Challenge
Through regionalized marketing, AT&T Consumer Marketing which includes Mobility, DIRECTV, Internet, and other divisions faced some key challenges with executing effective marketing programs. AT&T Creative Services was feeling the pressure from the ongoing integration of the wired and wireless worlds as well as the economic downturn.
It needed a single view of marketing campaigns despite mergers, geographies, multiple product lines, and multiple channels to customers. In an effort to drive efficiency, the marketing department sought a collaborative platform to streamline workflow and review processes and interactions with fulfillment partners. The solution would serve to eventually unify and standardize operations across wired and wireless operations while improving visibility for senior management.
During initial implementation, AT&T experienced the following benefits:
- More efficient interactions with fulfillment partners due to streamlined workflow and review processes
- An understanding of when campaigns will execute to increase collaboration, visibility into current projects, and alignment with key objectives
- Reduced costs by $2MM by eliminating duplicate systems
- Reduced cycle time projections from 2 weeks to 2 hours
- Increased overall Direct Marketing output by 25%
- Received a $35MM uplift due to increased throughput
Solution
Aprimo Plan & Spend and Aprimo Productivity Management
The initial implementation was so successful and scalable that AT&T has expanded use of the Aprimo Productivity Management and Aprimo Plan & Spend systems across multiple divisions. Now in Aprimo, any campaign that touches a customer comes through the “Campaign Activity Type” in the system. Further, every creative/communication sent in a campaign can be tied down to an individual with segmentation tools.
- 150 New Users per Year Over 10 Years
- 3000 Activities per Year on Average
- 40% Increase in Unique Campaign Activities
AT&T also recently built a suite of reports by working with Solutions Plus (an Aprimo partner) that has enabled it to identify bottlenecks in workflow, monitor workload volume, and plan for resource capacity, and SLA analysis. The company also implemented a centralized marketing calendar to better manage all projects in a single set of programs for greater visibility into current projects enabling it to be aligned with key, corporate objectives.
“We strive for continuous improvement in our processes, and the needs of the business are frequently changing-so it’s vital to have a tool flexible enough for tweaks and overhauls as necessary. Aprimo allows us significant flexibility in developing our campaign workflows, affording us the ability to both streamline our work as well as report out on how we’re doing against our key performance indicators.” – Mike MacLaverty, Director-Marketing Management, AT&T
Results
AT&T has also contracted to implement Aprimo Productivity Management and Aprimo Plan & Spend to 25 users in its FirstNet brand and communications network in 2018. The Aprimo system resulted in standardized and streamlined workflows for the approval process for AT&T’s proposed campaigns ensuring the right stakeholders approved each campaign. The initial implementation was for AT&T’s former Mobility division, but Aprimo’s Productivity Management and Aprimo Plan & Spend systems have been so scalable and flexible that the company decided to go live with it across the rest of its Consumer Marketing subsidiaries, including Home Solutions.
- Expedited marketing production
- Cost reductions
- Increased visibility
- A single source of truth
- Increased efficiency
- Ability to measure cycle times and identify opportunities for improvement
“The robust workflow engine allowed us to streamline the campaign workflow for all business units into one template, incorporating all the stakeholders – Program Management, List Management, Legal, Compliance, Response and Contact Management. Increased efficiency by having a single front door for all campaign requests.” – Ryan LaForge, Marketing Systems Manager, AT&T
About AT&T
AT&T is the largest telecommunications company in the world, with $164 billion in revenue and 273,000 employees which also makes it the 11th largest company in the world.