This slide deck provides an in-depth look at the digital services company HUGE and a consulting analysis of recommended strategic actions for the company's future.

1. HUGEAnd Digital Services
Group 7
Gabriella Kawilarang
Minjae Park
Kripa Shroff
Leanne Tremblay

2. What We Do
• Digital Business
– Creating products and services that transform
organizations for the digital economy
• Integrated marketing
– Building brands and driving sales with a cross-channel,
digitally-led approach to communications
• Strong focus on UX
– Simple, elegant, and easy-to-use platforms

3. “The value of our brand is synonymous with the
quality of our work: Remaining excellent”
Brand Mission

4. What Does it Take to Win?

5. What Does it Take to Win?

6. Incorporate both full digital services
and traditional services
What Does it Take to Win?

7. To reach revenue levels in the
hundreds of millions that will put
them in the top 25 digital agencies
in the US by revenue level
Strategic Goal

8. How could HUGE best grow
without compromising the
firm’s reputation for
excellence?
Core Question

9. • Steady as She Goes
• Retainer Relationships
• Geographic Expansion
• Healthcare
• Expanded Traditional Services
Possible Solutions

10. Steady as She Goes
Possible Solution #1

11. Continue with their
current strategy
Steady as She Goes

12. “HUGE had reached the point where the growth
for which (Shapiro) was hoping- to revenue
levels in the hundreds of millions- would require
a shift in strategy”
Challenge to Steady as She
Goes

13. Retainer Relationships
Possible Solution #2

14. • Expand the proportion of clients with which
HUGE had a long-term retainer relationship
with
• Positioning itself as a recurring component of
companies marketing budgets
Retainer Relationships

15. “CMO tenure gradually decreased from 24
months in 2004 to 22 months in 2010-
compared to about six years for CEOs and four
years for CFOs.”
Challenges to Retainer
Relationships

16. “HUGE shied away from engagements primarily
focused on campaign-based marketing, such as
display advertising or PPC search marketing…
this stance was not without significant
opportunity cost…”
Challenges to Retainer
Relationships

17. “[If HUGE] was trying to expand the proportion
of clients with which HUGE had a long-term
retainer relationships… HUGE could find itself
doing digital marketing projects - such as display
advertising and search marketing.”
Challenges to Retainer
Relationships

18. “HUGE did not pursue [digital offerings forcing
clients to come back for any revisions or
enhancements] because senior management
viewed it as unethical and ineffective to create
digital products that client could not support or
maintain themselves”.
Retainer Relationships

19. Geographic Expansion
Possible Solution #3

20. Exporting what had worked so well
in New York to other cities and
even other countries
Geographic Expansion

21. “... difficult to scale due to scarce
talent in the marketplace and
conflicting client needs.”
Challenges to Geographic
Expansion

22. Only 5 countries of the countries in the “World
eCommerce Statics 2009” have a higher
ecommerce rate than USA
20% eCommerce rates indicate 80% retail
commerce rates
Challenges to Geographic
Expansion

23. Average proportion of the population that are
technologically savvy in US is 6%
Challenges to Geographic
Expansion

24. Health Care
Possible Solution #4

25. Targeting a new market
segment that spent
approximately $1 billion online
Healthcare

26. Heath Care growth rate is almost half the growth rate of
search marketing and display advertising
Healthcare

27. Health Care is a $1.5 billion market
compared to display and search that are a
$47.3 billion market.
Healthcare

28. Digitas and Razorfish have established
independent healthcare practices and
already offer full-service digital services.
Healthcare

29. Weak demand in the common
consumers who say they would use
social media, Chat/IM, and online
forum channels with their doctors
Healthcare

30. What people say is different from
what people actually do
Healthcare

31. Expanded Traditional
Services
Possible Solution #4

32. Expansion of offerings into more
conventional marketing services, including
heavier emphasis on display advertising
and search marketing, as well as expanding
IT offering to offer robust technical
support, with possible efforts in PR, print,
and TV advertising
Expanded Traditional Services

33. “As networks, platforms, and programming
became more central to modern marketing,
digital evangelists emphasized that marketers
‘need to think like software companies’ and
cultivate hybrid marketer/developer specialists
‘who understand tech from a marketing and
brand perspective, and who have a consumer
mindset’”
The Optimal Solution

34. “Established marketing agencies like Ogilvy and Leo
Burnett rapidly developed digital practices that often
benefited from strong brand affiliation and well-
established client relationships in the industry… IT
providers such as Sapient and IBM, began to expand their
practices to fuller digital strategy as firms began to move
from internal systems to web-based platforms. Like
traditional marketing, IT firms leveraged brand name and
client relationships to become some of the largest digital
consultants in the U.S. Their main challenge was
mastering the creative and UX design side of digital
marketing.”
The Optimal Solution

35. “HUGE took great effort in positioning itself as a one-stop
shop for clients seeking to navigate the digital
convergence. Consistent with its founding emphasis on
integrated digital marketing services, HUGE’s leadership
felt that the future of the firm lay in being a digital ‘uber-
firm’ that handled general marketing strategy as well as
the design of digital products and campaigns, along with
technical implementation. This one -stop shop approach
shop approach was viewed as being critical to long-term
success because Shapiro and his staff believed that within
the next decade ‘there will be no specific digital industry
because everything will be digital.’”
The Optimal Solution

36. Search and display digital advertising, which
HUGE has not offered in the past, accounts for
about 70% of the overall digital budget
FORECAST FOR 2016
The Optimal Solution
Social
Media
Email Mobile DISPLAY SEARCH Total
4,995 2,468 8,237 27,600 33,319 76,619

37. Even though Internet is growing at 15.7%, the
combined growth rate of other media excluding
Magazines and Newspapers is larger than the internet
growth rate.
The Optimal Solution
Source: Exhibit 9 Huge and Digital Services Case

38. Search and Display are growing at about 20%
each year, which is higher than the yearly
growth of the health market and also the other
digital strategies they currently incorporate.
The Optimal Solution

39. Competitors and Complements –
“HUGE found itself constantly working
to evolve its capabilities just as other
industry players, change for us is the
norm” –CEO Shapiro
The Optimal Solution

40. HUGE will be able to expand their capabilities
and maintain their flat organizational and
entrepreneurial structure with their ability to
move to a larger office space and have the
creative talent to tap into as they currently have
less than a half a percent hiring rate
Feasibility

41. • We have understood the context for the decision and
the overall strategic goals of the organization and
thought in alignment with these goals
• We have framed the problem correctly and asked the
right question(s) and we can show that our framing is
the best
• We have identified the widest feasible range of
options for the decision and established a fair and
rational process for evaluating these options
• We have made a decision and can demonstrate that
our decision is the best from the available options
• We have a realistic and achievable decision
Evaluation

42. By implementing the expansion of
traditional services, HUGE will be able to
increase their revenues into the hundreds
of millions of dollars while maintaining
their commitment to excellence
Conclusion

43. Thank You

44. We are happy to take any
questions at this time.