These days, brands are swimming in data. And using that data to drive marketing decisions requires a unified vision.
However, within a single brand, in-house teams and agency partners can be responsible for overseeing different parts of a campaign, or even separate campaigns with entirely different goals. And as brands bring on new agency partners, knowledge sharing across these teams is key.
On Wednesday, automated programmatic buying platform Basis Technologies introduced Unify, a new feature in its DSP that gives brands centralized control over their data and ad operations. The feature is available to all advertisers that use Basis’ platform.
Unify facilitates data access and campaign planning across a brand’s in-house departments and external teams, while also providing account support, said Grace Briscoe, EVP of client development at Basis.
Plus, as brands inevitably bring in new teams to handle different campaigns over time, Unify helps them keep track of historical data that would have previously been forgotten or remained siloed, Briscoe said.
Basis has been testing Unify for more than a year alongside one of its longtime clients, real estate company Re/Max. And the brand has found Unify useful for coordinating different campaign operations across its independent franchisees, as well as its in-house and agency teams, said Abby Lee, EVP of marketing, communications and events at Re/Max.
Cross-campaign insights
Re/Max works with the agency Tombras on its brand awareness campaigns, Lee said. However, Re/Max’s in-house marketing team handles campaigns aimed at recruiting new real estate agents.
But some campaign data and insights that are relevant for optimizing brand awareness campaigns can also be useful for recruitment campaigns, and vice-versa, Lee said. For example, there could be audience overlaps between the cohorts Re/Max is targeting for its recruitment efforts and its brand-building efforts, she said.
Until Re/Max began testing Unify, it didn’t have an easy way for its in-house teams and agency teams to share and learn from each other’s campaign insights, Lee said. But using Unify, “we’ve been able to put those dots together,” she said.
Instead of Re/Max’s agency account reps having to wait for its in-house team to provide requested insights, the agency reps now have a window into Re/Max’s seat in Basis’ DSP, and they can pull the data themselves, Lee said.
Plus, Unify provides accountability for how these data assets are being used, as well as accountability for wider campaign efforts.
For example, Re/Max requires its franchisees to contribute to centralized marketing funds that are managed by the wider company, Lee said. Through Unify, Re/Max can more easily surface for its franchisees real-time insights derived from these campaigns, which “helps them build confidence in what we’re doing as a brand,” she said.
Previously, it would take Re/Max multiple days to pull that kind of reporting and share it with franchisees, which led to a lot of frustration, Lee added.
Data governance
Of course, opening up data sharing and access across teams could carry potential liabilities, given tightening standards and increasingly strict legislation around data governance.
With those concerns in mind, Basis has designed Unify with “robust permissioning and controls,” Basis’ Briscoe said. It gives brands the ability to wall off certain pieces of data and choose which users have access and permission to use certain data in campaign decisioning.
Controlling data access at that level also allows Re/Max to securely share data with outside experts and consultants beyond their agency reps, Re/Max’s Lee said, which gives the brand more flexibility in how it draws insights from historical data.
“That’s valuable in terms of being able to utilize all the expertise that’s out there,” Lee said, “without having the agency get scared that someone else is getting into their chili – because, really, it’s our [DSP seat], so it’s our chili.”
