Carrie Webster – Walk-in Media

Carrie Webster is director of Paid Media at Walk-in Media, a full-service media agency focused on delivering data driven based media strategy and -planning for brands. Together with her team Carrie is responsible for digital activation, which includes paid search, social, programmatic and managing data analytics for Walk-in Media’s clients. Their clients range from 3M to Gigaclear, Emirates, and Gorillas.

USE OF DIFFERENT MEDIA CHANNELS

Carrie talks about media channels most used by Walk-in Media for their clients ’’We usually ask our clients first what they have done already and why they want to scale. Often we find that they focus too much on the bottom of the funnel, they spend a fortune on search, and it has dried up because they have not filled up the top of the funnel. But of course it depends on the budget. When you have a big budget, you can go after those eyeballs, so larger broadcast channels, VOD, and tv broadcasts truly build that awareness.’’

According to Carrie, brand growth is mostly achieved through mass awareness, such as use of TV. Carrie continues: ‘’We often see that brand awareness and demand generation frequently come in the same conversation. It is great to have a high brand awareness, but ultimately, what is the main KPI we are focussing on? Clients want to sell more products and services, they are most interested in these numbers. So, having a great tv ad is wonderful for getting eyeballs, but will it lead to more sales? That is the main question. Carrie continues: ‘’Not all brands will resonate with tv. For instance, our fast-growing grocery app Gorillas has a distinct audience that hardly watches linear television. So we have to look at other media channels, such as video on demand, audio on demand or other streaming opportunities. ‘’

MAIN KPI’S AND INGREDIENTS FOR BRAND GROWTH

Of course, there are KPIs other than sales that are important to her clients, it also depends on the product. ‘’When it is an app, the most important KPI is the number of downloads. Other important KPIs are cost per acquisition or cost per first purchase, and some are on return rate.‘’

When discussing the most popular media channels for Walk-in Media for their clients, Carrie responds: ‘Meta is such a core part of most media plans nowadays, because Meta has a lot of users and you can reach almost every audience through Facebook or Instagram. However, the main question is whether people are clicking on the ads and what actions are they taking after that?’’

BACK TO BASICS

When it comes to media and working with many different clients, there may still be struggles to find and understand audience data. Carrie shares: ‘’We think tools such as Nielsen and TGI are great for the ‘’old’’ offline world, that is where they were built. When it comes to digital, you need to be sceptical with those databases because we know it is not complete and accurate. So when we model our data, we look at our clients and their own first-party data because that is the richest and most accurate data.’’

When asked about how Walk-in Media measures campaign success for the clients, Carrie explains: ‘’We do a lot of A/B testing and find out what works best. We test different ads, trying regional hotspots, having control and exposed groups, or maybe cutting out certain audiences to give our clients a clear benchmark.’’

“Many brands are missing the point trying to be too technical with their data, however starting with a clean slate, moving things ever so slightly, seeing how that dial changes everything, is most important.”

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES IN MEDIA?

Carrie: ‘’The biggest challenge is trying to scale with a limited budget. Many of our clients work in an agile environment and do not have time to wait and sit around for two weeks to get insights. We figured out that clients often look for an agency for their expertise and knowledge. But that is not the only reason why you hire an agency. Because our clients are so fast-growing, they need control, and they need to change things quickly. For that reason, one of the biggest challenges is having the expertise and budgets to do what we need to do but to do it quick enough to keep up with the competitive market.’’

MEDIA STRATEGY

There is a lot behind media strategy, and it can differentiate between brands. Carrie shares her view on the always-on campaign and burst campaigns: ‘’Of course, there are seasonal products, they resonate at different times of the year, for different audiences. But even then, you should be talking about your product all year round. For Christmas products, for example, you need to start at least around Q3 with campaigning, but having a presence at a low level throughout the year is often necessary. It helps in the search for a brand, so people are familiar with your brand, and you become a potentially trusted brand. When Black Friday comes around, this would be an easy win for you as a brand, rather than having to do the brand awareness piece and sales piece on short notice and at an expensive time of year.’’

“We can look at clicks, we can look at views, impressions or impacts, but unless clients share their sales data or other KPI-data , it will be no use to evaluate the success of the campaign.”