Steve Lok of The Economist delivered this session at the MarTech Festival, 16th November, London. #MarTechFest

1. Steve Lok
Global Head of Martech & Ops
The Economist
SUPERNOVA:
Centralised Data Platforms (CDPs)
blow sh*t up at The Economist
#MarTechFest

2. I HAVE A SECRET.
I am a 62 year old British woman.
< $20,000
> $500,000
Single
But I'm also married with 1-3 teens and 2-4 toddlers
(so that’s where all my money goes?)
I'm also a 39 year old American man.

3. WE
ARE
LIVING
IN
AN
ERA
OF
MISTAKEN
IDENTITIES

4. OUR CORE
VALUES:
ACCURACY &
PREDICTION

5. DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION SAYS WHAT?

6. The Economist
is a
(Profitable)
Newspaper

7. Traditonal
advertising was
not exactly a
growth area
$65.8B
2000
$23.6B
2015

8. WE NEEDED MORE PROSPECTS
73 Million
“Globally Curious”

9. > $500k salary
Single
WE LEARN — AS OUR READERS LEARN

10. > $500k salary
Single
WE NEEDED A CUSTOMER PLAYGROUND

11. Triangle of Growth
Warning: POWERFUL TRIANGLES

13. DMP
(3rd party data
management platform)
2014
Programmatic
(2nd party data)
2015
CDP
(1st party customer data
platform)
2016
Opportunity
2017
EVOLVING TECH

14. > $500k salary
Single
1:1 EXPERIENCE:
POWERED BY ONSITE BEHAVIOR
AND DATA SCIENCE
Likely to subscribe
Content Affinity
for Brexit
WHAT WE BUILT

15. DEEPER, MORE CUSTOM
CONTENT HUB AROUND KEY TOPICS
> $500k salary
Single
WHAT WE BUILT
TRUMP BREXIT FRENCH ELECTION

16. WIN
Journey
Customer
Knowledge
Location
Behavior Patterns
Product Relationships
Preferences
Channel Consistency
Processes and UI
PERSONALIZATION
One to One
One to Few
One to Many
Foundation
CONTEXT
Source: Adapted from Gartner report on Personalization, June 2015

17. USER CONTEXT
COMPREHENSIVE PROFILES
Apps
Media Touch Points
CRM Data
Customer Data
Leads / Email /
Call Center
Websites
HOW WE POWERED IT

18. INTELLIGENT PROFILES
WITH DATA SCIENCE-BASED INSIGHTS
Data-agnostic
Structure-agnostic
Source-agnostic
• 1st Party
• 2nd Party
• 3rd Party
Behavioral Scoring
“High Momentum”
Predictive Insights
“Likely to engage”
HOW WE POWERED IT

19. CONTENT CONTEXT:
DATA SCIENCE-BASED USER AFFINITIES
HOW WE POWERED IT

20. AI-DRIVEN, CONTENT CONTEXTUALIZATION
Propensity to Subscribe
Source: Adapted from OpenTopic & IBM Watson on Cognitive Marketing, 2015

21. PREDICTIVE AND PROPENSITY:
From Ad-Click to Subscribe-Click
Complexity of
Intent EYE KNO YOU
Customer
Intelligence
Capability

22. COMBINING
IT ALL
Likely to
subscribe
Local story
based on
location
Custom
video list
Profiled
Video
Depth content
based on
content affinity
Discovery
content

23. We quadrupled
subscription
revenue in 3 years~$9M
2013
>$60M
2017

24. 13x INCREASE
martech budget in
3 years$150k
2014
>$2M
2017

25. Programmatic Principles
Cause a Seismic Shift in
Revenue
62%
2013
35%
2016
38%
2013
65%
2016

26. CASE STUDY:
MILLENNIALS CAMPAIGN
GOAL: INCREASE AWARENESS AND SUBSCRIPTION ADOPTION
WITHIN YOUNGER DEMOGRAPHIC

27. > $500k salary
Single
STEP 1: TARGETED LYTICS AUDIENCES
+ Email: ending with .edu
+ Data enrichment: IP Addresses of US/UK University
+ Title: Student, Intern, or Grad Student
+ Predictive Modeling:
High propensity to become premium subscriber
- Exclude: Current subscribers (and low propensity prospects)
(not channel-first, or ad platform-first)

28. > $500k salary
Single
STEP 2: FIND INDIVIDUALS ACROSS DIGITAL
True Multichannel
Campaign
• Facebook
• Snapchat
• Google ads
It works: 35% of ad-
driven subscriptions by
millennials

29. > $500k salary
Single
STEP 3: ON-SITE PERSONALIZATION
Hold Up!
Free Megatech Book!
This works too:
• 9% Click through rate
• On-site conversion rates
for targeted audiences?
5-10x higher

30. TL;DR: SMARTER, MODELED AUDIENCES WORK
ROAS
[
[
BAU Segments:
$2.89
Lytics Segment:
$3.95
EFFICIENCY LEVEL UP!
37% Improvement on
Return On Ad Spend
ROI? YOU BETCHA.
< 1 month payback on
CDP investment

31. COST PER ACQUISITION (CPA) WINS: GO LOW
Data-agnostic
Structure-agnostic
Source-agnostic
• 1st Party
• 2nd Party
• 3rd Party
• MORE EFFICIENT PPC:
43% BETTER ROAS
• CONVERSION RATE
IMPROVEMENTS:
NEAR 200%
• SCALE:
13% OF SEARCH
CONVERSIONS
[
[
Business As Usual
Audiences
$35
Lytics-Powered
Audiences
$20
CPA

32. 1. Data Science as a commoditized utility – services for sale
2. Major movement in brands to own their own customer
data and tech stacks (+GDPR)
3. Programmatic Orchestration – from Ads all the way to
TV and Outdoor, to paper and post direct mail
4. Shifting to audiences of ONE and away from channel-
based measurement, optimization and planning
2018: PROGRAMMATIC IS PERSONALISATION

33. COLOR THAT FOR ME:
WHAT NOW?

34. Gosh
Darn
Privacy
Rights
General
Data
Protection
Regulation

35. 1. Companies: From “guidance” to “regulation”
2. Customers: From participants to owners
GDPR: SHIFTING ATTITUDES
UK/EU to US: “Please, take this seriously. Please.”

36. YOUR CHALLENGE?

37. CHAOS vs. CUSTOMER

38. REINVENT THE WHEEL
CDP

39. Steve Lok
Global Head of Martech & Ops
The Economist
SUPERNOVA:
Centralised Data Platforms (CDPs)
blow sh*t up at The Economist
stevelok@economist.com
#MarTechFest