Driving Growth and Restructuring Efforts
In September 2017, we began our partnership with Saxo Bank, a leading investment bank based in Copenhagen, in a consultancy role. Our primary focus was to support their internal restructuring efforts by appraising existing advertising accounts, enhancing technical infrastructure, and collaborating closely with the new head of digital to develop a robust growth strategy.
Challenge
How do we present critical media audits to the internal teams without the perception that their efforts were being undermined?
How can we work together with Saxo in order to import a lead quality scoring methodology within the bidding engines, and subsequently improve performance?
Once our initial media recommendations and strategy have been implemented and the team is stable, how do we continue to provide ongoing value to Saxo?
Discovery
Our consultancy covered many facets of performance media: paid search, paid social, programmatic display, creative and technical/trafficking support. This was initially meant to be a 3 month consultancy period, so we had a limited time to make an impact. However, if we could prove our effectiveness by providing best in class strategic and account specific insights, we had a real opportunity to make this a longstanding partnership with a major European investment bank.
Hypothesis
From our initial discussions with the head of digital, as well as the brief provided, we strongly felt that:
- Search audits – Demonstrated media expertise, identified high-impact opportunities, and built trust through a collaborative, non-confrontational approach.
- Strategic projects – Initiatives like lead scoring integration reinforced long-term value and supported consultancy renewal beyond the initial 3-month term.
- Knowledge sharing – Regular updates and anonymised case studies supported Saxo’s innovation agenda and empowered their digital team.
Key Findings
Deployment
In order for us to be of most value to Saxo Bank, we spent significant effort in the early stages of our engagement becoming acquainted with their in-house media teams, from the channel heads to the more operational staff members, in their both London and Copenhagen offices. This allowed us to assess priorities, strengths and weaknesses, as well as any potential blockers to marketing growth. In order for us to gauge the standard of the media accounts in use, we conducted over 50 account audits, prioritising markets key to Saxo Bank first, and focused on quick win actions which would move the needle to their growth ambitions. This then allowed the lean in-house teams at Saxo Bank to action these insights efficiently.
Results
- Partnership: Extended our initial 3 month consultancy term in 2017 to a longstanding relationship.
- Innovative Solutions: Created and supplied bespoke dynamic creative optimisation (DCO) feeds that were subsequently used by Saxo’s paid social and programmatic display teams across a multitude of geographies.
- Advanced Analytics: Created a full funnel media attribution framework to measure the “true” value of the various marketing channels, allowing the business to make informed budgeting decisions.
