A digital division built from zero, across seven markets, with four creative awards
How does a traditional advertising agency become digital without losing its clients or its soul? Not with a memo. Between 2011 and 2017, as head of digital then co-managing director of Saatchi & Saatchi's agency within Master Group, part of the Publicis network, I led that shift across the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean: Reunion, Mauritius, Mayotte, Madagascar, South Africa, Martinique and Guadeloupe.
The starting point was zero: no digital team, no digital revenue, clients who bought print and TV. The end point was three direct reports and a twelve-person digital division, interns and temporary staff included, working across seven territories, for global brands from Mercedes and Volkswagen to Coca-Cola, Heineken, Orange, Total and Unilever. And it did not wait for the market to ask: the agency ran the region's digital conference cycle itself, the Matinales du Digital then a Brand Content cycle, with a session delivered to the MEDEF. Four creative awards between 2013 and 2015, including a first prize for corporate film, proved that performance and craft could share a building.
This is the case where I learned to change an organisation while it kept running. Every mandate since has drawn on it.
In 2011, Saatchi & Saatchi's agency within Master Group was a strong traditional shop in a region of island markets. Global clients were starting to ask digital questions their local agency could not answer. The choice was simple and existential: build the capability, or watch the briefs migrate to Paris and Johannesburg.
Island markets, global standards. A campaign for Mercedes or Coca-Cola had to meet worldwide brand requirements, on budgets a fraction of continental ones, with talent that had to be trained locally because it could not be hired locally. Seven markets, each with its own media landscape and buying habits. And the transformation had to be financed by the agency's existing business, while that business kept serving its clients every day.
1 · A division, not a department.
Digital was built as a profit centre with its own team, own P&L logic and own standards, not as a support function bolted onto the creative floor.
2 · Train, then hire, then train again.
The team, three direct reports and twelve people counting interns and temporary staff, was largely grown rather than bought: local talent trained on global tools and methods, until the region could deliver work that survived a worldwide brand review. Finance, legal, HR and IT stayed with the group, so the division carried craft, not overhead.
3 · Sell results, not formats.
The market did not exist yet, so the agency created the room where it would be discussed. The Matinales du Digital ran two years running, the Brand Content cycle followed, and it included a session delivered to the MEDEF. A conference on the online reputation of public institutions was built for an audience of public bodies and chambers of commerce. The 2014 business plan named it plainly as a strength: the only agency that regularly animates the market.
4 · Keep the craft ambition.
Four creative awards between 2013 and 2015, including a first prize for corporate film and digital design awards. Award-level craft kept the agency's soul intact and its pricing premium.
5 · Anchor it in the ecosystem.
Board member of Digital Reunion, president of its software publishers committee (2014-2016), AACC member (2012-2016). The division became part of the region's digital infrastructure, not a passing initiative.
All figures 2011-2017.
- A digital division built from scratch, three direct reports and a twelve-person team
- Seven territories served: Reunion, Mauritius, Mayotte, Madagascar, South Africa, Martinique, Guadeloupe
- The region's digital conference cycle created and run by the agency, the Matinales du Digital then the Brand Content cycle
- A session delivered to the MEDEF, and a conference on the online reputation of public institutions, built for an audience of public bodies and chambers of commerce
- 4 creative awards (2013-2015), including 1st prize corporate film and digital design awards
Building a capability inside a running organisation is a different skill from running campaigns. It needs a system, patience with people and impatience with excuses. If your company needs to become something it is not yet, this is the case to read twice.
A digital division is judged on what it produces for its clients. Nine systems from the period are documented page by page, each with its numbers and its weak point.
The launch whose weak link was the dealership
Premium car launch, 2015. A system measured from impression to sale, and a network that worked only 29% of the hot leads.
The premium brand measured all the way to the counter
Premium spirits, 2014-2016. From paid social to tasting to purchase at the shelf, with the pass-through rate published at every step.
Seven hundred and ten euros, and a three-figure effect
Home improvement retailer, 2013-2014. A before-after measurement on an isolated perimeter, on a trivial budget, with a three-figure effect.
Running a destination brand on an international market
Destination brand, 2012-2014. Community up 128% in six months, and a sixfold cost per sign-up gap between two European markets.
Half the agency's margin came from business I had won
2013. Business development: 51% of annual gross margin brought in as new business, and next year's budget built on what actually happened.
Publishing prices and lead times, in an agency, in 2014
2014. A 76-page catalogue in product lines, with published price and committed lead time, backed by 1.2 billion impressions a year.
The client was cutting print because it proved nothing
2016. Taking media budget with a test campaign: 6.73% click-through on the best ad group and only 45% bounce.
Digitising a travel agency, from shop window to back office
2012-2015. Site, back office, online shop, quote tool and in-store screens. An account multiplied seventeenfold in three years.
Owning a category on a market where nobody keeps the pace
2012-2014. A community more than thirty times larger than the best established competitor, cost per follower at a third of the market, editorial plan beaten by 33%.
A capability to build, beyond the next campaign?
The first call30 minutes. We talk about your traction and what is blocking it. You leave with 2 or 3 moves you can act on. No pitch.