Duncan Pointer helms new remit at LanciaConsult as it rolls out marketing solutions practice

Business and technology consulting firm LanciaConsult (LC) is launching its new marketing solutions practice (LCMS) with head of marketing solutions Duncan Pointer at the helm. Pointer (pictured) joined the consultancy in February this year and previously focused on LC's own marketing, such as refreshing the brand identity, improving the website's UX, as well as refining LC's go to market strategy and collaterals. Prior to LC, he was Dentsu Aegis Network's client partner and Vizeum's Asia Pacific CEO. 

Pointer told Marketing that LCMS has been his focus in the last three months, alongside existing client work. LCMS will focus on four areas - marketing strategy, people and operations, creative and brand/visual identity, and technology. When asked why these four areas were chosen, Pointer explained that LC was looking to bring together its consulting and technology expertise with his marketing experience to help businesses move faster and to be smarter with their marketing investment. He added that it was also created to meet the needs of clients that were not being met by agencies or consultancies.

"I think successful marketing is built on technology powered connections between people and stories, brands, experiences. When combined with agile ways of working, brands have the means to rapidly adapt to changing customer dynamics in minutes," he added. The global capability is led out of Singapore and will go where the demand is. 

With the marketing solutions practice, Pointer aims to unify the best of agency and consultancy. He explained that it is not looking to build out a huge team in-house. "Assignments are led by LC consultants, supported when needed, by a small network of best in class partners who we work with. This means we can continuously meet the changing needs of clients by updating, or rotating our preferred partners. We can evolve dynamically as the market shifts, ensuring we always stay relevant," he explained.

While LCMS is a standalone capability, Pointer said it is fully integrated into LC's core consulting business. Other areas the firm focuses on as a whole are people and operations, technology, delivery, mergers and acquisitions, and sector-specific services. Given its service offering, Pointer said pitches are unlikely to be an area of significant revenue growth for the team. It has a tiered strategy that starts with LanciaConsult’s existing client base. Additionally, LCMS also supports the consultancy as a whole in ongoing pitches to provide an integrated solution. Pointer explained that he is constantly speaking to partners and prospective businesses about how reshaping their marketing can drive business value.

"LCMS only launches today, but we do have a couple of standalone clients, and we’re also engaged on a number of projects with existing LanciaConsult clients, consulting on either their go to market strategy, or helping them re-structure their marketing department alongside marketing process re-engineering," he said.

A large part of Pointer's career was spent on the agency side, helming senior roles at DAN and OMD. According to his LinkedIn, he first started out at Starcom before climbing the ranks at UM and Mindshare. According to him, it has been interesting watching from the sidelines over the past eight months the shifts in the media industry.

"What has struck me most, is how little things seem to be changing in the industry. I am not talking about the rapidly developing world of adtech and martech, but rather how many businesses or clients are still operating in more or less the same way as they were five to 10 years ago," Pointer explained. He added that given the huge changes in the marketing landscape, many businesses are struggling to adapt.

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