Lucas Johnson lights up when he talks concerning the impression good knowledge has had on his advertising group. Johnson is affiliate vp of world advertising for Zippo, but he jokes along with his staff that he doesn’t actually do a lot—he’s only a catalyst for them to succeed. His overflowing inbox would dispute that, nonetheless, as would his achievements over the previous three years.
After implementing a brand new knowledge answer, simply accessible insights have helped Johnson and his staff shift their assets to the highest-performing channels, carry extra unity to their advertising campaigns, and obtain their greatest vacation e-commerce marketing campaign ever.
We sat down with Johnson at Domopalooza 2024 to debate his knowledge journey.
How did your knowledge journey start?
About three years in the past, we began altering our advertising combine to be far more efficiency based mostly. However we didn’t have a good way to holistically perceive how campaigns had been doing. There have been disparate knowledge sources and completely different folks answerable for each.
And we lacked a complete advertising knowledge warehouse to seize the efficiency of our efforts. Guide report era, tedious platform exporting, and lengthy wait occasions to get the info we would have liked to make choices had been widespread and outdated occurrences.
We would have liked one thing that gave us the technical depth for all the info nerds, but additionally had the power for non-data nerds to simply visualize knowledge in an actionable approach. Fairly rapidly through the device analysis course of, we narrowed it all the way down to Domo, and the remainder is historical past.
One of many issues we wished to have a look at was the success of campaigns. And one of many elements of a profitable marketing campaign is the artistic, proper? However throwing a desk of knowledge at a bunch of artistic people isn’t the best approach to talk with them.
“[O]ne of the elements of a profitable marketing campaign is the artistic, proper? However throwing a desk of knowledge at a bunch of artistic people isn’t the best approach to talk with them.”
What challenges did you face and the way did you overcome them?
We’re a giant model, however a small staff. But it’s a worldwide staff. And initially, that international staff was a problem. There are many stakeholders throughout numerous departments and throughout numerous areas—so getting everybody’s understanding and buy-in was essential.
Additionally, we’ve received greater than 30 automated knowledge sources with API connections that feed in. We would have liked that holistic view with well timed reporting that measured apples to apples. Some experiences would take two days to get, some experiences two weeks, and we’re like, “Okay, what timeframe are we taking a look at right here? Am I trying on the similar factor collectively?” Domo was the answer to place all of it collectively and have a look at it holistically.
We landed on Domo as the proper match for our goal of being data-driven in all issues we do. We noticed how Domo may assist our international advertising targets and knowledge adoption throughout our group.
“We landed on Domo as the proper match for our goal of being data-driven in all issues we do.”
What impression have your efforts had?
I believe one of many largest benefits of Domo general is that it brings issues prime of thoughts, as a result of the info is so easy to see. You may’t deal with an issue in the event you don’t realize it exists.
Having Domo has actually modified the method our advertising staff takes. The expectation now could be that we’re not going to decide on one thing with out having knowledge to assist it. There was most likely some resistance to this at first, however due to our crawl, stroll, run method, we did job of not overwhelming groups.
Groups rapidly noticed the profit and so they had been like, “Hey, when are you going to ingest my knowledge? When can we begin taking a look at my stuff?” It’s wonderful how when you’ve gotten the info and you’ll put it collectively to deal with one thing, you’ll be able to really impression the outcomes! That’s why we had probably the most profitable vacation for ecommerce we’ve ever had in our historical past—with much less effort.
I believe that one of many largest impacts to the group is improved efficiencies. Domo has actually improved our returns and our spend of each human capital and monetary capital. It has additionally given us an entire new layer of visibility inside advertising and past.
“Domo has actually improved our returns and our spend of each human capital and monetary capital. It has additionally given us an entire new layer of visibility inside advertising and past.”
Have you ever had any aha! moments throughout this course of?
I believe the aha! second was that it’s good to have good, clear knowledge stepping into—and perceive the place that knowledge is coming from to actually make it actionable. That’s type of an general lesson that I believe most of us understood. However when the lesson is slapping you within the face, you’re like, “Ooh yeah, right here it’s.”
High quality knowledge inputs had been one thing we actually wanted to work on, so we did a number of cleansing that took some time. And we proceed to work on that. However from the start, we noticed that we would have liked a greater roadmap to get us arrange.
We needed to ask ourselves, ‘What’s our roadmap for knowledge? What are the techniques and processes that we are able to put in place to make sure the integrity of the info?’
“We needed to ask ourselves, ‘What’s our roadmap for knowledge? What are the techniques and processes that we are able to put in place to make sure the integrity of the info?’”
What recommendation do you’ve gotten for different entrepreneurs?
Keep curious. And do not forget that knowledge can solely take you up to now. What issues is the interpretation of that knowledge and your understanding of what it’s telling you. One factor that has come by means of on this course of is now that we’ve received nice knowledge, we nonetheless want good folks to make choices and to alter the way in which we do issues—if we wish to actually have an effect.
Additionally, don’t suppose that you simply’re going to instantly import a trillion rows of knowledge from 50 sources, and revolutionize in a single day the way in which through which your organization makes use of knowledge. It’s not life like. Begin small, present some wins rapidly—even when they’re small—and increase from there. And guarantee that your knowledge is able to be ingested to be utilized.
Our company of report is without doubt one of the largest advert companies on this planet, and once we walked a few of their new folks by means of our Domo dashboards, they saved asking ‘What about this? Are you able to present us this?’ They’d by no means seen a shopper doing what we’re doing with knowledge. That was a proud second for us.
“Our company of report is without doubt one of the largest advert companies on this planet, and…they saved asking ‘What about this? Are you able to present us this?’ They’d by no means seen a shopper doing what we’re doing with knowledge. That was a proud second for us.”
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