Robin Seasock

Recent Posts

7 WFA Partner Predictions for 2022

Posted by Robin Seasock on Feb 7, 2022 5:25:05 PM

Robin Seasock, Decideware's Chief Operating Officer, discusses marketing predictions that will shape the future of marketing for 2022 in an interview with WFA and other strategic partners.

Women of Influence insight series in partnership with Producers & Procurers iQ - Part 2

Posted by Robin Seasock on Nov 9, 2021 11:19:41 PM

Decideware are proud sponsors of Women of Influence in partnership with Producers and Procurers IQ.

Decideware is a proud sponsor of the Women of Influence insight series in partnership with Producers & Procurers iQ

Posted by Robin Seasock on Oct 19, 2021 12:39:23 AM

We are pleased to announce that Decideware are proud sponsors of Women of Influence in partnership with Producers and Procurers IQ.

Decideware is Growing - Adding a New Production Manager Client ...

Posted by Robin Seasock on Jul 8, 2021 12:28:44 AM

 

Last month we landed a new client whose goal is to better govern their advertising production spend.

This well-known CPG advertiser manages many household brands, supported with very significant creative, production and media budgets.

The production governance team approached us with an interest in deploying Decideware’s Production Manager solution to automate and improve their existing processes, which rely primarily on a database which does not provide in-depth analysis needed for today’s dynamic production governance environment, or fast report generation.

Advertising Conferences are Bringing Peers and Agencies Back Together Again ...

Posted by Robin Seasock on Jun 28, 2021 11:54:57 PM

After a relatively quiet 18 months, this week is shaping up to be an active one for practitioners in the Marketing Procurement and Marketing Operations space. 

There are two big industry conferences happening this week, the ANA Advertising Financial Management Conference and ProcureCon Marketing Connect Europe

Decideware is pleased to sponsor and participate in both events this week.

 

Brands Commit to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Posted by Robin Seasock on Jun 1, 2021 5:08:22 PM
Topics: Diversity

 

It’s time to EXCEL with Business Intelligence!

Posted by Robin Seasock on May 20, 2021 3:26:02 PM

Has your CPO or CMO asked you how much money the company is spending with creative agencies... globally?

 

It is not an unreasonable question, yet many large advertisers rely on spreadsheets, multiple meetings, and numerous emails to answer what should be a simple question.

Yes, the finance team can provide the high-level budget information, by brand, but they typically can’t drill into the details of the spend. The individual brand teams know their specific spend details, but when it comes to rolling up that information across all brands, regions, and company divisions, that collating process takes weeks and sometimes months. By the time each market provides their details, the data is obsolete and doesn’t provide a real-time perspective of the agency engagement activity.

The ANA & Ford & Decideware – Webinar; Ford’s Journey in Automating their Agency Management Process

Posted by Robin Seasock on Apr 28, 2021 8:47:19 PM

 

In this webinar, hear from members of Ford's Global Agency Management Team as they share their experience in automating their scope of work and performance evaluation processes globally across all divisions and under tight timelines.

 

Decideware’s Client Summit – "Enabling Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Programs"

Posted by Robin Seasock on Apr 5, 2021 6:35:54 PM
Topics: Diversity

 

Decideware’s Client Summit – Enabling Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Programs
 
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion has always been on the agenda for large advertisers, but this year DE&I shot straight up to the top of the agenda and that’s reflected in conference designs of the industry member organizations – the WFA and ANA, for example. Across the marketing landscape, DE&I has risen as a priority and advertisers are building out their programs.

Decideware and “FORGE: Championing Supplier Diversity”

Posted by Robin Seasock on Feb 21, 2021 9:31:07 PM
Topics: Diversity

 

Pepsi, Merck, IBM, IHG… what do we all have in common?
A deep commitment to Diversity & Inclusion.

Diversity & Inclusion continues to bubble up as the #1 topic that organizations want to elevate and address in 2021 – especially when it comes to Procurement. Procurement Foundry is hosting a world-class conference “FORGE: Championing Supplier Diversity” on Thursday, February 25, 2021 and Decideware is proud to be sponsoring the event.

Decideware Continues To Grow ...

Posted by Robin Seasock on Jan 28, 2021 8:53:04 PM

 

 

Decideware grew during the GFC.

And through the next decade.

And we’re growing during COVID 2020/21.

That’s because we help advertisers manage their agency relationships – thru’ the good times and the bad.

How Pfizer is managing its global agency roster...

Posted by Robin Seasock on Jan 11, 2021 9:35:22 PM

Pfizer and Decideware collaborated recently on an Association of National Advertisers (ANA) article where Pfizer shared their vision for managing its global agency roster. 

Decideware and Pfizer to feature at ProcureCon (US) Marketing Summit

Posted by Robin Seasock on Nov 19, 2020 12:50:34 AM

Decideware & Pfizer @ ProcureCon Marketing Virtual Summit, 19 Nov 2020.

Decideware is pleased to sponsor the 2020 ProcureCon Marketing Virtual Summit.  The peer-led conference features use-cases from over 20 thought leaders in marketing procurement. 

Decideware supports Forge: Marketing

Posted by Robin Seasock on Oct 28, 2020 10:20:38 PM

Decideware is proud to be an inaugural Premier Sponsor of Forge: Marketing - Global Marketing Procurement’s newest marquee annual event;

Thursday, October 29th 10-5pm EDT (Live Virtual Conference)

 

The full day agenda features a range of important topics and expert practitioners representing brands, including AbInBev, AstraZeneca, Nestle, Novo Nordisk, Teva, Truist, Visa and many others in addition to seasoned industry advisors Laura Forcetti at the WFA and Tina Fegent.

Join us for the ANA hosted webinar on the 5 Steps to Establish a Strategic Production Spend Management Program ...

Posted by Robin Seasock on Sep 16, 2020 6:57:12 PM

Join us for the ANA hosted webinar ...

5 Steps to Establish a Strategic Production Spend Management Program

 

While there has been a cost management focus placed on individual production projects, overarching, company-wide strategic production spend governance is still relatively immature.

In this webinar, learn how to take your production governance to a higher level to better enable your stakeholders and provide insights to your leadership team.

This session will cover how to get started with these 5 steps to establish a strategic production spend management program:

  • Establish a strategic production spend management Team & Charter
  • Define the goals to enable a better process and inform spend decisions
  • Capture and understand costs – and make decisions informed with data
  • Implement a communication plan to enact change
  • Continue to build on the gains

 

WHEN

Start: Thursday, September 17, 2020 at 1:00pm

End: Thursday, September 17, 2020 at 2:00pm

 

Speakers

Richard Benyon, CEO, Co-Founder & Propeller-Head, Decideware

Damian Branch, Professional Services Manager, Decideware

 

Link

https://www.ana.net/webinars/show/id/COMWWDD-200917

 

When Advertisers want Enterprise, they Upgrade with Decideware 

"The COVID-19 Production Playbook: What Brands Need to Know About Post-Lockdown Production" ...

Posted by Robin Seasock on Aug 13, 2020 6:30:31 PM

 

Advertising production management is receiving more attention than it used to from brands.

After production came to an abrupt halt with the pandemic it is now starting to re-open, but with a few more complications. For example, there are more legal and risk management considerations than before.

According to Wimberly Meyer who hosted a recent ANA webinar “The COVID-19 Production Playbook: What Brands Need to Know About Post-Lockdown Production” advertisers are also requiring more approvals by more people in the advertiser’s organization.

Roles that have not traditionally been involved in production are now weighing in on production decisions. What that means for advertisers is a heightened level of communication and budget scrutiny is required at every step of the way.

 

Production governance programs need to change.

 

And we see the leading clients at Decideware changing;

1. They've designed better production governance programs to accommodate what's needed now 

2. They reply on the Decideware platform to enable the program and to deliver data transparency

3. With transparency, they make informed decisions across all their markets under management.

The production world has changed - and production spend governance best-practice has changed with it.

How to Build a Global Marketing Procurement Model during a Pandemic ...

Posted by Robin Seasock on Aug 7, 2020 4:56:29 PM

 

As we settle into our new norm, virtual conferences seem to be the closest thing we are going to get to in-person conferences for some time. The recent ProcureCon Marketing webinar 2-day series offered topics spanning everything from identifying and maximizing opportunities in media, to recommendations for remote pitches, to using technology to your advantage, to innovating, lessons learned, and changing your agency or marketing procurement model.  

The content provided value to new entrants and seasoned professionals.

Homing in on the “How to Build a Global Marketing Procurement Model during a Pandemic” presentation by Carla Heri-Hoepker and Diana Laffert from Bayer, they laid out a roadmap and provided recommendations for how to implement a truly centralized global procurement operation that spanned 60 markets.

A few keys to their success were:

    • being agile, driving global standards, and easing complexity with processes and tools
    • staying focused on transformation areas and topics that provided value and mattered most to the business
    • keeping an open mind to new opportunities and changing the ways of working
    • engaging, engaging, engaging

Sopan Shah, CPO at IHG to open the ANA's 2020 Advertising Financial Management Conference ...

Posted by Robin Seasock on Jul 29, 2020 11:44:55 PM

 

This year Sopan Shah, Chief Procurement Officer at IHG will open the ANA's Advertising Financial Management conference. 

 

FROM MARKETING PROCUREMENT TO CPO

Back in 2012, Sopan Shah chaired the ANA Advertising Financial Conference when he was head of procurement for global advertising, marketing services, and indirect at Nestlé.  Today, Sopan is chief procurement officer at InterContinental Hotels Group.  His marketing procurement background gives Sopan a unique vantage point as CPO – to help marketers build brands and maximize profitability.

This session will feature Sopan’s perspective on the importance of marketing in the overall procurement mix; the intersection of procurement, IT, and marketing; driving value beyond cost savings; and more.

As a 10 year sponsor of the AFM and a frequent contributor to on-stage member education, we encourage you to attend Sopan’s presentation, virtually (online) – he is an excellent speaker and one of the industry’s best practitioners!

6 Steps to Establish a Great Production Spend Management Program

Posted by Robin Seasock on Jul 19, 2020 9:17:32 PM
 
“Improved Advertising Production Management is within Advertisers’ Control” (The ANA)

 

The Pandemic is Forcing Better Production Governance

 

Advertisers were faced with having to quickly pivot their approach to production because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. They were canceling and postponing shoots, adapting production of content, accessing and re-purposing existing assets, and figuring out how to deliver the appropriate messaging to their audiences in an innovative way.

CMOs and Finance teams are now focused on the financial impact of the pandemic to both revenue and expenses.

Marketing Operations and Procurement teams are working quickly to update scopes of work, contracts, and change orders with their agencies. Some industry sectors are pumping the breaks on production (i.e. leisure and hospitality) while others are working fast and furious to address markets that are tentatively re-opening. Regardless of the sector and market, all advertisers are closely monitoring and managing their spending.

So far, how well have advertisers been able to manage their production spend when the crunch hit? Were they able to have a single top-line view of production activity across all of their brand teams, agencies and geographies? Did they have a good handle on their production commitments and spend? Did they know the financial implications associated with canceling productions? Could they assess the impact of budget changes with their agencies? And when production begins to ramp back up again (and everyone is competing for the same resources at the same time), how well positioned will advertisers be to look across their production jobs to optimize the resources available to deliver against new timelines?

360-degree Agency Evaluation, can you handle the truth?

Posted by Robin Seasock on Jun 20, 2020 8:52:52 PM

Using 360-degree feedback as part of your agency evaluation program.

 

A topic that remains hot in the Agency Relationship Management area is what is commonly called 360-degree Evaluation, which is where an agency provides feedback to their client as part of a formal, structured performance management program.

Decideware partners with WBR to bring ProcureCon Marketing, Virtual Event, 25 June, 2020

Posted by Robin Seasock on Jun 11, 2020 2:01:03 AM

Marketing Procurement is evolving….are you evolving with it?

The ProcureCon Marketing Virtual Event is your WFH friendly forum for action-packed takeaways and detailed use-cases from the top minds in wealth and asset management on innovation and emerging tech.

 

Register for the event, here:

https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=reg20.jsp&partnerref=wbrspkr&eventid=2339660&sessionid=1&key=83E5A76CE814E1BA71C1E3F69870297E&regTag=&sourcepage=register

 

A Guide to Managing Agencies in These Uncertain Times

Posted by Robin Seasock on May 11, 2020 11:41:39 PM

 

These continue to be uncertain times, indeed ...

 

as most advertisers and agencies continue to move through varying states of flux , depending on their industry.

For some, the change has been dramatic. For others, it has been incremental. 

But for almost all of us, it’s important to effectively manage processes and resources to retain and rebuild advertising ecosystems. We must prepare to fully return to building great brands as markets re-open.

While the impact of the pandemic varies across the business and global landscape, many advertisers face disruptions, including:

Announcing the 2020 Decideware Advertising Management Scholarship at MSU, Inaugural Recipients

Posted by Robin Seasock on Apr 27, 2020 7:58:47 PM

 

The Decideware Advertising Management Scholarship at MSU. 

 

Decideware is pleased to announce a new scholarship fund has been established with the Department of Advertising and Public Relationships in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, Michigan State University (MSU), ie the Decideware Advertising Management Scholarship

And we are now delighted to recognise Brandon Crawford and Isabel Perhogan as the deserved recipients of the (inaugural) 2020 awards.

Is AI the End of Agencies As You Know Them?

Posted by Robin Seasock on Apr 17, 2020 1:42:15 AM

 

 

On 10 April, the Association of National Advertisers published a new article;

"Is AI the End of Agencies As You Know Them?"

which features comments by Decideware, Inc. CEO Richard Benyon. 

Scope of Work: The Right Team on the Right Business

Posted by Robin Seasock on Apr 10, 2020 11:06:49 PM

Aligning marketing, agencies and procurement through better Scope of Work management

 

1. Why is the Scope of Work process so important?

As with other professional services categories the Scope of Work process is becoming ever more important in managing marketing spend. A well-controlled Scope of Work program is an integral part of a robust framework for planning and communication between client and agency.

The 4-Step Process to Developing a Marketing Procurement Data Strategy

Posted by Robin Seasock on Jan 19, 2020 8:03:01 PM

Data is essential when making marketing procurement decisions. It’s the foundation to understand where you’ve been, where you are now, and where you’re headed.

ANA Webinar: Deliver Value Beyond Savings: Helping Marketing Achieve Objectives Using Optimized Agency Management

Posted by Robin Seasock on Jul 17, 2019 11:04:49 PM

Most agency management programs help companies manage their agency relationships, deliver process efficiencies and savings. But did you know there is more untapped value that Marketing isn’t getting that can help brand teams make more informed decisions and deliver insights to the leadership team to help drive Marketing strategy? During this webinar, Decideware and LinkRFx will share with you how to move up the value pyramid to deliver more strategic value. 

In this webinar, you will learn:

  • Stronger marketing investments are possible when Marketing, Operations, Procurement, and Finance collaborate and optimize agency management
  • Marketing Procurement isn’t all about cutting costs, they can be enablers for marketing leadership for brand planning and measuring brand/agency activity against topline marketing strategies  
  • A well-designed agency management program delivers insights for swift decision making

https://www.ana.net/magazines/show/id/forward-2019-07-decideware-beyond-traditional-agency-management