lisette Hagenaars, market research team lead for Dentsu Aegis in the Netherlands.
In order to achieve this, the company created the ‘Heartbeat’ reporting tool, taking the information spread around in different data sources and combining it all into a single, fully interactive Tableau dashboard. Rather than relying solely on survey data, Lisette and her team also integrated data from tools such as Google Analytics and Salesforce in Tableau, along with data from in-house systems from each client. The result was a “single source of truth” dashboard, that combined offline and online data to show the trickle-down effect of media spends on the entire customer journey
“For the first time, advertisers had all relevant data in one place,” says Ingrid Pino, senior visual analytics specialist at Dentsu Aegis. “Not only that, but Tableau’s interactive interface allowed them to drill down into the trends and growth variations, helping them to quickly understand how different marketing activities affected brand awareness, perception and purchasing decisions.”
Tableau, combined with improvements in the survey process, has helped Dentsu Aegis move from quarterly reporting to much more regular updates.
“Everything is much closer to real-time now than was previously possible”, says Lisette. “This allows our teams and clients to react faster and maximise ROI on their marketing spends.”
With Tableau, everyone has a central data platform through which to connect and collaborate, breaking down many of these silos and strengthening our company’s data driven culture.
Strengthening client relationships and bolstering collaboration
The new Heartbeat dashboard is significantly more engaging than the original slides reports, resulting in a new collaborative approach to data analytics emerging with multiple clients.
“The interactive nature of Tableau, combined with its highly visual presentation, means clients can get far more involved with their data than before,” says Lisette. “This has encouraged them to work much closer with us on exactly what metrics are needed in their Heartbeat to produce the insights they really want.”
Clients can also self-serve many of their own analytics needs directly in Tableau now, speeding up time to insight whilst reducing reliance on the Dentsu Aegis data teams to provide every piece of analysis.
“By quickly changing a few parameters in their Heartbeat dashboard, clients can accurately compare KPI trends or year-on-year results,” says Ingrid. “Previously they would have needed to come to us for this information, but with Tableau they can do it themselves in just a few clicks.”
We’ve been approached by numerous different teams who want to create Heartbeat dashboards for their own clients. The combination of interactivity and visual presentation that Tableau provides really does make it stand out from the crowd, offering a genuinely engaging and different way to provide clients with key analytical insights about their business.
Breaking down silos and nurturing the data driven culture within Dentsu Aegis
In addition to client benefits, the adoption of Tableau has also had a number of benefits on the way Dentsu Aegis works internally.
“Previously, many of the teams would have a tendency to work in silos,” says Lisette. “In particular, the offline and online media planning teams would work separately to one another, meaning there was little crossover of knowledge between the two.”
“With Tableau, everyone has a central data platform through which to connect and collaborate, breaking down many of these silos and strengthening our company’s data driven culture.”
The Heartbeat dashboard projects have also resonated throughout the entire Dentsu Aegis global network, with Lisette and Ingrid receiving enquiries about it from teams all over the world.
“We’ve been approached by numerous different teams who want to create Heartbeat dashboards for their own clients. The combination of interactivity and visual presentation that Tableau provides really does make it stand out from the crowd, offering a genuinely engaging and different way to provide clients with key analytical insights about their business.” – Ingrid