To be clear, during my career, I rarely had the opportunity to work with Experian. Since part of my previous career was drowning in data, I was still familiar with Experian Marketing Services for its famous MOSAIC segmentation and other data-driven solutions.
As for the management of emailing campaigns However, I'd never had a chance to use it (or even see a demo of it, so I'm half-pardoned). Incidentally, Experian recently released a brand new campaign management solution called Cross-Channel Marketing Platform. This adds a cross-channel dimension where previous solutions were mainly email-oriented.
Beginning of the day: contextualization of Experian Marketing Services' email marketing solutions
I started this day with a small overview of the structure of Experian Marketing Services (and its different businesses) presented by Philippe Richard (Director EMEA Delivery) followed by a presentation of the Cross-Channel Marketing Platform solution by Benoît Enée (Solutions Consulting Director).
First interesting information for me, the share of "Full service" clients of Experian Marketing Services in France is amazing (without disclosing any figures or names 😉 ). Compared to other players in the sector, it's even quite strange. By Experian Marketing Services' own admission, little communication is done about it, but it's a service they "naturally" offer to their clients.
As for the Cross-Channel Marketing Platform tool, which comes as a cross-channel alternative to the previous email-oriented solution (which is still being developed), we are faced with a solution that is clearly trying to take on the other campaign management solutions on the market. It's hard to make a definitive opinion after 45 minutes of demo, but this solution lacks a few tools, but it seems to me to be very young (if you have an "advertiser" testimonial to give me, I'd love to hear it, the comments are there for that).
Luncheon: Experian's vision
The lunch break (if you can call it that) was an opportunity to meet Stéphane Baranzelli (Managing Director) and Pascal Bertoux (Client Management Director). Around the buffet of the Casino Barrière de Lille (yes, I was well treated :-D), we were able to discuss our vision of the emailing market in France, the difficulties of the email acquisition sector and the latest trends. One thing is certain, Experian Marketing Services has definitely entered the world of cross-channel marketing and understands the challenges ahead. However, it's not an easy market. The CPM for email routing continues to fall, the market is saturated with new players (when it's not foreign players trying their luck in France) and it's not always easy to develop expertise in this context.
The conclusions of our discussions? The market will continue to concentrate. There have already been quite a few takeovers and name changes in the sector, and this is certainly not over.
Afternoon: Discovery of the premises ... and the design studio!
In the early afternoon, a short digestive walk in the premises. You should know that the Experian team is divided between Lille and Paris. In the Lille offices, there are more than a hundred employees, including a good part of technicians: support, development, project managers, ...
It was an opportunity for me to talk for a few minutes with a 4-person deliverability team (ISP relations, development of monitoring tools, incident resolution, etc.) and to measure Experian's "full service" strike force.
But the biggest revelation will come at the very end of the day. This revelation is Experian's creative studio that works on email design production, email HTML integration, event device design, ... and I can tell you that the portfolio is worth a look (even if unfortunately it can't be published here). I had the opportunity to chat for more than an hour with the director of the Design Studio, Antoine Charletand I can tell you that there are few specialized teams like that in France. My hat is off to you.
In conclusion
In conclusion, I expected to see tools, data ... and I mostly saw a production force! This was my comment at the end of the day to the marketing team: why the hell don't you put all this forward a bit more 😉
2 réponses
Hello
I am a little disappointed with the content of this article... I follow you regularly and I like your articles .... For the first time I find this one to be a big publicity stunt .... I like the expertise you bring in your articles .... But the .... I don't follow you anymore .... Having seen this routing platform up close I can tell you that they have the same problems as the others .... The same problems of deliverability... So yes their cross channel solution may be magic but when you don't deliver .... It's useless .... I understand the idea that you are trying to convey but for me the sinews of war is above all in the deliverability ....
Hello Odile,
Thank you for your comment. As I said in the article, I haven't had the opportunity to test the platform in depth... and so it's difficult for me to give a precise opinion on possible deliverability concerns.
For the "publicity stunt", this is not at all the objective and apart from a meal, I did not receive any remuneration (when I do, it is clearly indicated). Here, the objective was really to meet the teams and to make discover the company without necessarily "going into the bacon" 🙂
However, feel free to elaborate a bit more on Experian's emailing platforms and I'll make sure they answer you.
See you soon,
Jonathan