WPP AUNZ launches Centre of Excellence to help clients navigate the digital landscape, drive maximum value from data + leverage investments

WPP AUNZ has launched the Centre of Excellence (COE), a new division that is advising clients to navigate the digital landscape, drive maximum value from their existing data, and fully leverage their martech investments.

The COE offer is a hub and spoke model, allowing all of our agency brands to tap into the tech capability.

Led by Adam Good (pictured above), executive director (marketing technology), the COE’s main focus is marketing automation. Through close partnerships with Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, Adobe, and Sitecore, the team creates innovative, client-first programs.

Spearheading the COE’s partnerships are three new strategic partner leads – Faye Mehl, Sean Gillespie, and Nhung Nguyen – who will be responsible for Microsoft, Adobe, and Salesforce respectively.

Mehl, Gillespie, and Nguyen joined WPP AUNZ earlier this year. They are responsible for client strategy, building partner communities across the group, developing client events and facilitating employee training programs. In addition, WPP AUNZ chief data scientist, Rob Pardini, will lead the COE from a data and research perspective.

The new COE brings together skilled practitioners from across WPP AUNZ to meet client needs. More than 300 employees have already been assessed on their tech platform competence and there are plans to aggressively grow this number. Employee training and development will be aligned to this so that individual and group capability is strengthened.

Says Good: “Marketing technology is a large client investment that requires continuous iteration. Collaboration between software vendors, internal client teams and agency teams is needed to maximise marketing performance. Our combination of creative thinking, technology expertise, content production and data insights will deliver greater customer value.

“The responsibility for marketing technology has shifted from the IT department to the marketing department in recent years as software and services moved into the cloud. The COE addresses that.”

Martech accounts for the largest portion of marketing budgets, with Gartner analysts estimating that it now represents 29 per cent of allocation1. Forrester Research forecasts that global spending will reach $US122 billion by 20222.

The launch of WPP AUNZ’s COE is a key strategic initiative under the leadership of CEO, Jens Monsees, who took the reins in October 2019.

Says Monsees: “All client and consumer interactions are based on data and tech capabilities. The COE creates new client opportunities in areas previously serviced by management consulting groups and systems integrators.

“We will work with clients to help them grow their business using our creativity, experience and data insight. We have already seen COE integration within AKQA, GroupM, IKON, Ogilvy, VMLY&R, whiteGREY, Haylix and Wunderman Thompson.”