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Heralding the Era of Data Collaboration: Direct Line Group at MAD//Fest 2024

  • Jules McGinlay
  • 4 min read

This year’s MAD//Fest was full to the brim with advertisers eager to get a taste of the industry’s next big thing – data collaboration. There was lots of discussion surrounding the atmospheric rise of retail media, including how brands across verticals are using data of trusted partners to better understand the customer journey, amplify the relevance of their campaigns and reduce wastage. As such, data collaboration is propelling a paradigm shift in the advertising world and Direct Line Group is amongst the leading brands leveraging this approach. 

As one of the UK’s largest insurance companies and home to some of the best-known brands including Direct Line, Churchill, and Green Flag, DLG has access to large swathes of first-party data through its loyal customers. Over the past few years, DLG has been on a journey, in partnership with LiveRamp, to make this data actionable and drive media and operational value for the business.

As a partner with the advertising festival, LiveRamp’s UK MD, Hugh Stevens held a fire-side chat with Sam Taylor, DLG’s Interim Marketing Director (EXCO-1), who has been DLG’s leading force for this journey. Sam gave an overview of DLG’s data collaboration story, including what changes needed to be implemented across the organisation, what expertise was championed, how the thinking behind marketing needed to change, as well as how Sam could bring the C-suite along for the ride.

The marketing engine room

Sam began with an overview of his role at DLG, which was a recently created posting. Tasked with breaking down the silos of the marketing ‘engine room’, Sam recognised that DLG’s first-party data was locked up across its departments, including its CRM team. 

Legacy structures and tactics for individual marketing channels (common in long-standing corporations) meant that data-led, customer-centric messaging across omnichannel touchpoints was impossible for DLG. In an ‘Age of Customer Experience’, when consumers expect consistent messaging no matter the format chosen, Sam explained that this jeopardised DLG’s brand value.  Moreover, Sam identified an overall lack of communication across teams, as well as a reluctance to activate data from a privacy perspective (in this new data-led advertising ecosystem, Sam highlighted that the CIOs and DPOs are the king-makers).

Challenging the ‘status quo’ and transforming both the marketing culture and capability surrounding data, Sam was proactive in bringing in the right expertise. This included creating a data-literate CRM team, formed of coders and data scientists, as well as ensuring that the privacy team was aligned on the same objectives and motivations: growing DLG’s business through data. This was a long process that required lots of relationship-building across the organisation and persistence, but the result is that DLG is now a data-savvy business from top to bottom.

Data-led strategies 

Sam outlined that not only do the necessary soft skills need to be in place, but the technology too. First-party data has always been around, but it is not until relatively recently that solutions have been able to make it actionable in driving business value. 

By working with LiveRamp’s team and implementing its enhanced data clean room technology, Sam explained that DLG can now drive mass personalisation and performance campaigns across the full range of digital channels, including non-endemic / commerce media and both linear and Connected TV environments (CTV). 

Previously, DLG’s approach was strictly focused on the top of the funnel, with marketing budget spent on brand and acquisition, in the form of cinematic but expensive TV-based campaigns. Now, the approach has flipped, thanks to DLG’s ability to better understand its audiences within its CRM, and use that data to inform long-term media planning for brand awareness and the top of the funnel. 

This has also reduced wastage, with more precisely-targeted campaigns to consumers with greater propensity to spend. Again, this ‘customer-first, channel-second’ approach demanded a gear change in thinking for marketing teams, from brand activation to acquisition and CRM initiatives.

Moreover, by working within LiveRamp’s data clean room, DLG can collaborate privacy-centrically with other owners of high-quality data, blending these first-party and third-party datasets to drive better outcomes for DLG’s customers and the business. This enables, in Sam’s words, the ‘utopia state of measurement’, offering detailed and timely insights to close the loop on transactions.

Not only is this of considerable value for optimisation across long-term media planning, including campaign creative, timing effectiveness, and geographical impact, but it is of great importance when bringing in the C-suite. Indeed, Sam explained that as part of implementing change, immediately translatable use cases and outcomes are of more value to business stakeholders than a focus on the tech behind it.

How can other brands emulate DLG’s success?

Wrapping up, Hugh asked what three pieces of advice he would give to marketers embarking on the data collaboration journey. Sam responded that this is not an overnight process. ‘Blood, sweat and tears’ need to be invested in ensuring the business is ready internally. Whether that’s changing the internal language, hiring the right people, working with the right tech partners, as well as setting achievable and understandable short-term goals. This is particularly important for the C-suite, which was Sam’s second point: seamlessly communicating success and results of data-led strategies to secure stakeholder buy-in. Finally, Sam prioritised starting small but scaling fast. Data collaboration is a Galilean shift, and brands are already well underway with this journey. If you don’t start now, you’ll be left behind.

Watch the video of this discussion