- SIGMA Marketing Insights evolved from being a vendor that provided exhaustive data discovery and static reporting to clients, to becoming a strategic partner that uses Tableau to provide faster, more accessible, and engaging insights. Tableau helped transform SIGMA's culture and capabilities by enabling interactive dashboards, visualizations, and self-service access to data. This strategic shift strengthened SIGMA's service of illuminating clients' marketing strategies and driving customer growth through data-powered execution.

1. How One Agency Evolved from Vendor
to Strategic Partner
Presented by:
Andrew Lucyszyn
VP, Digital, SIGMA Marketing Insights

2. Andrew Lucyszyn
VP, Digital
SIGMA Marketing Insights
SIGMA Marketing Insights
We empower our clients to make smarter
decisions using data, analytics and technology.
HQ in Rochester, NY
Established in 1985
Employees: 65
www.sigmamarketing.com

3. Who We Work For & What We Do
Analytics: Strategic profiling, predictive modeling,
customer segmentation, digital analytics
Technology: Marketing systems integration and data
hygiene
Strategy: Insights into action; multichannel campaign
execution

4. The Pressure is On Our Clients (and Us)
• Our clients must deliver results:
Acquisition, Retention, Growth.
• Increased need for more
accountability in marketing
budgets.
• Demand for more relevance, higher
standards of access, information
and service.
• Silos of data continue to create
confusion and frustration.
• New channels and technology
require new expertise.

5. The Trouble with Data
• There’s too much of it, and it’s flying in from everywhere.
Customers Campaign Touchpoints
Prospects Campaign Responses
Sales Transactions Customer Satisfaction
Support Interactions Competitive Intelligence
Web & Mobile Activities Social Activities

6. The Trouble with Data
• None of it is connected.
• Forget the “360-degree view of the customer.” Most days,
you’re lucky to get 45 degrees.
360-Degree View
of the Customer
What We Know
on a Good Day

7. The Trouble with Data
• You can’t trust that your
data is any good.
• Data in silos implies that it’s at
least usable, but you suspect
your data is more like a stack
of petrie dishes -- each with
life of its own and filled with
dirt and bacteria.
• And probably plague.

8. The Trouble with Data
• You can’t access it anyway.
• Even if the data was trustworthy and
usable, most marketers still can’t get to it
without a search warrant or a teenage
hacker.

9. The Trouble with Data
• There’s not enough of the good stuff:
– Data that’s actionable
– Data that works
– Data that’s trustworthy
– Data that’s relevant
– Data that’s accessible
• Data that helps drive growth and
innovation

10. • Iterative integration of multiple data
sources
• CLEAN DATA!
• Analytics strategies that can power
marketing and innovation, such as
predictive modeling and
segmentation scores and
scenarios.
• SMART DATA!
Enter SIGMA!

11. And Then We’d Deliver…
Things shorter than this presentation:
• Wagner’s Ring Cycle
• Binging every episode of The Simpsons
• The Mesozoic Era

12. - Misty watercolor memories of
The Way We Were

13. The Way We Were
• Exhaustive data
discovery processes.
– Even with automated
processes and reports,
effective data discovery
took FOREVER and
incorporated a range of
tools.

14. The Way We Were
• The static view of the world.
– Analysis usually wasn’t made to
replicated.
– Customers never changed or evolved.
– Analytics findings couldn’t quickly reflect
changes in customer or segment
behavior.

15. The Way We Were
• Underwhelming reporting, and presentations that were dead on arrival.
– Inflexible online tools that were difficult to manage and use
– Massive spreadsheets that didn’t deliver insights
– Enormous PowerPoint decks that buried the best, most actionable customer insights.
(Like this one!)

16. Enter Tableau!!

17. Transforming a Culture
• SIGMA had to let go of some proprietary tools and processes that were no
longer a competitive advantage.
Actual SIGMA analysis, July 2012.

18. The Tableau Journey
• Testing and tinkering in Fall 2012.
• Initial purchases of Tableau desktop software
for internal analysts.
• Purchase and deployment of Tableau Server
for converting our client portals to Tableau.
• Conversion of ongoing client reporting and
analysis to Tableau was completed in 2013.
• Tableau reporting becomes the face of
SIGMA’s flagship product, mi-Link, the
marketing intelligence platform.
Insights ($$)
Prospects
3rd Party Data
Campaign Tool
Customers
Transactions
Web Behaviors
M
D
M

19. Faster and More Accessible
• Through Tableau, we’re able to deliver
on the promise of insights:
• Faster than ever
• More accurately
• In a more engaging manner than ever
before
• Most importantly, Tableau helps
SIGMA provide marketers with
access to their own data.
Insights ($$)
Prospects
3rd Party Data
Campaign Tool
Customers
Transactions
Web Behaviors
M
D
M

20. Democratizing Marketing Data
• Consolidated marketing intelligence reporting for critical decision making
• Cleaned, controlled, updated data feeds – with numbers everyone agrees on
• The foundation for insights that transform a business.
• Access to data energizes a marketing organization
• Reduced requests of IT resources
• All of which adds up to a trusted relationship both the agency and client
can build upon.

21. - But it wasn’t always smooth sailing
Sometimes a client just wants
Excel.

22. Unexpected Consequences
• It was a significant account management challenge to convert
some “legacy clients” to anything visual.
Very loose definition of the Tableau Viz…

23. Unexpected Consequences
• How hard it is to slim down and concentrate on the actionable
– As analysts, sometimes we want to just show how much we know…
58 Slice Pie Charts!
Mapped by State!
The mauve line makes this unacceptable.

24. Unexpected Consequences
• Realigning our product and service offering
– The time analysts spend with projects now includes BI development time, and
ongoing relationships now demand a richer, more interactive guided analytics
experience.
– We’re excited about the possibilities of Tableau 8.2 Story Points.
• Raised our company’s design standards
– The visual appeal of Tableau forced us to acknowledge that our deliverables
might have to look good.

25. How We’re Delivering Today
• Far more efficient and effective
“business as usual” deliverables
and dramatically reduced data
discovery times.
• Easy-to-use, highly interactive
dashboards allow SIGMA’s data
scientists to quickly create full
reporting environments or stand-alone
deliverables.
• Compelling visualizations and
intelligent report design helps
SIGMA and our clients discover
new insights.

26. Insights to Power Customer Growth
Data
Integration
Analytics &
Smart Data
Marketing Execution
• Tableau helps SIGMA strengthen the execution and delivery of our analytics
services, but it has also helped SIGMA illuminate our strategy for the future.
• Becoming the brain that drives marketing execution, fueling customer
acquisition, retention and growth.

27. DEMO

28. Customer Reporting Suite

29. Multichannel Campaign Response

30. Questions?
Thank You!
For more information on analytics and
technology integration solutions from
SIGMA Marketing Insights, please
contact:
Andrew Lucyszyn
VP, Digital
Andrew.Lucyszyn@sigmamarketing.com
www.sigmamarketing.com
585-242-4152