Mercury Media Technology GmbH & Co. KG
Klostertor 1
20097 Hamburg / Germany
By Aiko Müller
07. April 2020
How TwentyFive raises the bar for Procter & Gamble with MMT Mercury
TwentyFive was founded 2018 by the media agencies Mediacom and pilot to develop media strategies and solutions for Procter & Gamble. The ambitious young company wants to achieve the best results, which is why they rely on state-of-the-art skills, knowledge, data and technology.
The media experts at TwentyFive are aware that the industry is in dire need of transformation and that the right technology can help make that transformation happen. The industry is under constant pressure to manage costs, provide end-to-end process transparency and guarantee that those processes can be tracked. These and a number of other factors require ongoing optimization. The goal is to be one step ahead of the market at all times and to use that to the client’s advantage. TwentyFive also faces the significant challenge of needing to work from several locations while delivering excellent results and keeping workflows standardized.
Shortly after its founding, Twenty Five decided to start using our future-oriented media management platform MMT Mercury. Working with TwentyFive has truly been an enjoyable and inspiring experience for our team. Their enthusiasm for driving the industry forward and exploring new possibilities was evident right from the start.
Denis Scollie, Group Head Digital Media Operations, is a media expert with a true sense for changes on the market. He initiated the transformation process with unbelievable energy and decided to rely on us to help him on his journey.
We are thrilled that he has taken time for this interview, where he will give us insight into what it’s like to work with MMT Mercury.
Denis Scollie
"In a market that is currently characterized by disruptive transformation, solutions always have to be one step ahead."
Group Head Digital Media Operations, TwentyFive
Aiko Müller in interview with Denis Scollie from TwentyFive:
Denis, thank you for taking the time to talk with us today. We would like to give our readers some insight into the collaboration between TwentyFive and Mercury Media Technology. Let’s start with yourself. You are Group Head Digital Media. What are your day-to-day responsibilities?
At TwentyFive, I’m responsible for the entire process involved in running digital campaigns. This includes helping the teams involved with any questions or issues they might have. On the one hand, I pursue holistic strategies, and on the other, I help design custom solutions that meet special requirements. In a nutshell, I connect the dots that help us implement scalable measures.
What skills does your daily work require?
You have to have in-depth knowledge of tools, processes and interfaces and be flexible. In a market that is currently characterized by disruptive transformation, solutions always have to be one step ahead. That applies to minor everyday decisions as well as to future market developments that we have to anticipate. Personally speaking, however, I consider being a team player and having people skills to be just as important. Media is only effective when everyone works together. That’s where a tool like Mercury is extremely helpful.
Your team used to work with excel-based macros in shared folders, which is what many media agencies still do. What challenges came with this way of working?
Tracking revisions was a big problem. When you work with central files, like a media plan, a number of team members have access to them and can make changes. In a worst-case scenario, that means we end up with two or three different files and no way of knowing which is the right one. We also encountered problems when it came to processing, preparing and analyzing data in order to give our customers recommendations.
One of the reasons you decided to work with Mercury was to solve the problems associated with working in excel-based macros. What other requirements did the media management platform need to meet for TwentyFive?
Being able to view all of our processes simply and systematically in the system was very important to us. We also needed the media management platform to be compatible with our other systems like ad servers, accounting systems and other technical providers via APIs. We also needed access to comprehensive reporting capabilities and real-time data depiction, not only for clients but also for our entire team.
The entire media management process is transferred to our media management platform, where it is sorted and supported by effective automation. All key peripheral technologies in the market, whether they involve brands, agencies or marketing companies, can be integrated into the system via APIs. That means that data can be presented clearly and already integrated in real time, which makes streamlining and reporting processes incredibly easy. So, it looks like Mercury meets all of your requirements. What were your other reasons for deciding to go with our MMP?
TwentyFive opted for Mercury Media Technology because the future-oriented media management platform meets all of our requirements. Your team of experts really understood what we wanted. You can really tell that the software was developed by media planners for media planners. You’ve thought of everything.
Denis Scollie
"Because Mercury lets us view and manage all relevant processes, we are able to systematically monitor the entire process chain, which creates efficiency across all workflows."
Group Head Digital Media Operations, TwentyFive
We’re excited to hear that we have developed with Mercury an media management platform that helps our clients master the challenges on the market and lets them be the very best at what they do. How did you find the implementation process?
Implementing software requires an eye for detail as well as resources and always provides material for discussion. However, my team and I were confident that the initial investment would pay off very quickly. And we found out we were right as soon as we started using the Mercury platform. The wealth of experience that everyone at Mercury Media Technology brings to the table combined with their extensive support during the implementation phase helped us master even the most complex challenges. Everyone was satisfied with the results. Even when we needed to solve problems quickly, you were able to find effective solutions fast.
Denis Scollie
"The wealth of experience that everyone at Mercury Media Technology brings to the table combined with their extensive support during the implementation phase helped us master even the most complex challenges."
Group Head Digital Media Operations, TwentyFive
We strive to help our clients implement our tools by providing immediate, exacting and extensive support. We have years of experience gained from working with our clients and have developed specific, effective methods for working with transformation processes over the years. It’s great to know that you found our approach effective as well. Let’s talk about the changes that went along with switching to Mercury. How has our media management platform affected your workflows?
Mercury has been an extremely valuable resource for us when it came to optimizing our internal controlling procedures. Because the media management platform lets us view and manage all relevant processes, we are able to systematically monitor the entire process chain, which creates efficiency across all workflows. The way processes are depicted is well thought out and makes it possible to finalize any number of steps with one simple overview. You can aggregate any data on one screen, allowing you to focus on specific aspects of the workflow at a time.
Can you describe this success in numbers? Did you notice a reduction in manual effort when it came to executing media plans? If so, how much time have you been able to save per media planner?
We managed to cut back about 70% of our manual tasks. Mercury is perfect for helping us realize our scaling targets. We work with a number of standardized methods. Mercury is the ideal platform for that approach. And I’m certain we’ll be able to increase our efficiency even more as new developments are added to the platform. Mercury has helped us cut the time spent on handling activities in half. It has proven extremely valuable, especially when it comes to orchestrating interfaces. Thanks to seamless integration with our tech stack, we no longer need to spend so much time transmitting data between systems.
Denis Scollie
"We managed to cut back about 70% of our manual tasks. Thanks to seamless integration with our tech stack, we no longer need to spend so much time transmitting data between systems"
Group Head Digital Media Operations, TwentyFive
Media plans that are created using excel-based macros are highly prone to mistakes. You already talked about overlapping revision problems. Have you seen an improvement in revision quality as well? How much has your error rate dropped?
We’ve seen considerable improvement in this area. Compared to our previous system, 9 out of 10 of the errors we used to see don’t even occur when using Mercury.
Mercury depicts all campaign communication efficiently in one platform. And it does this based on data that is imported in real-time using automated processes. Has the platform helped improve collaboration with your clients?
Yes, it has. Our clients appreciate the features and flexibility that Mercury provides. The ease with which we can now export data to draw up analyses is definitely a game changer.
Denis, thank you for your time and your informative answers. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with you, your team and TwentyFive!
We hope that this interview with Denis Scollie has given you an idea of how we work at Mercury Media Technology. Maybe some of the aspects discussed remind you of your own business? I’d be more than happy to arrange a personal call to go over any issues that your company might be facing and show you how our leading Mercury MMP can help.