Dentsu Aegis delivers high-level marketing analytics to clients with ‘Heartbeat’ powered by Tableau

One of the key services that the Dentsu Aegis data teams offer clients is detailed marketing analytics in key areas such as brand awareness and campaign recognition. These insights help clients to accurately measure overall brand health, understand ROI and deliver effective future campaigns.

In the past, much of this analytics was based on brand health metrics from survey data that was manually collected, processed and compiled into numerous static reports, each focusing on a different area of marketing activity. However, the survey data’s heavy focus on traditional channels, such as TV and print, made it hard to understand the effect of digital channels. Furthermore, the delivery of key findings in up to 10 separate reports made it difficult for clients to see the whole picture in a clear and concise way.

“A new approach was needed to reduce time-to-insight for our clients, as well as create a more comprehensive overview of the entire marketing funnel, not just the top” says Lisette Hagenaars, market research team lead for Dentsu Aegis in the Netherlands.

In order to achieve this, the company created the ‘Heartbeat’ reporting tool, taking the information spread around in different data sources and combining it all into a single, fully interactive Tableau dashboard. Rather than relying solely on survey data, Lisette and her team also integrated data from tools such as Google Analytics and Salesforce in Tableau, along with data from in-house systems from each client. The result was a “single source of truth” dashboard, that combined offline and online data to show the trickle-down effect of media spends on the entire customer journey

“For the first time, advertisers had all relevant data in one place,” says Ingrid Pino, senior visual analytics specialist at Dentsu Aegis. “Not only that, but Tableau’s interactive interface allowed them to drill down into the trends and growth variations, helping them to quickly understand how different marketing activities affected brand awareness, perception and purchasing decisions.”

Tableau, combined with improvements in the survey process, has helped Dentsu Aegis move from quarterly reporting to much more regular updates.

“Everything is much closer to real-time now than was previously possible”, says Lisette. “This allows our teams and clients to react faster and maximise ROI on their marketing spends.”