San Francisco-Based Pierry Rebrands as Wunderman Thompson
Move bolsters Wunderman Thompson’s Salesforce Center of Excellence to deliver enhanced, connected experiences for clients.

March 3, 2020 – NEW YORK, NY – San Francisco-based marketing services agency Pierry Inc. has rebranded to parent company Wunderman Thompson, a WPP creative, data and technology agency built to inspire growth for its clients. Pierry’s rebrand solidifies Wunderman Thompson’s Salesforce Center of Excellence and enhances their marketing technology offering under one brand. The new identity leverages Pierry’s existing skills and combines them with Wunderman Thompson’s marketing technology expertise to meet clients’ growing demand for the Salesforce Customer 360 Platform, and Pierry and Wunderman Thompson’s shared clients will now have simpler access to the expertise of both agencies.

Founded in 2008, Pierry was acquired by Wunderman in September of 2017 and became a significant part of Wunderman Thompson’s Salesforce Center of Excellence after Wunderman and J. Walter Thompson came together in 2019 to become Wunderman Thompson.

Wunderman Thompson’s Salesforce COE encompasses Pierry, Mirum, ENext, EMark, The Cocktail, and Gorilla Group to deliver expanded marketing automation, CRM and CDP solutions for clients worldwide.

Wunderman Thompson’s Salesforce offering reduces complexity for clients by providing a one-stop solution to create customer experiences that deliver what consumers need, when they need it, at speed. By simplifying marketing technology, clients can focus on creating the kind of experiences that inspire customers and consumers to action, with technology that transforms customer journeys.

Wunderman Thompson’s marketing technology offering is comprised of three key elements: customer acquisition technology, experience technology and commerce, integrated with Wunderman Thompson’s data and mobile experts to deliver customized digital interactions and build deeper ties with customers.

“With Pierry’s rebranding, Wunderman Thompson positions itself as one of Salesforce’s largest agency partners globally for building data-driven marketing and advertising technology solutions for personalized customer engagement,” said Stephane Viallet, VP of Alliances, Salesforce.

“I’m excited to officially move Pierry under the Wunderman Thompson banner,” said Neil Stewart, Global CEO of Wunderman Thompson Commerce. “Data-driven thinking leads to consumer experiences that get results for clients, and Pierry’s expertise strengthens our Salesforce Center of Excellence to inspire growth for our clients.”

Salesforce and others are among the trademarks of salesforce.com, inc.

About Wunderman Thompson
Wunderman Thompson is a creative, data and technology agency built to inspire growth for its clients and people. Our experts deliver end-to-end solutions at a global scale with an entrepreneurial spirit that infuses creativity with emerging technology to deliver revolutionary work. Headquartered in New York, we are a worldwide agency bringing together over 20,000 people in 90 markets across the globe.

About Pierry Inc., A Wunderman Thompson Company
Pierry, Inc was founded in 2008 with one goal in mind – help its clients make the most of their digital presence. Today, this remains our goal, but we have since grown from a small staff servicing local businesses into a full-service digital marketing agency, providing world-class service to some of the most recognizable brands in the world. Our services include creative, strategy, campaign management and implementation of cloud-base technology. We are a proud Salesforce Partner.

In 2017, Pierry became a part of WPP and the Wunderman Group companies.

The marketing landscape is littered with acronyms—DSP, DMP, ESP, SSP, SEO, PPC, CPM—the list goes on and on. Recently, DMP (Data Management Platform) has grown into one of the hottest acronyms in the digital marketing space.

While the technology behind Data Management Platforms is complicated, the basic high-level functions of a DMP are rather simple: It consolidates disparate data points then leverages those consolidated data points to create targeted user audiences.

And once all data has been consolidated and unified, the resulting audiences can be pushed to various activation platforms.

How a DMP Works

Having the ability to aggregate data from multiple marketing channels is like hitting a hyper-targeted audience gold mine.

A DMP layers first-party data like site-side user activity, mobile app activity, or paid media engagement on top of second-party data from a data sharing relationship and combines it with third-party data from vendors to create a full view of your ideal audience and what they’re doing.

By collecting and storing data from first-, second-, and third-party data sources, DMPs allow brands to deliver the right message at the right time to the right audience.

 

What’s Next?

With all of that data flowed into the DMP and connections made to enable a single view of a brand’s customer, what happens next? Unlocking audiences and advertising to them directly through media spend optimization through suppression and onsite personalization.

Media Spend Optimization Through Suppression

You’ve seen it before. The display ad you can’t seem to get away from, no matter what webpage you’re on. These brands are guilty of not optimizing their media spend.

With a DMP, brands can drive acquisition through display ads by suppressing the audience who have already seen an ad or are existing customers. The quickest path to ROI from a DMP is to put recency (pace at which the user is shown the creative) and frequency (the number of times creative can be shown to a given user) caps in place.

For example, a retail brand launches a display ad campaign to promote their upcoming fall line. They could then create an audience of people who have already seen their ads and instruct their DSP (the software used to execute programmatic ad buys) to not show additional ads to this audience group. Additionally, this retail brand could create an audience of existing customers to ensure that their ad spend on their new line is not wasted on customers who have already purchased.

Combining these techniques creates a better user experience for their audience and, more importantly, optimizes their ad spend.

 

Onsite Personalization

Consumer expectations for more personalized experiences are at an all-time high. As these expectations have grown, brands have struggled to keep up and make sure they are providing relevant and personalized content on their websites.

By leveraging a DMP, brands can create an audience based on multiple data sets from past website browsing behavior to CRM data—all enriched with third-party data—to create a truly detailed audience profile which can be leveraged to improve their user experience.

So, what does this look like in practice? For our retail brand with a new fall line, their data consolidation efforts have created an audience that is female, college educated, and early 30s. It also shows that, of this audience, current customers are purchasing in high numbers from their Texas location and frequently buy gift cards.

Armed with this information, the retailer could serve up a personalized website creative for this specific audience that highlights exclusive deals at the Texas location that also includes a promotion for gift cards that drives engagement, loyalty, and (most importantly) sales.

 

There are a myriad of ways to use a DMP and even more benefits for brands. Stay tuned for our upcoming post that further explores the many ways DMPs can bring more value to data.

 

By: David Koroghlian, Directory of Strategy & Business Architecture

Redwood City, CA – June 5th, 2018 – Pierry Inc., A Wunderman Company and Salesforce partner, announces the launch of its exclusive data solution, Omni-Cloud 4.0 – a Salesforce Fullforce Solution that drastically improves the way retailers connect with their customers.

The brand-new solution leverages third party data from disparate systems into a central repository, making it compatible with many Salesforce products, including Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud and Service Cloud. With this cross-cloud compatibility, retailers will have a holistic view of their customer, allowing them to deliver precise, customized campaigns.

“With Omni-Cloud 4.0, we see unlimited potential for the retail market to deliver targeted, personalized marketing, and deliver the ability to connect with their consumer base like never before,” said Josh Pierry, CEO of Pierry Inc., A Wunderman Company

The Omni-Cloud 4.0 leverages the Salesforce Platform, bringing together data from various sources to drive awareness, engagement, and customer loyalty. This solution enables Salesforce customers to become more efficient and effective in their marketing efforts while engaging consumers on a whole new, one-to-one level.

“We are thrilled that Pierry Inc. has been recognized as a Salesforce Fullforce Solution partner and is helping companies in the retail and marketing industry connect with their customers in entirely new ways,” said Don Lynch, SVP, worldwide alliances, Salesforce. “We work closely with Salesforce Fullforce Solution partners to help ensure our customers can benefit from Pierry Inc.’s proven industry expertise with the Salesforce Intelligent Customer Success Platform.”

The solution is currently available on the AppExchange. For more information go to www.pierryinc.com/omni-cloud4-0 or reach out to salesforce@pierryinc.com

Salesforce Fullforce Solutions

Salesforce Fullforce Solutions are partner offerings recognized for their specialization in priority Salesforce industries and other key solution areas. Fullforce Solution partners have demonstrated proven expertise and customer success, and receive Salesforce go-to-market support, executive sponsorship and guidance as part of the Salesforce Partner Program. Learn more about Salesforce Fullforce Solutions.

Salesforce, Fullforce and others are trademarks of salesforce.com, inc.

About Pierry Inc., A Wunderman Company

Pierry, Inc was founded in 2008 with one goal in mind – help its clients make the most of their digital presence. Today, this remains our goal, but we have since grown from a small staff servicing local businesses into a full service digital marketing agency, providing world-class service to some of the most recognizable brands in the world. Our services include: creative, strategy, campaign management and implementation of cloud-base technology. We are a proud Salesforce Partner.

In 2017, we became a part of WPP and the Wunderman Group of companies.

It really is true, you don’t often get a second chance to make a first impression.  While this saying is typically the domain of person to person meetings, it also holds true for brands and their initial interactions with consumers.

Regardless of industry or size, most companies will at some point send a welcome email to a new customer or subscriber.  No matter what type of interaction triggered the welcome email, what happens next is a critical step. At the most basic level an email welcome series is meant to introduce, inform and set a foundation for a long standing, positive relationship.  In fact, according to a recent Returnpath survey – welcome series recipients read 69% of subsequent brand messages, compared to just 18% of subscribers who did not receive a welcome series. That is quite a big difference in engagement between the two groups.  While there is little debate that an email welcome series is a must have, there are three key elements that the series should incorporate in order to provide the recipient with a positive first brand interaction.

1. Impeccable timing is an admired and often success indicating trait.  With an email welcome series, this philosophy also holds true – whether it’s ensuring that the initial communication is sent soon after the trigger event or ensuring completion of the welcome series in a timely fashion.  The entry points to a welcome series can be many and varied, however what is constant is the need to trigger the welcome series while the action is still fresh. In addition to the initial welcome email, timing also comes into play throughout the welcome series.  Even send spacing, so as not to fatigue the reader, balanced with the need to stay top of mind should be considered for the email flow. We’ve all experienced a series of emails from a brand that like dating, were too much too soon or so spaced out that all momentum and possibly interest were lost.  The final timing consideration is to ensure once the welcome series is complete, a seamless transition for the customer to another form of regular communication takes place.

 

 

2. Content, content, content – Within the welcome series, content should focus on a few key elements – 1) value reinforcement content that demonstrates the consumer made a good decision to transact or sign up. From the first email and throughout the welcome series, brands should aim to provide content that proves your emails and relationship are worth continuing – lest find your emails in the spam or unsubscribe category, 2) a gentle reminder of how they engaged with your brand resulting in this email arriving in their inbox. As consumers receive more and more email, it is important to provide them with details on how your relationship came to be, and 3) focused content – where possible strive for a singular focus for each email in the series with one or two clear calls to action. This content should not overwhelm with too much information at one time. And finally – personalize where possible. Even a personalized subject line can result in higher unique open rates.

3. Set Expectations – A welcome series is the perfect opportunity to set the tone of the future relationship and educate on key steps or information needed. Often times this can take the form of an interactive tutorial that explains what to expect moving forward or provides instructions on how to use a product or newly purchased service.

It is fair to say that an email welcome series is an integral part of any robust email strategy. Hopefully you are already leveraging a welcome series as part of your email program. However, if that is not the case, hopefully some of the elements discussed here can provide a good foundation and framework to start. After all, it’s never too late to make a first impression.

About the Author
David Koroghlian is the Director of Strategy and Business Architecture at Pierry Inc., a Wunderman Company and Salesforce Gold Partner, where he leads the organization’s strategy practice. In this role, David advises clients on their digital marketing strategy across a wide array of digital marketing channels. Prior to Pierry, David spent five years as a digital marketing consultant at Adobe where he helped clients develop, plan and execute their digital initiatives. In addition to his time spent as a marketing technology and strategy consultant, David previously was a brand side marketer where he oversaw digital, mobile and social efforts for a number of companies.

Ah, the 4^th of July, Independence Day, the federal holiday we observe as a nation—commemorating the thirteen American colonies asserting their independence from Great Mother Britain—to stand as the unified and independent nation we know today as the great country on earth.

What better way to pay patronage to such an important occasion than reminding consumers what this independence yields them? The freedom to buy whatever they want, of course!

As marketers, and those providing these services to companies, it is our job to grab consumer or client attention, convince them in the span of a few seconds, or minute, that they need our product or service and—if we do it right— even make them smile or laugh.

These are 6 companies that used the 4^th of July holiday as an opportunity to do just that. Here’s what they did right and what we can learn from them:

Let FREE-dom Ring

What are you offering your consumers? A coupon or discount code? Information about a sale? A holiday greeting? A study done by Experian in 2013 observed 174 brands—that sent email campaigns within two weeks of the 4^th of July—noted that those mailings offering incentives to readers during the holiday—such as free shipping, a coupon or simply giving notification of a sale—saw open rates increase as much as 25%, transaction rates increase threefold and transaction-to-click rates increase as much as 51%.

What can we learn: If you are incentivizing your customer, draw attention to that initially by putting that in the subject line of the email.

 

Nail the Tagline, Subject Line or Caption

It’s a safe assumption that the majority of consumers will be receiving some sort of 4^th of July related email or advertisement—so do both parties a solid and write something memorable. Be clever, be concise and be associative.

What comes to your mind when you think of Independence Day? Fireworks? Red, white and blue? Grilling with friends and family? Include words that relate to the holiday and integrate them into the beginning of email subject lines, ad taglines or in the first sentence of a social media post.

California Avocados

What they did right: Grilling is a huge part of Independence Day festivities, California Avocados used this as an opportunity to integrate their product into an image that is quickly associated with celebrating American summers and holidays. They also had a clever play on the traditional “red, white and blue” slogan by integrating the color of their product in the tagline. Catchy and memorable.

Rover

What they did right: This dog sitting service company kept their message simple, clean and concise. With the hot dog image, Rover cleverly alluded to what their services cater to in a manner that was insightful—many dogs are afraid of fireworks during the holiday or need to be watched when families travel for long weekends—while also playing a double role as a visual commonly associated with the holiday. Rover wrapped it up with a clear CTA encourages customers to reserve their services during for the hoilday.

Lulu’s

What they did right: Lulu’s tagline integrates associative holiday words, “exercising your right,” into playful copy. Clear CTAs (Call to Actions) that tie in the holiday and highlight the seasonal relevancy of the product. Lulu’s also provided examples of their products to use for related and subset events— “Pool Party”, “Backyard BBQ”, enabling customers to visualize how they can use and wear the product in a variety of settings.

Credit.com

What they did right: Again, we see a play on “slogans” from the holiday— a smart tagline/title that integrates associative words with the holiday in a manner that also highlights the services Credit.com offers in an easily-understood, intelligent and humorous manner.

Jack Daniel’s

What they did right: Appealing to those with proud patronage, Jack Daniel’s alludes to its product actually being produced in the U.S.—something that has become increasingly rare with outsourcing and is thus an added-value aspect for customers. The ad also incorporates the standard color palette associated with the holiday and iconography with the eagle that is both on brand and holiday relevant from a design standpoint.

 

Lowe’s

Happy 4th of July! #Vine #loop https://t.co/1UllbqpjVk

— Lowe’s (@Lowes) July 3, 2013

 

What they did right: Lowe’s integrated its products in a subliminal sell format—reminding customers of their products without a hard sell. A fun and visually pleasing way to engage viewers and wish customers a happy holiday.

How are you celebrating and reaching out to your customers for Independence Day? Comment below and let us know!

For many of us, social media channels are so much a part of our daily lives, that we don’t really remember a time without them. In reality, social media as we know it today didn’t exist until 2002 with the introduction of Friendster, followed by MySpace. While those two may not have stood the test of time, other networks that were introduced in the early 2000s, notably LinkedIn and Facebook have, leading the way for more platforms like Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Snapchat and others.

While all of these platforms are different, the one thing they all have in common is they allow brands to use their platforms to promote their products and services—which is good and bad news.

If social media has taught us anything it’s that just because you can post something, doesn’t mean you should. This is true for both those using social media as a way to stay in touch with family and friends, as well as for brands looking to stay connected to their customers.

Here are 5 questions to ask yourself before taking a deep dive into any social media channel:

1. Is my brand B2C or B2B?

As you already know, marketing to a consumer audience is much different than marketing to a business audience. And this rule is particularly true when it comes to marketing on social media.

Many B2C brands find success on channels like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat. B2B brands often find the most success on more professional networks such as LinkedIn. However, it’s not uncommon to also find B2B brands on YouTube, Twitter, or even Instagram.

The type of business you have will shape the channels you choose to be on. That’s not to say a B2B couldn’t create a Pinterest account and a B2C brand couldn’t create a LinkedIn page. Just ask yourself, would your audience expect or want to see you there? What benefits would you provide your customer by being on that channel?

2. What is the age range of my audience?

Each social media channel attracts a certain age range and thus should have an influence over which channels you choose to promote your brand. If your products appeal most to those who are 40+, would you want to invest in posting content to something like Snapchat? Probably not.

Percentage of Users by Age

Source: Pew Research Center 

3. What types of content do I have the resources to create?

Certain types of content are better for some channels than others. For example, written content can be easily shared on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and LinkedIn. However, this type of content is more difficult to share on something like Instagram or Snapchat, which relies heavily on more visual content.

Before establishing your brand on a new channel, make sure you have the ability to regularly create content specifically for that channel. Your decision to market on that channel is simple: If you don’t have the resources to regularly create the appropriate content for a channel, don’t join it.

4. How often am I willing to post content to a social media channel?

No matter what social media channels your brand is on, you want to make sure you’re posting with some level of frequency. However, that level of frequency can vary, as the lifespan of content can vary from channel to channel.

For example, content posted on Twitter has an estimated shelf life of about 5 seconds. This means brands should post with a much higher frequency on this channel than they would on LinkedIn, where there is far less noise and posts have a shelf life ranging from days to weeks.

When considering a new channel, think about how much is appropriate to post each day, each week, or even each month. Then make sure you’re willing to invest the time needed to keep up with that cadence.

5. What is my goal for being on a particular channel and is it in line with my overall marketing and business objectives?

Every marketing initiative should have a goal and play a role in achieving a grander business objective. If you’re struggling to come up with a goal that fits into that larger strategy, that social media channel may not be right for your brand.

Make sure you are not only willing to formulate both a short-term and long-term strategy for any new channel, but that you feel you’ll be able to follow it and achieve some value from it.

When social media first came on to the scene, many marketers didn’t anticipate the impact it would have on both brands and consumers. Not wanting to be left behind, many brands have joined channels where they are unable to maintain a valuable presence. The early bird may catch the worm, but if it doesn’t do anything with it, being an early adopter won’t pay off; abandoned or neglected social accounts can degrade a brand’s credibility.

Social channels will continue to proliferate, so it’s important to always remember to determine the value of the channel to your target customers before you decide to dive in. While joining a social media channel is free, the time you need to create and post resources for it are not. Make sure any channel you join is worth the effort and provides real value to both your brand and your customers.