What you need to know:

• In her first one-on-one media interview, Dentsu Aegis Network Australia and New Zealand CEO Angela Tangas explains why the company is “going deeper” into e-commerce.
• The local Dentsu business launched a new division, Dentsu Commerce, last month which brings together key staff to solve marketers’ online and offline commerce issues.
• Tangas told Mi3 the decision was “an obvious one” given the rapid acceleration in the e-commerce sector, triggered by COVID-19.
• The new division will access global commerce products including Dentsu Tracking, the holding group’s supply chain visibility tool.
• Already Dentsu Commerce is seeing success, driving a 730% increase in total sales across Amazon for the electronics brand Philips in Australia. (May 2020 vs January 2020)
• Work done by Isobar for Jetstar in the travel sector before COVID-19, led to a 20% increase in in-flight food and beverage purchases, plus a 200% increase in loyalty memberships.
• Through its offline integrations hub product, iProspect gave an automotive client the ability to track online behaviour of up to 60% of vehicle sales.

Executing e-commerce

Stepping into the top role of any holding group is never easy. For Angela Tangas, her move to Dentsu Aegis Network Australia and New Zealand as CEO has brought more than its fair share of challenges.

Taking the top job in November 2019 after the highly publicised exit of Henry Tajer, triggered by international Dentsu resistance to Tajer's sweeping - and arguably needed - overhaul of the Australian group, Tangas had just over four months in the chair before COVID-19 hit.

The pandemic has not stopped Tangas, a former Executive at online comparison site iSelect, from pushing ahead to expand the company’s customer experience and digital transformation offering.

Globally, Dentsu has been moving to centralise much of its performance, data and tech capabilities. In April, for example, it brought forward the purchase of 100% of the global performance marketing agency Merkle (Dentsu already owned 66% of Merkle and originally planned to move to 100% in the second half of 2021).

Locally, much of the digital work has been done under the Isobar, iProspect, Accordant and Amicus brands.

Now, in one of her first major moves as CEO, Tangas is putting her foot on the accelerator in e-commerce.

Last month the local business launched Dentsu Commerce, staffed by people from across the group. The number of staff is not available and while they will operate as an integrated team, it is understood that each member will continue to operate within their respective brands.

Dentsu Commerce’s products and capabilities include commerce platforms, retail activations, commerce on social media platforms and optimisation of marketplaces such as Ebay and Amazon.

Only 16% of current purchases are done online versus in-store, but three out of four sales start online, which Tangas says is "not unreasonable" to expect to increase to 30% this year.

Tangas says Dentsu Commerce is already achieving good results for some clients. It worked with electronics company Philips Australia to create a "full-funnel" approach across Amazon in response to COVID-19. As a result, sales in May this year were up 730% on January and the company saw a 25 times return on its ad spending.

“We will move to accelerate this offering through all lines of our business, from our digital offerings like Isobar right through to an area such as sports marketing with MKTG,” Tangas says.

“It’s clear why we launched this but what’s even clearer is how swiftly e-commerce has broken through to every facet of the consumer journey during COVID-19. Areas such as automotive, for example, which has often held back on online, now have to reconsider their approach.”

Tangas says Dentsu’s performance agency iProspect is finding success in the automotive sector.

“Through our Offline Integrations Hub product, our iProspect team provided an automotive client with the ability to track online behaviour of up to 60% of vehicle sales,” Tangas says.

Powered by the Google Cloud Platform and the GMP suite of products, the Offline Integrations Hub takes offline conversion data and marries it with online leads or digital events to measure and improve the effectiveness of brand campaigns.

“Using this data, coupled with advanced analytics and machine learning strategies, we were able to predict vehicle sales with up to 90% accuracy and implement strategies to influence consumer purchase decisions.”

Tangas says digital transformation will be a key part of Dentsu Commerce’s services.

Last year the Isobar team worked with Jetstar on a number of projects to help transform its brand from an “airline to a travel retailer”.

The projects included creating 23 websites in nine languages across 14 regions and developing a transactional platform that led to a 20% increase in in-flight purchases of food and beverage, plus a 200% increase in memberships to Club Jetstar, it’s rewards programme.

“Right now there are brands thinking about e-commerce for the first time or realising that they need to overhaul their current strategy, and that’s only going to become more prevalent,” Tangas says.

“If we think of how the customer journey has dramatically shifted in the last six months, then of course there are brands that now have a raft of new business requirements, from that first step through to CRM, optimisation and implementation.”

A recent study by Dentsu globally found that 59% of its clients will invest in e-commerce and a further 50% will invest in content in the aftermath of COVID-19.

Tangas says Dentsu Commerce will tap its parent company’s global products, including Dentsu Tracking and Fast Track.

“Dentsu Tracking is an end-to-end track and trace solution from manufacturing to retail outlet that manages 26 billion marked items per year across 1,000 production lines, globally,” she says.

“Products such as this will also be a major factor in how we position the team and ultimately prove a point of difference for existing and new clients.

“Fast Track is a unique IP partnership with Adobe that sees our customers transform their commerce offering in weeks instead of months, or even quarters."

*Editor's note: Angela Tangas gave this interview on the basis it was around the e-commerce initiative, not the broader Dentsu group. Mi3 will address the broader story in the future.