Find out how PwC used a new MA platform to make a step-change in its digital campaigns while increasing customer engagement.
About the client company
PwC is one of the UK’s leading professional services firms. It has over 22,000 people, offices across the country and are part of a global network of firms.
Specific issues or challenges to be addressed
UK marketing seized the opportunity of a new global CRM system to present the case for making a leap forwards in martech. No such global investment was forthcoming for marketing, but PwC could see the huge potential of a fully integrated MA and CRM system.
PwC developed a vision which spoke to a future where all its marketing technologies would speak to each other and build a 360 degree view of individuals. PwC aspired “to create a frictionless digital experience across channels for its people, alumni and clients.”
Underpinned by this vision, PwC built a UK business case for MA, which resulted in an RFP and decision to implement a brand new product. Other platforms dominated the PwC MA landscape, but it felt strongly as a system, which would seamlessly integrate with CRM was the right strategy.
Objectives
PWC was striving to:
- Create a best in class customer experience
- Identify leads based on signals and behaviours that could be tracked
- Ensure sales teams could have informed client conversations, taking marketing engagement into account
- Support a managed interaction level with key audiences
- Deliver efficiencies by reducing manual processes
- Upskill the function in best-in-class digital marketing
- Protect the firm from data protection risk
Existing martech infrastucture
In the UK, PwC didn’t so much as have a ‘stack’ as a collection of individual products. They had an email marketing platform, separate tools for social listening and publishing and no integration between these and its CRM system or website. This setup was replicated globally and in 2018, it had 12 standalone MA systems.
This project focused on bringing together these disparate systems, starting in year 1 with implementing its first MA platform, integrating this with CRM and using a combined social listening and publishing tool within MA
Strategy and roadmap development
Before leaping into implementation, PwC conducted a 6-week strategic assessment, working alongside the vendor, its Consulting practice and IT focused on:
- Mapping out existing processes
- Conducting data discovery workshops
- Undertaking a benchmarking exercise with Salesforce
- Leading stakeholder engagement workshops
- Developing a ‘crawl, walk, run’ strategy.
PwC’s implementation lasted approximately 4 months, with oversight from a multi-functional and vendor steering group. It centered on 3 key workstreams:
- Technical implementation, including data
- Operations and process redesign
- Change management.
It was an incredibly fast-paced and complex programme during which PwC formed excellent working and personal relationships with all involved.
Deployment
The biggest challenge it faced was that of behavioural change amongst its 100 marketers.
To encourage a greater chance of adoption, PwC made this a programme led out of marketing and brought onboard a change manager from its consulting practice to support throughout.
PwC trained over 100 people in how to use the platform and defined roles that would ultimately see half of the function regularly using it to build emails, design journeys and access their data.
PwC put in place a ‘coach community’ to answer questions, in conjunction with launching a Google site dedicated to all the training materials people would need.
Once it was up and running, PwC went on to recruit 3 deep MA experts to help scale PwC’s usage of the platform and its advanced capabilities, and to make it more self-sufficient.
At the same time as leading this change, PwC developed a further business case for a new team – the Digital Marketing team. This is now a team of 16 with MA within its responsibilities, that works across digital channels to bring the best of digital strategy and martech to its campaigns.
Impact on the business
Going global
With its vision and digital campaigns gaining global traction, the UK started to share its experience globally. In under 6 months there was the global decision to switch all MA platforms over to a single instance, a courageous move representing significant change.
The UK team has since been supporting Global Marketing and IT in its roll-out. The PwC firms in the UK, US, Canada, Germany and Switzerland are all now on a single instance, with the Middle East, Australia and others following before Christmas.
This change has also paved the way for a new global MarTech governance structure which sees all major MarTech decisions now being made together.
Outcomes for the UK
In year , PwC delivered against a number of targets which had been set to demonstrate early business value:
- Increased efficiency:
- Target of reducing data administration roles with reinvestment back into specialist Marketing Cloud roles
- Enabled by automating highly manual processes.
- Improved client experience:
- 3% increase in ‘click-to-open’ rate
- 33% reduction in email volumes
- 50% reduction in unsubscribes
- Delivered through enhanced targeting, new content and design processes, greater personalisation etc.
- Transforming campaigns: For example, PwC’s recent ‘Value Creation in Deals’ campaign pioneered using Marketing Cloud to deliver leads which have been tracked through to revenues.
ROI (and budgeting)
ROI was measured through two key areas – greater efficiency and improved client experience. Efficiency targets were set and increased automation and consolidation of its platforms was expected to contribute 30% of Sales and Marketing’s overall efficiency goals. These targets were met in year 1.
ROI in terms of improved client engagement is still being realised. Whilst initial engagement targets have been met or exceeded, the ongoing change programme and further integrations planned for 2020 mean some of the benefits will come later.
“Marketing Cloud is really changing the way we deliver marketing; helping us listen and respond to our clients, measure the impact of what we do and develop and upskill our people. The UK team’s impact on our global MarTech roadmap has been phenomenal. PwC is a huge and complex organisation, but we have inspired a move that now sees us for the first time working across common platforms!”
Lucy Birch, head of marketing, PwC UK