Noble People

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the senior vice president and chief marketing officer of OneMainFinancial, a financial services firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Noble People?

We were created as a merger between multiple different lending institutions, and we needed to develop a plan for growing the company into the largest lender in the US. I was brought on to develop a marketing plan and brand strategy, and as part of that I hired Noble People to be our media planning and buying agency.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their team helped us not only to plan and by the media but to strategically plan out the types of media that we wanted to present in based on our target audiences and their interests. They came up with a lot of interesting ideas to help us implement the media plan beyond just traditional TV exposure.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of about five people from their side, ranging from a daily account director and media planner to their CEO, who was very involved throughout the project.

How did you come to work with Noble People?

Their team was recommended to me by a friend within the industry. It was clear from the beginning that they had the right combination of creativity and interest in the market beyond just buying media as well as experience in the industry to satisfy all of our needs.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about $20 million into the overall media buying plan that they worked on for us, and their fees totaled about $500,000 over the course of two years.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from around January 2017–December 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Our short-term metrics were around awareness for our brand and foot traffic in cities where we ran ads on TV vs just direct mail. We saw those numbers increase dramatically, up to around ten times where they were with exclusively direct mail, which we were very satisfied with.

How did Noble People perform from a project management standpoint?

They did an excellent job managing all of the work. They were proactive, collaborative, open, and on top of all of our deadlines at all times.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I really appreciated that they weren’t simply order-takers. They consulted with me as a client, of course, but they brought a lot of unprompted ideas to the table. On top of that, they never stopped thinking even when the media plan was going well already. They weren’t incentivized by the money we were paying them; they were driven by a desire to really deliver the most progress toward our end goals.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I really don’t have any specific areas for improvement for them. They were really smart and did great work. I guess one thing they could improve on is their access to razors because their team some pretty serious beards.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Embrace their expertise and bring them into the overall process as much as you can, because they will be able to deliver the best results when given a holistic perspective.