Infectious Digital Blogumentary – Episode 3

Breakfast meetings seem to be the new thing nowadays!

Don’t know whether it’s because we’re all too busy and only grab a sarnie at lunch, or it’s a cheaper, non-alcoholic alternative?!

But one frosty morning last week I caught up with Andy Cocker and Martin Kelly from Infectious to get an update on how their digital start up was getting on after Episode 1 and Episode 2:

So how was Q4? I know you were spending some time in New York – setting up an international office already?

Q4 was a manic end to the year we started Infectious.  On reflection we don’t think it  could have been a better start for us.  We’ve won clients, hired staff and had a  lot of fun in the process. Coming back after Christmas, for the first time ever in our careers we were actually looking forward to it rather than having the normal deep sense of foreboding and insomnia . 

We did head out to New York for a week which was a great trip.  The reality is that most of the media technology innovation is happening in the US as the market is so large, it will eventually permeate the UK but we wanted to get a headstart.  We met some cool companies and were pretty inspired by what’s happening at the moment.  We think the digital media industry is in for another shake up in the next 18 months as media exchanges will start to have an increasing impact on the display market and create ROI equivalent to search. No NYC office yet, but who knows in the future!

Where do you see the value of display networks in these uncertain times? Are you not interested in chasing search and direct response?

Display networks have stagnated in the last few years and agencies have started to question their value add.  Unless they have a genuine data and technology proposition to add value to their inventory they won’t last the course and there will be a shake out.  We think the next wave of innovation is coming in this field and this will make display a much more viable proposition for many advertisers, we hear from loads of clients about how disappointed they have been when testing network buys so there will be an education job to do as well as picking your partners carefully.

One key change we see coming is that agencies will start to behave more like networks, and networks more like agencies. Technology and data are driving this convergence.  As this market grows, the interplay between display and search will become increasingly important, if it’s direct response advertising, it’s ridiculous to treat them separately. We firmly believe that!

You set out your stall back in June by saying you had a different approach to managing your clients budgets. Given we’re now in a recession, has your focus moved or have you felt the need to make minor adjustments to strategy?

The recession has been an odd thing for us.  We started with no clients or unrealistic targets so we’ve not felt the downturn in many ways, the people who suffered the most are those who had huge expectations for the year and had built resource to meet that.  Strategically the recession has had no impact on what we offer to clients as a product but we think it’s made what we have to say more relevant. 

When budgets are tight, a very data and technology driven approach has resonated with more advanced digital clients.

What have you got planned between now and when we beat the Aussies at Cricket this Summer?

Growth, and ‘product’ development.  This year has started even more frantically than Q4.  We’re doing lots of interesting work for our current clients, pitching for some great new clients and are in the process of rolling out a new business unit that will sit alongside the main Infectious offering. We’re about to embark on a pilot programme with a number of big name advertisers, to demonstrate the efficiency of this new ‘intelligent display’ offering.  

We’ve grown the team already this year, hiring from the investment banking sector which is really refreshing as having not worked in digital means you don’t carry baggage from the way things have been done in the industry to date.  We love our offices but it won’t be a surprise if we outgrow then by the time we complete the whitewash at the Oval……