Customer & Ecosystems Marketing at AIA

“Data is the new oil”

If I got a dollar for every time I heard this phrase in the last 5 years, I would have retired by now. Realityis, most people get this wrong. Data isn’t the catalyst for the next business revolution, insight is. Many would think I am splitting hairs, but when you think about it, large companies very often have a LOT of data. What they lack is actionable insight. And MarTech now presents ways to not only accelerate the insight extraction but also automate the actions theseinsights should trigger.

COVID has ended up being the Chief Transformation Officer for large organisations: as lockdowns increased and the world went online at unprecedented levels for fulfilling every task, more digital transformation was rushed through in a couple years than was planned for the entire decade. Digital marketing became mainstream, and conventional marketing became ‘traditional marketing’ – the smaller component, with limited and highly specific applications.

In this new order, the role of marketing has undergone its own metamorphosis – marketing now overtly drives awareness, consideration and even manages the sales connection to purchase.MarTech is no longer optional – it is the MUST to drive the business impact Marketing not only is capable of, but now is also the only way to deliver.

At AIA – one of the largest insurance companies in the world - we embarked on a major MarTech learning drive 4 years ago. Our internal approach was called PRIME – building a Personalised, Responsive, Integrated Marketing Engine. In each of these words our entire approach becomes clear. With launching CDPs (customer data platforms), lead management systems, campaign management, tagging and now – soon to launch – a fully rebuilt web presence in addition to launching ecosystem apps, we have reimagined and rebuilt marketing ground-up to triple our unique visitors to our websites and generate millions of sales leads for our sales agents, with double the conversion rates. Some key learnings from our PRIME MarTechjourney:

1. Focus on the experience you seek to give your consumer: In current times its no longer enough to be the best experience within your industry. People benchmark with the best experiences they have right now. Across industries. So the Martech must enable great experiences and start to elevate your brand and offering

2. Create a wide range of use-cases up front: There are so many solutions available that one needs to think though how the solution needs to be applied and the end-state it needs to drive. Within this set of outcomes prioritise the use cases on the dimensions of ease to deliver and visible impact it can generate, and then assess the best solutions in the MarTech world to deliver these use cases

3. Bring tech along from the start:Martech is an amalgamation of marketing and technology. There are multiple considerations around data flow, integrations and enablement. The closer the IT team is to the plans and strategy, the faster things get going. Do not figure out the ‘Mar’ without the ‘Tech’. the partnership is what drives speed and impact

4. Get top-down buy-in on strategy and outcomes: a revolution is rarely democratic, and martech is not an evolution. It completely reworks the way marketing it done. Therefore, we will need to ensure there is senior leader buy-in and this can help drive faster rollouts and learnings. Ensure that the senior team understands the WHY and then work at the operating team level to design the HOW

5. Get Started:This may sound obvious but is really the most important. In traditional and highly regulated industries it is easy to think of any new system with the lens of a long term installation and contrast it with complex pre-existing legacy systems. Reality is MarTech is designed to be flexible and transient. New solutions will emerge. It can be executed. Cloud has enabled these solutions to keep the most important aspect – the data – within the organisation and connect the data to almost any solution with ease. Therefore, do not overthink the perfect solution for 10 years from now – figure out what you need and embark on the journey

Digital transformation isn’t an episodic activity – it is ‘always on’ and the digital landscape is always evolving. The marketing organisation needs to take the business ownership of driving commercial impact from digital as it has become the gateway to connect with consumers, convey the proposition and convert them into customers. In this new reality the science has to converge with the art, and MarTech can accelerate this. Enjoy your transformation journey!