OMG & TRKKN’s Approach to a Data-Driven Marketing & Advertising Strategy
Google Cloud Platform consultancy, TRKKN launched in the Middle East earlier this year under the ownership of Omnicom Media Group. Communicate sat down with Vimal Badiani, Managing Director for TRKKN across the Middle East to discuss how both entities plan on working together to provide integrated solutions to clients in the region.
Omnicom Media Group acquired the Google Marketing Platform (GMP) consultant, TRKKN in 2015 and earlier this year launched the solution for the Middle East. The global AdTech market was valued at $748.2 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach $2.9 trillion in 2031, growing at a rate of 14.7% from 2022 to 2031. The Middle East is no exception to this growing sector.
TRKKN’s GCP and GMP-certified partnership with Omnicom Media Group allows clients to tap into the best-in-class experience and help drive ongoing value from their technology stack.
Vimal Badiani, Managing Director for TRKKN across the Middle East, describes to Communicate how the partnership is going to offer joint solutions to clients across the spectrum.
What lead to the introduction of an AdTech solution like TRKKN to the MENA market at this particular time?
We’re a cloud and marketing technology consultancy with a focus on the Google Marketing Cloud ecosystem. Our goal is to truly help clients to be at the forefront of analytics, marketing, and cloud technology. We’ve launched TRKKN at a time when businesses are facing a massive challenge to measure the effectiveness of their digital marketing investment. As well as that, there are several market challenges at play, such as the loss of third-party cookies and device IDs, increased privacy regulations, ad blockers, and more. So, because of all these things happening in not only the region but globally, we're seeing clients move to a privacy-centric ecosystem. Governance is becoming a cornerstone for businesses to move forward. Our expertise can help clients leverage their first-party data to drive advantage for their advertising efforts, giving us a unique edge over the competition.
Is the region ready for a joint AdTech and media offering like yours?
I think the rate of change right now is unbelievable As I mentioned there are a couple of things at play right now: the deprecation of the third-party cookie, and increased privacy regulations. We also have big challenges in measurement, both at the local and global levels. But as a region, we're still a little behind on navigating them. With the UAE PDPL laws coming into place, marketers and advertisers need to make sure they’re taking consent from their consumers while collecting first-party data. There are some forward-thinking companies here that are using that first-party data to achieve those business and marketing goals. We, as an agency, support clients who are predominantly using the Google ecosystem. We make sure that they understand the intricacies of each platform and how they stitch data together and model their first-party data to make the right business decisions.
How is this partnership going to aid growth for both parties - Omnicom and TRKKN?
The media landscape is evolving and the biggest media RFPs are all asking for data and analytics capabilities. Clients are seeing this shift towards a more data-driven approach in digital advertising efforts. Hence, they’re now seeking strong media agencies with best-in-class planning\ and buying approaches, as well as the ability to support that through AdTech and MarTech. As Omnicom Media Group, we now have the very best in media underpinned by best-in-class Analytics and Cloud capabilities.
Our group has the perfect synergy to build the right measurement architecture, and data strategy and advise them on integrating and managing first-party data to build specific use cases. The challenge is to have the skill set, the knowledge, and the experience to use MarTech and AdTech effectively.
How do advise brands can navigate through the rapidly transforming technology landscape with AI and machine learning taking over?
Before we start talking about AI and machine learning, the first step is to understand a client’s business challenges. What are their marketing objectives? What business challenges are they facing? What is their approach to privacy and consent? Do they have data silos prohibiting them from getting a better view of their customers? Once you have the answers to these and other questions, you can start building a solution that uses advanced technology. A word of caution though: clients who want to use AI tomorrow, need to have a use case to solve, rather than thinking that it’s going to fix everything, immediately.
