Somo

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization. What is your role and responsibilities?

My organization is the largest brand in a large e-commerce retailing conglomerate. We are headquartered in the U.K. I’m the brand manager and responsible for marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Somo?

Our customers were rapidly moving to smartphones and more than 50 percent of our traffic now comes from users on a smartphone. That customer percentage has grown massively during the last 18 months. We wanted to reach those customers more efficiently.

SOLUTION

What was your process for selecting Somo with which to work?

We sent out a pitch document to five agencies. We invited three to come along to pitch. Based on those meetings, we chose Somo.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative in dollar terms or a personnel work-hour figure? When was the work completed?

Our partnership with Somo is ongoing, but the total partnership has cost $200,000 plus.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

For every [British] pound we put into the Somo campaign, we receive a return of about 15 pounds back.

Is there anything unique or special about Somo that really makes them stand out compared to other business partners?

Somo is an extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic team that really understands our customer, and they push the innovation agenda for us. We’re delighted with the work they have done for us for the last 18 months.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

I work with a lot of different agencies in different fields. I’m a big fan of what Somo has done. I don’t think they could change much. They’re one of our strong partners.

BACKGROUND

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m head of mobile for an asset management organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Somo?

We wanted to make moves in the world of mobile. We had an iPhone app that was very old and needed updating. We had no other mobile vision in place. We started looking at what our mobile strategy should be. Taking that path, we produced some fantastic videos to showcase the vision. Then, with the vision in place, we began work to build and design an iPad app.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

Somo was responsible for our mobile strategy, creating videos, and developing the app. For the development of the app, Somo did the initial design and wireframes for it and then handed it back to our internal development team to fully build out.

What was your process for selecting Somo with which to work?

We did a normal pitch process where we had various organizations come in and pitch to us. The reason Somo won is partly their passion and enthusiasm for the mobile world, plus the innovation and approach. They had a different way of thinking and it wasn’t just about creating a mobile app. It was about how you can create “wow” moments that hit home.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

I don’t have anything quantitative. Somo was fantastic in terms of getting buy-in from the stakeholders within the company. They helped to tell our people what mobile means, and what it could mean to our customer base. 

Is there anything unique or special about Somo that really makes them stand out compared to other business partners?

I would say innovation. They have a strong passion for what they do. They know the market. They live and breathe mobile, and they just know it all. They’re very creative and innovative.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

There have only been a few challenges all around the time scales and delivery.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization. What is your role and responsibilities?

We publish a weekly magazine that is distributed globally. I’m head of digital marketing. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Somo?

We recognize mobile is a very new and constantly evolving space. We wanted to bring in new subscriptions to our magazine.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

We asked for an overarching mobile strategy. We wanted to engage and convert new subscribers. We asked them to focus on the U.K. and U.S. and provide more detailed media plans as to the types of networks they would use and the type of customer journey they would recommend. We had a meeting with them about strategy, and then we went into media planning. They’ve worked on several projects for us. One of the most recent projects is our new app. It’s a daily product. 

What was your process for selecting Somo with which to work?

One of our newly hired digital directors had some great feedback drawn from a previous experience with Somo. We wanted to partner with one of the early adopters of mobile marketing. So, rather than working with a big agency with a mobile division we wanted to work with a specialist agency that had a good track record of moving with the industry. We went with Somo based on the strategy session we had with them. 

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative in dollar terms or a personnel work-hour figure?

We started our partnership in August 2014. We approved a spend of around $1 million for the year dedicated to our mobile strategy.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

I have some specific metrics around our app. We’ve been impressed with what they’ve managed to drive our cost for install. The average cost for install is £1.77 ($2.50). They’ve managed to drive subscriptions to Espresso at £51 ($66) per subscription, which is excellent. It’s within the realms of what we think is reasonable, and what we had asked them to do. In terms of total installs driven by the market spend, they’ve managed to deliver about 130,000 installs during the course of two and a half months. We’re pleased with that. The weekly product is a much tougher nut to crack, but we are working on it. 

Is there anything unique or special about Somo that really makes them stand out compared to other business partners?

A really great thing about Somo is that they are able to draw on a diverse set of previous client experience. They are a biggish agency, but I think they work with a small agency feel. I feel like we get a good amount of account management care and attention. I feel like they’re pretty hands on. I like the fact that they’ve got a lot under one roof. They’ve got a strong creative services division. They’ve got a lot of mobile media planners to work with. They can also accommodate some of the more ancillary projects like App Store optimization or customer journey. It’s nice not to have to brief those jobs out to a new agency every time. Somo has done a great job of understanding what we do, who we are, and what our main KPIs [key performance indicators] are. 

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

We’ve had Somo do a couple of customer journey projects for us to really look at a mobile journey and try to work out what the pain points are and how we can improve our approach. I feel like sometimes they are a little off brief with their suggestions. Sometimes, I find it difficult to work out how we can practically implement some of the suggestions they make.