MANILA – Maxus wasn’t joking when they described Mesh, their new data, analytics and marketing platform, as a “marketing command center.”
First launched in Maxus Philippines for beta-testing last March, it works like most analytic tools by bringing together data from paid media (ie. Google banner ads, etc.), owned (ie. your website) and earned (ie. Facebook and twitter) but goes much further by visualizing it with easy-understand infographics before bringing it back onto a dashboard for clients to take action
Sans the beeps and joysticks, the “Mesh Room” is like a virtual cockpit, dominated by wide screens that surrounds users to give them a a bird’s eye view of everything happening to a brand in online and social media. And best of all, most data are updated in-real time.
“There is no better source of understanding consumers than social data, especially in real-time. For Group M, its critical for us to put the consumer, the “Who,” really at the center of everything we do,” says Andy Radovic (right), Regional Digital Director, Maxus Asia Pacific.
Currently, six screens are installed for testing but Maxus can have up to 10 screens, each programmed to show different data ranging from brand buzz, top influencers, hashtag tracking, content performance and even geo location. Moreover, the whole command center can be set up in a client’s office, or they could get into part services or dashboard services.
The technology was a marriage between Maxus’ existing offerings and VSocial, a product from Vocanic, Asia’s largest social media marketing agency which was acquired by Group M in 2013. Kingshuk Mitra. Managing Director Maxus Philippines, recalled that it was during this time that the WPP-owned agency identified a gap in social media that the partnership can respond to.
“The problem is not the change, the problem is the pace at which things are changing. And that’s why there is a need for real-time marketing” Mitra adds.
After the Philippines, Maxus Mesh will be rolled out in 4 other countries, which India, Australia, Vietnam and Hong Kong. The agency is also eyeing to launch Mesh in 4 other countries outside of Asia, aiming to bring the technology to a total 9 countries by end-2015.
“I consider it more as a need than a trend. Data can only get bigger and social will be part of our lives more and more. Without deeper knowledge on how consumers behave in the digital space in real-time, your business will essentially get, well, smaller,” says Ian McKee (left), CEO of Vocanic.
