Things were changing and we had to be flexible

Marketing has gone truly digital

... But not on its own. It has met someone along the way that would make a perfect companion. That is technology. And the successful digital transformation lies with those who get that partnership right.

Darren Parker was considering the evolution of marketing a few years back. He was with Hogarth, a world leader in creative production with a global community of over 4,000 people in 30 cities around the world. And the changes were constant with an ever-moving landscape.

TAKE THE CREATION OF AN AD CAMPAIGN

‍For a few decades, online advertising has completely revolutionised the practice. And so, with the unstoppable evolution of marketing and a rejection of silo-based thinking, the creative agency model has changed. These days, a new ad will involve technological and media challenges, and it is founded upon a different marketing workflow. A convergence of marketing and IT has led the way, but it was not always an easy partnership.

The centralised portal

The marketing industry has seen dramatic innovations and changes in the past decades. Getting your product to the marketplace is a completely different business now. Darren Parker faced this challenge as they set up Hogarth and faced a new world order. They needed to develop a holistic approach. They needed a product that would integrate all the planning, all the briefing, all the approvals, all the bookings, and all the jobs that come along. And they eventually settled for the Encodify platform.

“Things were changing, and we had to be flexible. We needed transparency to provide full visibility of all production activity, to help clients understand the costs, and we needed a centralised portal to help drive standardised ways of working,” says Darren Parker, while he considers how yet another change has swept through the marketing industry during the past months.

Now more than ever

Darren Parker joined Encodify just six months ago. He knew everything about the Encodify platform after having used it at Hogarth for years. And he saw it as a perfect match to explain to other agencies and production agencies the benefits of working on an integrated, holistic system like Encodify. Then something happened that would accelerate his entry into the Encodify family. Coronavirus arrived, and everyone was suddenly working remotely.

“Now, more than ever, you need centralised standards. You need clear communication across channels, dealing with multiple participants, and yet everyone is working remotely. You need accuracy. You need planning. You need an online way of exchanging briefing, estimates, and visibility on producing the final production work, ̈ explains Darren.

Coronavirus had everyone talking about the need to remain efficient when you cannot show up at the office. To Darren Parker, the talking was really the talk of a product he was already offering. Working remotely is the manifestation and illustration of how important it is to access a platform that manages communication online.

Digital takes all

The digital transformation arrived long ago. As such, advertising and production companies have always been at the forefront of the technological evolution simply because it is part of their identity. More often than not, you are introduced to advanced technological solutions via commercials and advertising, only you do not necessarily notice. It is just part of the digital transformation.

But the waves of digitisation have had an immense impact on the workflow in-house. There are many different contributors. And your digital transformation might leave you in the dark in terms of where time is spent. Or, even worse, where the cost lies.

“If you look at the world and the amount of content that is being created, then we need to offer people the chance of understanding along the way what is working and what is not,” Darren explains.

The answer to going fully digital is a platform where you can easily share and consolidate the information. A platform that will automatically bring any number of people working on a campaign on par with the progress.

“That platform should audit and show us every step of the activity, and this is exactly what Encodify does for agencies,” says Darren.

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