What you need to know:

• MyDeal has appointed Simon Ryan's Ryvalmedia to lead its digital media duties.
• The decision is the first major move by new marketing boss, former Catch CMO, Ryan Gracie.
• Ryvalmedia will manage SEM, digital media performance strategy, planning, trading, and implementation.

MyDeal.com.au has appointed its first agency following the appointment of CMO Ryan Gracie last month, naming Ryvalmedia its SEM and performance media agency after a competitive review.

The remit for the account includes SEM, digital media performance strategy, planning, trading, and implementation, with scope for data, technology, and analytics project work.

Launched in 2011 and listing on the ASX in October 2020, the online pureplay has 900,000 active customers and more than 1000 retailers listed on their proprietary marketplace platform, representing over 6,000,000 products and 2000 categories. MyDeal's market capitalisation is about $160m but has fallen with its shareprice by more than 60% in the past 12 months - it closed at 62c yesterday - despite the surge to online commerce through Covid.   

The business, led by founder Sean Senvirtne, houses an executive team with experience across brands such as Nissan, Kogan and PwC, while also being chaired by the National Online Retailers Association founder, Paul Greenberg.

Speaking to Mi3, Gracie said the successful agency had to "be an extension" of the MyDeal marketing team and be able to physically sit within the team on some days, be entrenched in the brand day-to-day and be held accountable for the KPIs the brand set itself.

Gracie kicked off the pitch the first day on the job (24 May), inking the contract this week following an eight week process, with Ryvalmedia now "running the largest chunk of [our] media investment - and that is performance across Google and Bing," said Gracie. 

"The remit over time, we will see how that rolls," added Gracie, hinting there may still be room for other media and digital agencies on the roster.

"We do have an above-the-line campaign ready to roll out shortly and whether they [Ryvalmedia] see any of the action around the media for that is yet to be seen."

Simon Ryan, CEO of RyanCap, which houses Ryvalmedia, is keen to make that happen. 

“Our focus is the digital for now and if there is the ability to expand that remit then absolutely its something we want to work on and ensure all media is working together to drive online sales," he told Mi3.

Gracie said RyanCap's programmatic trading platform Foxcatcher was one of the other key reasons behind the appointment, including its Worldview product which ties together algorithmic trading principles and sentiment analysis based on technologies applied within equity markets to programmatic buying. 

"We need to be data-led for the future and if we can have an agency partner that already has that as a part of their capability then that’s an even better equation for us," Gracie said.

"It then becomes about tying it together with brand. That’s the opportunity, the fact that MyDeal is a relatively unknown brand but still generates so much revenue that really shows the size of the prize.

"So if we can get the balance right and start to push the brand bit by bit over the next couple of years, then we will see the efficiency come through the performance and then the balance really starts to put brand on the right track. But we remain performance-led in the short-term," said Gracie. 

As such, the business will continue to focus efforts on online sales and customer acquisition after MyDeal's FY20 results showed new customer acquisition cost was $14.96 compared with gross profit per customer of $31.40, he added.

As part of that plan, Ryan said Ryvalmedia will focus on bringing the MyDeal brand closer to the "point of transaction".

"This is where having Ryvalmedia and Foxcatcher work alongside the internal marketing team will allow us to adapt and evolve as the business does," Ryan added.