Hot off the back of a win at last month’s Performance Marketing Awards we spoke with OMG’s UK MD, Carla Arrindell, about her company’s award win, competitive edge and international expansion.
OMG walked away from last month’s Performance Marketing Awards as the winner of the Finance Award for its work with Legal & General. What do you think gave you the edge in this highly competitive category?
Carla Arrindell: Being the largest finance network is always going to help in this category and we are extremely proud of both the win and the highly commended, for our work with RBS. The level of regulation in finance has very specific challenges that introduce extra barriers to new activity, but our clients still want their performance programmes to be innovative and to drive extra value for them and their publishers. We see it as our role to achieving the right balance between these two drivers for each client and that means developing new opportunities and tailoring them to a client’s strategy and products. This approach to strategic planning combined with successfully engaging leading partners in finance as well as those at the cutting edge of new and innovative channels like mobile and programmatic, creates opportunities for clients to optimise their performance marketing as part of their wider digital piece.
Legal & General’s performance marketing programme helped it surge up the insurance rankings during 2013. How important is this recognition of the integral part that performance plays in today’s digital mix?
CA: Very! Within the industry it’s well recognised that performance as a part of the digital mix should be the norm, although across the wider marketing community the performance channel tends still to be undervalued. I think this win, and others on the night, is testament to the fact that without a performance programme most brands will struggle to deliver a robust and efficient digital strategy.
You released a report several months ago about the financial vertical’s high growth, how will you be taking advantage of this in the coming year?
CA: Yes – our last mobile insights report showed the rapid growth of mobile, consistent with what’s been seen across the industry and our latest report, due out this month, only strengthens that further. We’ll leverage this through delivering more technology, data and partner relationships to help our clients capitalise on this growing audience. There are a number of enhancements to our reporting suite that will provide granular data of activity through the funnel, by device and our in app and m.site tracking will continue to evolve, driving better value and incremental volume for clients.
As well as taking the stage to receive an award, you also presented the award for Global Excellence in performance marketing. Why was it important for you to be a part of this year’s Awards?
CA: It’s important to us to both showcase the achievements of our clients but also support the excellence in the industry as whole. As the only event that truly recognises the varied and complex strands that make up performance marketing, it reflects the increasing mix of services we offer. We’ve invested heavily in expanding our operations across the world and have achieved great success with our affiliate networks in India, Australia and Brazil. This expansion has been important in enabling investment in technologies serving travel and retail sectors for brands like Vodafone, Walmart and Expedia, helping brands launch affiliate programmes in new high-growth regions. The combination of our innovative solutions and high calibre service, means were well placed to both develop global performance marketing for brands and establish a reputation for excellence for non-finance brands in the UK.