LAB Group

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an associate at a bank in the trading services marketing team.

What challenge were you trying to address with LAB Group?

We used Lab predominantly for market research. In particular, we were looking to understand our audience behaviour.

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, they came to us with the three stages of the project, one of which was a comparative analysis. Then, they looked at an online forum, analyzed it using comparative linguistic analysis, and showed us how our audience is changing over time as technology progresses — it was really interesting. From that, they told us the best way to speak to our clients and prospective clients.

Since then, they’ve done other studies for us. They’ve looked more into our audience and how competitors are communicating in the market too.

What is the team composition?

Our account manager, Matt (Group Head of Digital), was our main point of contact; he was great at keeping us in the loop. Max (Insight & Innovation Lead) got all of the reports together for us, although other people were involved too. We had someone looking over the SEO, and then we had Adrian (Chairman), who was more of a director. He joined our calls and added some insight from his side as well.

How did you come to work with LAB Group?

My manager met LAB Group at a marketing summit. They spoke with them, had a meeting, and they offered to look at it. We had another meeting with them in our offices here in London, where we talked them through our problems. They provided insight on how they were able to help us, and that’s why we went with them. We had spoken to another agency that we had used before, but we felt that LAB Group was a better option to look at technological aspects.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2020, and that initial project ended in September 2020. We engaged them recently for another project, but it just came to an end. We’re meeting them again next week to see if there’s anything else they might be able to do for us.

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

Something that LAB Group did really well was that they didn’t come to us just with facts and figures, they actually talked in terms we understood and provided insights that we could take away. We’ve definitely used some of their findings to influence the way we speak to our clients and publicly in general.

We’ve also shown a lot of this research to other people within our marketing and communications work. They’ve been interested, and some of them have also engaged with LAB Group off the back of that.

Furthermore, we’ve used the research to present what is the future of the company to our internal stakeholders because sometimes we can be a bit in a vacuum as to what people are saying about us on the Internet. If we’re speaking to clients, they might be more polite toward us, rather than speaking in a more open and free way.

Thus, it’s been really useful to know what to say to our audience in order to communicate where the future of trading is going and what we need to be capitalizing on as well.

How did LAB Group perform from a project management standpoint?

I think it was the best I’ve encountered; they had very good management in general. It felt like a white glove client experience, rather than some other kind of experience. They were always available and happy to help. Also, a lot of the stuff they gave us was technical, and they always explained it. If we go back to a report now and I want to see something from it, even after 6–8 months later, I’m able to go back to Max or whoever and just ask what it means.

We just used emails to communicate with them, and it didn’t feel like we were being bombarded with emails when it wasn’t necessary. We were checking in when there was something to actually say or update on, and they just really kept in loop.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think it was their project and account management, the overall feel of LAB Group, and then the actual insights they provided, which I believe were mainly Max’s work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It was a really tiny thing. We once had an original report that wasn’t particularly high in its attention to detail. It was missing basic punctuation and so on, and it was fine because we were able to edit it. However, as a client, that can be something that you pick up more about an agency than if it was done internally; although they made significant changes over the past year regarding how polished everything was.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that you brief them correctly and give them as much information as you can. It will reward you if you do.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I manage digital marketing acquisition here at Opayo by Elavon. Our company offers a payment gateway; specifically in the e-commerce space. My responsibility includes: digital demand gen strategy, reporting & web optimization.

For what projects/services did your company hire LAB Group?

We're looking to be able to track our leads all the way back - to find out which channels did they come from at every touchpoint. This will majorly enable us to optimize our digital marketing strategy. This would require a number of unique IDs added to forms, hidden fields, and API changes

What were your goals for this project?

We'd like to have greater visibility on our leads. Knowledge of which channels and sources did they come from would help us optimize our yearly marketing spent.

How did you select LAB Group?

We've been working with LAB for a couple of years now after they impressed us on a project a few years back. They helped us migrate all our content to a new domain and helped us rebrand. Since then, we knew they are a hard working and honest group of individuals.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

This specific project revolves around tracking & reporting. I project managed it from the beginning. LAB's tasks were to change all forms on the website; adding a number of unique identifiers so we can track the same lead on GA, pardot-SF. They added UTM values and hidden fields. They also performed the changes in SF sandbox for us to deploy.

What was the team composition?

Around 3 people of specialty were involved in this project & that stayed the same till the end.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

There hasn't been any issues since the changes made. There is now greater visibility on leads. Their work was emaculate .

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had weekly meetings; sometimes twice a week; and communicated over emails and Asana. They managed expectations really well.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They were always honest and transparent to the fullest degree and knew how to manage expectations. Not to forget, they are a great bunch of hard working people really.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Don't change a thing; stay the same.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the senior marketing & communications manager, responsible for Franchisee engagement in 12 European markets

For what projects/services did your company hire LAB Group, and what were your goals?

We have been working with LAB for around 12 years. They built our Franchisee extranet and are currently working on a project to roll out two more market versions.

How did you select LAB Group and what were the deciding factors?

LAB is our incumbent supplier partner for our Franchisee extranet. We continue to work with them because they provide good client service levels, they are proactive, transparent and add value.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Ongoing Franchisee Extranet in 12 market versions and 10 languages

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We work with 4-5 people, with Steve Radjan leading their team as Client Services Director

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The two new market versions are progressing well. LAB keep me updated on progress and next steps so we can manage resource at our end for approvals etc.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

Flexible project management to meet our business needs

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their honesty and transparency are impressive. If I ask them advice on how to develop an element of the system, they provide a logical business case describing what they can do, why and how.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

There's always room for improvement. I would like to see more detailed project plans, but not having them doesn't hold up progress.