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With Week 4 of 6 now done and dusted, we can’t help but feel a twinge of sadness. With only 2 weeks now remaining–a placement week at JWT and a wrap-up week back at Squared–there is still plenty more learning to be done, but in some ways it’s the end of Squared life as we know it.
Over the past month we have come to know our respective working groups better than we ever thought we could. We’ve forged new relationships that challenge long-standing ones in terms of understanding, empathy, respect and fun! The unique culture of feedback and reflection has led to an affinity amongst us Squares that we are sad to leave behind, but excited to apply with our own teams back at JWT.
This week we were given our toughest brief yet–to increase value for a real client. Using all our learning to date, we were tasked with optimizing the online activity of a kids charity: improving their website, devising search and social media strategies, and offering up new, low-cost marketing solutions.
We’ve also continued to participate in lectures and workshops that broaden our digital skillsets and industry knowledge. These included a debate on Search Engine Marketing, exploring Google Analytics, a session with Guardian data journalist Simon Rogers, and some advanced thinking on budget-setting and demand-side management from Sam Dias of Brand Science.
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Jassmine:
For me, Project 3 has been the toughest yet. The other two briefs were hypothetical and we were able to be creative with ‘big’ ideas and not be too limited by budget constraints. For this brief, however, we were working on a real charity and a very limited budget. It meant that our recommendations had to be able to be easily implemented and simple for a client that had admitted they weren’t digital specialists. As we were working on a worthy cause, the pressure was on to suggest small wins that would yield big results. At the pitch, all of our recommendations were met with real enthusiasm from the charity’s representative and I hope our ideas have helped the charity see how to maximise the potential of digital marketing.
During the week we had a tool box about Data. We were introduced to Google Analytics and the various reports that can be created about websites. We made optimization recommendations based on reports such as what devices had been used to access pages, common landing pages, keyword performances and traffic sources. The tool was new to me but learning how to convert dwell times, page visits and bounce rates into recommendations for a client was really interesting. I also realized how useful the data could be in helping to inform creative decisions. You can learn quickly which web pages are engaging visitors and which need optimizing. You could even test creative ideas online and compare engagement levels. It’s a tool I will definitely be using in the future that could even assist with setting and measuring KPIs.
I’m really looking forward to getting back to JWT for our placement week next week. It will be great to catch up with my team and begin to implement some of my new learnings into my day to day account work.
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Sam:
Last week was definitely one of the most challenging in Squared, not only in terms of the project, but also in the knowledge that, like all good things, the programme is coming to an end. For the past two weeks we’ve been working in the same teams, in my case with just two other Squares, and it feels strange to think that we won’t work together again in such a close way.
Our project was for a real client on a real brief, and so of course felt much more serious than the previous two. In the first two days it seemed as though we were knocking our heads against restrictions: budget restrictions, time restrictions, brand restrictions. It quickly seemed as though this brief would be much less fun than the previous two – and yet, as the week wore on and we learnt more about our client, we became more invested in the project and soon the restrictions seemed more like challenges that we could put to use. For a charity client with a limited budget but with a huge community behind it, we identified social as a great opportunity and made this the crux of our presentation.
One of the most valuable things I’ve found from Squared is how incisive the presentation panels have been. None of them have been too polite to point out the holes in our ideas, or shied away from asking incisive questions about every single detail. I’ve found each session incredibly useful: there have been too many ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ moments to mention, and I’ve always left the presentations buzzing with a dozen more ideas than I came in with.
This week we’ll be back at JWT for to help compile our Industry Report – it’s going to be great to apply some of the lessons from Squared into the agency, and I can’t wait to get cracking on the report.
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Seth:
I’ll try not to echo my fellow Squares too much but I have to agree that it’s been a tough week: working through the challenges of a restrictive, real-life brief; delivering a practical, detail-laden presentation; feeling a genuine need to add value through our work to a truly worthy cause; and, of course, saying goodbye to our teams. Squared is drawing to a close and we’re all determined to make the most of the final fortnight.
Instead of dwelling on this, I want to write about a fantastic presentation on Finance we had this week from Sam Dias, Director at Brand Science. It was both educational and inspiring, explaining some of the bigger challenges Finance Directors face when working with clients, setting budgets and managing a portfolio. Working at JWT, we are on the demand side rather than the supply side of a business; we maximize the incoming cash flow. But historically, companies have invested most in streamlining supply as it’s less risky to work with what you’ve already got and it’s easier to measure. It’s really hard to predict that investment in marketing will actually grow revenue, but for better profits, companies need to work on top-line revenue growth. Ultimately, it’s up to us to persuade clients that we offer real ROI, using the measurement principles from supply side.
Many marketers choose their budget by adding inflation on media to last year’s spend, or analysing the advertising: sales ratio. But the most reliable way for Finance Directors to work out their optimal marketing budget is to look at financial contribution (sales revenue x margin – media or creative investment). This is the pure cash left in the business once you’ve factored in media or creative costs. Optimal budget is when financial contribution is at its peak, and its minimum is once financial contribution reaches a point that’s higher than where it stands at a marketing spend of zero (financial contribution dips once you start to spend on Marketing, only generating a return after you’ve spent a certain amount). By using previous stats you can estimate these figures and use them to suggest a budget to your clients.
The talk then explored how you might split your budget across different brands and markets, taking into account unique margins, response curves and financial contribution curves. Dividing proportionally is ineffective, so the best way to manage your portfolio is to work out the financial contribution for the entire portfolio, use its peak as your budget and then reallocate these funds across brands.
All this is just the tip of the iceberg the presentation covered, but I think it’s important to take the time to think about these crucial business issues and how they might affect us – especially in Account Management. It can be the best feeling to be thrown into a subject you know nothing about as your knowledge and understanding grows enormously in a really short space of time. This is an experience that the Squared programme consistently delivers.
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Katie:
This week I learnt a valuable lesson: the importance of focus. As with previous projects, we had a brief to work on with specific objectives to fulfil. However, during the week we didn’t assess our progress properly against these, and as a result our pitch did not directly answer the brief.
The objectives were to attract more donations and new supporters to a kids charity by optimizing their digital activity. The charity had limited budget and resources, so we had to deliver strategies that were realistic and affordable. For my team, it was a challenge adjusting from the bold, risk-taking attitude of previous weeks, and taking a more practical approach.
We began our work focused on the brief’s objectives, but because we were unused to having such targeted objectives and minimal budget, we found it difficult to come up with ideas. So we decided to come up with a creative idea and use it as a springboard to come up with real, measurable solutions.
And so I learnt my biggest lesson of Squared–never lose sight of the objectives. As we brainstormed, we became increasingly involved in the ideas themselves. What had started as a means to an end became the end itself. It would only have taken a little more application to interrogate our ideas and devise a strategy that successfully harnessed them to meet the objectives. Instead, because we didn’t ground our ideas against the brief, they flourished at the expense of delivering clearly defined solutions.
One of our Squared speaker said that creativity = innovation + relevance; it struck a chord when I heard it and it struck again on that pitch day. Our ideas were good and they were engaging, but because we did not closely tie them back to the objectives, it meant they were not developed into real, effective solutions when we articulated them in the pitch.
So my takeout from the experience is the importance of focusing on goals. At the start of any process, it’s imperative to identify your objectives and relentlessly check your progress against these. No matter what the task there is always an objective, even if it cannot be measured or defined in a conventional way. There is nothing wrong with trying an alternative approach as a means of sparking inspiration, but not at the expense of what you are working to achieve.
It’s a good lesson to take back to the agency on Monday when we start our placement. The Squared experience has been as revolutionary for us as the industry shifts it exists to initiate. We’ve learnt so much on a personal level about ways of working and behaviours, as well as the practical tools and industry knowledge. With all this in our heads it’s hard to know where to begin – but this week has taught me that I will add the most value by going back into the agency with a clear set of objectives of what I want to achieve from the week ahead.
Read last week’s post Getting [Squared]: The digital discussion.