Laurent Ezekiel, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer, WPP

James Kotecki of C Space Studio speaks with Laurent Ezekiel, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer, WPP.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, I'm James K. Techie. You're listening to the C
Space Studio podcast interviews with technology, media and marketing leaders
from CS. Hi, I'm James K. Techy. You are with
me in a C space studio here at CS here
with us Laurent Ezekiel, chief Marketing and Growth Officer. Indeed,

(00:24):
w PP, welcome to the C space to Thanks you
very much for having me. James, thanks so much. And
yesterday we had your CEO, Mark Read But I'm gonna
put you on the spot and ask him the same
question has him yesterday. Okay, But I'm always curious about
how people define their own brands, especially how marketers define
their brands. So how do you define the w PP
brand and how technology kind of plays into that? Okay?

(00:44):
So w p P launched new strategy at the end
of and the focus is on being a creative transformation company.
So that's very much our focus, creativity because we think
it's our differentiator and connect exponentially drive growth, fun club
transformation because all our clients across most industries are going

(01:04):
through some level of disruption and transformation and through technology
we can we can help guide them and work with
them on that and company because we've moved from group
to company, so more collaborative and more open at working
together across our agencies for our clients. And then the
final thing I'll say is that w PP is very
focused on the notion that creativity should be powered and

(01:28):
is powered increasingly by technology. So that's how I define
hopefully similar to how markedin did that perfectly did? You're
completely un messaged to as a marketer, definitely have to
respect that. Thank well, well dones that a good startling,
well done, great start goods. So tell me about some
of the ways you're thinking about how technology drives creativity.
What do you mean by that? Yeah, so I think,

(01:50):
you know, enabling better access to our clients brands that
that could be across industries. So it could be across
innovations in healthcare for instance. It could be if you're
a sports brand, which we work on many work and
added ask for instance, better customization, better tracking of your fitness,
so on and so forth. So there are multiple ways
and we're hair at CS you know it's a big

(02:11):
theme for the week. Multiple ways that we can do that,
and we know we're really trying to surface some of
the great technology skills that we have across w PP.
So we've we've looked at we look at our capabilities
across WPP in terms of creativity, which sorry communications which
includes media, experience, commerce, and in technology as well. So

(02:33):
it's one of four sort of key areas that we
look at across supp When you look at bringing somebody
onto your team and you're looking for creative people, but
people that can actually use data leverage technology, are you
looking for maybe a certain kind of mindset and has
that mindset may be shifted over the course of your career.
Early on there was this kind of total right brain,
creative mindset, and now maybe there's something different. Yeah, I

(02:54):
think it has shifted. I think I think if you
you mentioned creativity and bringing people in that respect, I
think you you need to be thinking about people open
to using data and technology to help fuel the ideas.
And you know, it's not about always using all the
data at hand, but it's about picking and choosing. So
I do think it's evolved. Having said that, the power

(03:14):
of a great idea, a great concept, you know, powered
by data or not, is still as relevant today as
it was yesterday. So you know, you still need that
conceptual mindset coming into the department, but we definitely look
for someone who's a modern he or she modern marketer
that can help do that. So when you have those
moments when you're intuition maybe clashes with what the data

(03:34):
might be telling you, how do you pursue there? Um
I would say I believe that we are still despite
all the talk on data. I think it's about the experience.
At the end. Intuition is still very powerful. I think
we're an industry that should be driven by intuition just
as much as data. I think it's important because sometimes

(03:56):
the data won't give you that exponentially big idea that
can help growth, So intuition remains important. I don't know
if one trunk to the other. And with all this
talk on data, do we have enough? Do we have
nearly enough? We have so much data now, but there's
also so many unanswered questions when we look back in
ten years and say, gosh, we actually didn't have that
much data back in the day. I think we have

(04:19):
a lot of data. I think we probably have enough data.
If if you probably have enough data, we probably don't
have enough of the right data, you know. I was
talking to some brands just last night about their first
party data pool, and I think that they want their
data pool, their first party data pull to be much
bigger um and that could be at the detriment and

(04:40):
losing other data. So I think we've probably got enough data.
We probably need to improve the quality of the data,
and it's about using the data we have to hand
in a smarter way. You know, clients don't want us
to get more data, they want the right data for
us to you. So I think that's probably the focus.
And I think you'll see a big shift in the

(05:00):
next two to three years on that. You know, the
industry has made some some big bets acquisitions statements around
data from the last eighteen months, and I think you'll
see those bed in over the next eighteen months. I
think it's a very interesting time for for data in
that respect. And where do you think the consumers when
it comes to the data that companies are collecting or

(05:23):
want to have, or that consumers are willing to share
are They may be more likely to just be accepting
of it because this is the world we live in,
or they may be more patiously stead I think they're cautious.
I think they're very cautious. I think that, you know,
we've seen the effects of g d p R. We'll
see what happens in California. But I think that that
is now quite quickly. If you think about it, then

(05:44):
the notion of that brands need to be more careful
of how the use date has been embedded in culture
and how we we use the content and we interact
with the content. So I think they're cautious. At the
end of the day, it comes back to providing a
good experience. If you do that, it will be more
open as a consumer to giving up more data or

(06:04):
for that brand to use the data in different ways,
you know. So it's just back to that experience. You are,
I believe WPPS first Chief Marketing and Growth officers and
I am so congratulations, thank you very much. Why did
they create that role? So um it's chief Marketing and
chief Growth. So on the chief marketing side, as we
launch and embed the new w PP proposition and strategy,

(06:29):
there is a big need to tell that story in
the market, but also to partner with our our CMO
clients and our clients and the marketing teams across all
our organizations. And I think, you know, why not have
a reflection of what our clients are doing at the
the agency company level. UM. So you know, my job

(06:50):
there with the rest of the management team who started
it before I joined, is too very much clarify, tell
the proposition and at the end of the day, make
sure that our clients have the best access, the easiest
access to the best of w PP. So that's on
the marketing side, and we're looking at a number of things.
We've got a w PP marketing plan across w PP,

(07:11):
you know, I'd say probably for the first time, we're
looking at a number of things. We're looking at how
we bring creative transformation to life in that marketing plan,
technology to life in that marketing plan, and then other
aspects such as sustainability. You know, what are the partnerships
that we want to create, um, what are the initiatives
we want to push forward? So more to come on that.

(07:33):
And then on the growth side, briefly, it's about looking
for new airs of growth and new business. So I
partner very closely with Lindsay Patterson. Lindsay looks after the
client teams and I look after new business net new business,
if you like. In that respect, we're speaking with Laura
Ezekiel w PP. So it sounds to me like you're
not just marketing the organization, you're actually integrating yourself as

(07:56):
a marketer with other marketers with whom you're partnering, correct
and kind of cross sharing that. I would say so,
and I think that if I can, if we can
achieve that, I think, you know, we'll get a better
sense of what our clients are looking for and frankly
that helps us in in new business conversations. You know,
how do we bring more of w PP to our clients?
And I think they need to be able to trust
that that will do that, understand the capabilities um and

(08:19):
make sure it's done in a simple way. You know,
it's a big, complex world out there. We are a
big organization, and I think simplifying our proposition is a big,
big focus for me this year. Actually, I think simplusity
is probably a big focus for a lot of the
people here at two Space and CTS. But as you know,
simplicity is so so hard, and what have you learned

(08:40):
about trying to simplify these kinds of things. Well, I
sometimes say I spend my my day going around simplifying things.
So it's a huge focus um, I think that we
have probably reached My view is that maybe beginning this
year peak fragmentation in a number of s effects of

(09:00):
our market data, Martek, text acts and so on, it's
it's relatively fragmented. That My hope for everyone, our clients, myself,
our company is that we now look to simplify going
forward and really use the right aspects of all of
those elements I just mentioned. So, yeah, does simplification mean
that some things are going to be jettisoned and do

(09:22):
you have a sense of what those things might be? Yeah,
I think some things will be I think I think
at the end of the day, I think our clients
are looking for us to provide their consumers with the
best cross channel experience, and in doing so, you're gonna
lose some technology. You're probably gonna not need all the

(09:43):
data that we currently have. So I'm not going to
call out specific things, but I do think that that's
that's the goal at the end of the day, is
a simple cross channel experience, and it's difficult to achieve.
It's not easy to do. Do you think if you're
able to pull this off, it will actually become easier
to be a marketer? Because one of the themes that
we've had here in the Space studio is as much

(10:04):
as all the technology and data has helped, it seems
like it's harder than ever to actually Pete A. Parker.
I think it's very challenging. I think that you need
such an array of knowledge skills at the end of
their motivations. That is it's very difficult. But you know,
I think we've got new generations coming in. I think
it's it's I genuinely think it's such an exciting time,

(10:27):
you know, with the developments that we're seeing this week.
I mean, we can talk about five G we can
talk about a number of things, but there are also
things I'm sure even here on the show floor that
will be redundant, you know, that won't see the light
of day perhaps, So it's about making those choices. But
it's tough, but it's never been more exciting. Really genuinely,
can you speak just briefly about what five GEN means

(10:47):
to you? Well, five yeah, sure, absolutely so. I think
five GEN means to me, Well, the first thing it
means to me is that case by case, our brands
are going to need to our clients going to need
to look at the business case for them. I think
by and large, I wouldn't say it's wait and see
what happens on five G. But it's very very early data.
But what does it mean. It means the obvious, which

(11:09):
is better speed. Better speed gives you a better immersive
bigger immersive experiences. That's one thing, and you know that
will be for a sports brand, um, that will be
a huge you know, for a content for a TV
network that will be quite big as well, so more
more immersive experiences. The other thing is access. It will

(11:29):
to some extent democratize access to faster, better bandwidth, and
better contents. I think that's very interesting, you know. And
then the final thing I'll say is and there are
a number of others, but one thing I'll point out
is data. You spoke about data. We'll be able to
crunch more data and hopefully better data more importantly, and
if we can do that in real time, then we

(11:52):
can probably provide better content because we can provide more
personalized experiences. So I think, you know, five G we
need to look beyond the content, beyond the bandwidth, and
some of the things that it will provide us is
better data and there for better personalized experience. I think
that's interesting. Well, thank you for sure this experience with
US Laurent PA. Thank you, Jane, chief Marketing Officer and
Chief Growth Officer A W. Thank you very much. Thanks

(12:14):
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