To be clear, during my career, I rarely had the opportunity to work with Experian. Since part of my previous career was drowning in data, I was still familiar with Experian Marketing Services for its famous MOSAIC segmentation and other data-driven solutions.
As for the management of emailing campaigns However, I'd never had a chance to use it (or even see a demo of it, so I'm half-pardoned). Incidentally, Experian recently released a brand new campaign management solution called Cross-Channel Marketing Platform. This adds a cross-channel dimension where previous solutions were mainly email-oriented.
Beginning of the day: contextualization of Experian Marketing Services' email marketing solutions
I started this day with a small overview of the structure of Experian Marketing Services (and its different businesses) presented by Philippe Richard (Director EMEA Delivery) followed by a presentation of the Cross-Channel Marketing Platform solution by Benoît Enée (Solutions Consulting Director).
First interesting information for me, the share of "Full service" clients of Experian Marketing Services in France is amazing (without disclosing any figures or names 😉 ). Compared to other players in the sector, it's even quite strange. By Experian Marketing Services' own admission, little communication is done about it, but it's a service they "naturally" offer to their clients.
As for the Cross-Channel Marketing Platform tool, which comes as a cross-channel alternative to the previous email-oriented solution (which is still being developed), we are faced with a solution that is clearly trying to take on the other campaign management solutions on the market. It's hard to make a definitive opinion after 45 minutes of demo, but this solution lacks a few tools, but it seems to me to be very young (if you have an "advertiser" testimonial to give me, I'd love to hear it, the comments are there for that).
Luncheon: Experian's vision
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The lunch break (if you can call it that) was an opportunity to meet Stéphane Baranzelli (Managing Director) and Pascal Bertoux (Client Management Director). Around the buffet of the Casino Barrière de Lille (yes, I was well treated :-D), we were able to discuss our vision of the emailing market in France, the difficulties of the email acquisition sector and the latest trends. One thing is certain, Experian Marketing Services has definitely entered the world of cross-channel marketing and understands the challenges ahead. However, it's not an easy market. The CPM for email routing continues to fall, the market is saturated with new players (when it's not foreign players trying their luck in France) and it's not always easy to develop expertise in this context.
The conclusions of our discussions? The market will continue to concentrate. There have already been quite a few takeovers and name changes in the sector, and this is certainly not over.
Afternoon: Discovery of the premises ... and the design studio!
In the early afternoon, a short digestive walk in the premises. You should know that the Experian team is divided between Lille and Paris. In the Lille offices, there are more than a hundred employees, including a good part of technicians: support, development, project managers, ...
It was an opportunity for me to talk for a few minutes with a 4-person deliverability team (ISP relations, development of monitoring tools, incident resolution, etc.) and to measure Experian's "full service" strike force.
But the biggest revelation will come at the very end of the day. This revelation is Experian's creative studio that works on email design production, email HTML integration, event device design, ... and I can tell you that the portfolio is worth a look (even if unfortunately it can't be published here). I had the opportunity to chat for more than an hour with the director of the Design Studio, Antoine Charletand I can tell you that there are few specialized teams like that in France. My hat is off to you.
In conclusion
In conclusion, I expected to see tools, data ... and I mostly saw a production force! This was my comment at the end of the day to the marketing team: why the hell don't you put all this forward a bit more 😉
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