Customer experience & advertising will continue to blend: Pete Stein, Dentsu CXM

In an interaction with IMPACT, Pete Stein, the global lead of Dentsu CXM, talks about brands’ growing affinity towards improving customer experience, and other major trends from the space.

He also notices that linkage is the way of going forward, whether it’s between your offline and online experience or advertising and CX. 

Excerpts: 

Recently, Dentsu Creative brought back its portfolio brands, Isobar and WebChutney. I want to know if there will be any sweeping changes at Dentsu CXM as well?

Our big announcement at Dentsu was our new global brand proposition– ‘Innovating To Impact’, which is tied up with our heritage of innovation. As Merkle and Dentsu CXM, we don’t have any specific announcements; what we have is technological updates. We are very excited to unveil new technologies such as our Gen CX product.

Apart from being the global lead for Dentsu CXM, you've also retained your America role. Tell us what is the big difference between markets like America and the rest of the world.

Every market is a bit different. Each market has different regulations around privacy. Some markets are more advanced than others in terms of digital adoption, while markets even vary when it comes to the evolution of watching patterns from TV to mobile. These differences drive unique work in each market. But in general, we're seeing the rise of digital with these global platforms starting to be more consistent. We're focused on end-to-end customer experience, making sure that customer journey is integrated and brings the brand to life. 

When it comes to CXM in India, I want to know how big is that market for you right now?

Well, that depends on how you frame it. From a talent and innovation perspective, the Indian market is massive for us because we have an amazing bunch of engineers and data scientists there. It's a nascent market for us from a servicing perspective. We see massive opportunity because it's such a scaled market and the largest now. It's growing and maturing very fast. The population is very heavily digitally enabled but it's still a nascent market for us.

What are the newer capabilities in social, e-commerce, and mobile that can change the game for Dentsu?

Clients are spending; they want to focus their dollars on reaching consumers and they want to get more out of their investments, which I think is one of the biggest game changers. Hence, we’re seeing a lot of connectivity between that investment, especially on social platforms, and the attempt of driving longer term loyalty. This is an area of opportunity for connecting that journey within just the social platforms. As a business, you have a relationship with your customer, you have the first-party data, and you know who your customer is. From a mobile standpoint, mobiles continue to be the primary way with which people are connecting with their friends, and businesses around them. We are witnessing an evolution in the way people use their mobiles. Going ahead, AI and Generative AI is going to put so much power at the fingertips of people.

Today, there’s ample focus on brand experiences now. But to what extent do you think brand experiences have an upper hand over regular messaging now?

Both of these are important. It’s important to reach the right customers with your message, and to find ways to stay relevant, making sure they understand you fit into their lives. I am biassed, but I think that customer journey is also massively important. Customers are willing to leave their favourite brand because of one bad experience. These days, it’s very difficult for brands because it’s no longer just about getting an ad out there, it’s also about delivering a great experience in commerce. We have to support the customer with customer service, and join the offline experience with online experience. 

Any examples that you would like to give of how a brand has managed to create great experiences for its customers and really flourished.

There are so many examples. Our clients, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, have managed to create great experience during the physical pickup as well as on the app. The whole process is very seamless. That’s just one example of many, but Enterprise Rent-A-Car is actually managing to remove the friction. Now, you don’t have to wait in line to fill all your information, and you can do it on the go.

Do you think Cannes is less rewarding for CXM? Do you think there's so much more that can be done at Cannes to bring this stream into limelight?

I agree with you. Primarily, it flagged off as the Festival of Creativity, but now has transformed into a media event. Today, media might have become bigger than creativity. But, over the last couple of years, several companies have started focusing on customer experience. Our partners like Adobe and Salesforce and Snowflake are showing up in a big way. I think customer experience and advertising will continue to blend. Since the consumers demand that integrated journey, companies are going to be forced to find ways to integrate it all. Therefore, this event will become about CXM as well. 

What are the big campaigns from Dentsu that you think are capable of winning big this year? And Dentsu has always taken home the Asia Pacific agency or network of the year, apart from that one time when India bagged the agency of the year. Is this going to be the year for that global recognition of Dentsu on the Cannes stage? 

I am really proud of the way we have shown up here. A big part of our strategy is to come together as Dentsu, and that can be felt. Some of the best work came out from our New York team, which they did for 7-Eleven. That has already won multiple Lions. Basically, they connected with an American football player, built a partnership with him, created some merchandise, and then did some amazing activations. I cherish the work that brings the full palette of tools together; not just video or outdoor, but that social and dynamic aspect. It even brings fans into the conversation.