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#LEAwards spills: Why Section segmented its offerings into 3 clear themes

#LEAwards spills: Why Section segmented its offerings into 3 clear themes

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Bagging the gold award for the category "Best use of UI/UX design" at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE's Loyalty & Engagement Awards 2020 is digital agency Section. First founded in 2011 by a group of friends, Section sets out to provide brands with valuable interactions, conversations, and connections with their consumers by combining human-centric thinking with technology. In the midst of the pandemic-hit year, the agency went through a reorganisation, splitting its offering into three categories: experience, social and implementation.

In an exclusive interview, Sarah Goh, experience lead, business, Section, shared how the pandemic has caused this pivot in the agency, and the thought process behind its reorganised offerings. Goh (pictured) also revealed how Section is positioning itself to thrive in 2021 and beyond, as well as how its leveraging current trends to provide more value to its clients. 

This interview is done as part of MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s winners and finalists’ interview series for Loyalty and Engagement Awards 2020. To find out more about the awards, click here. 
 

How have your clients marketing plans shifted this year?

Goh: The uncertainty of this year has definitely led most of our clients to look inwards, using this time to focus on owned platforms and improving their digital experience for both new and existing customers. In a way, the pandemic has given a good nudge to a lot of businesses, encouraging them to place a stronger emphasis on their digital ecosystems, given it was the primary means of connecting with customers during the lockdowns this year.

Although more conservative in terms of spend, we are seeing a changing attitude in the receptiveness of digital-led strategies across verticals. As an agency that focuses on digital experiences, we are excited about the possibilities of 2021 as we look to build new and innovative solutions with our clients as we all adapt to the new normal.

What are some of the trends you see carrying on post-pandemic, and how are you equipping your workforce to be ready with these trends?

Goh: While acquisition is still important, retention has been a greater focus this year as businesses seek to maintain their customer base. As such, we are seeing a growing importance of consumer experience as businesses seek to understand their customers and service their needs better. While we currently do not have a dedicated in-house research team, we have had the opportunity to work closely alongside some of  our clients in this area, such as OCBC, which has given us a good grasp of the fundamentals required to establish this offering within our agency.

Another trend that we are noticing is the way clients want to engage and work with us. As more businesses start to adopt an agile mindset in terms of product development, there is a requirement to move at a much quicker pace. With this, clients are requesting for dedicated teams with very specific skill sets to complement their in-house teams. Although this defies the traditional agency model, we feel that this tighter collaboration allows us to build better products as we are removing the agency-client barrier and working together as one team.

What do you think makes for great marketing these days?

Goh: With the diffusion of attention across multiple platforms and devices, being able to cut through the clutter remains key, however, it goes beyond just being able to find and reach the right audience; brands need to ensure that they are making every interaction count.

Additionally, it is important to not lose sight of the long-term view. Small shifts in behaviours can lead to a big change over time, and often these changes are missed until their impact is felt as we have been focusing too narrowly on the immediate rather than what’s in play over a longer period of time. It is easy to fall into the trap of being short-sighted particularly with digital marketing and real-time analytics; maintaining a balance between the two is necessary for marketers to make sustainable choices when it comes to their marketing strategies.

How are you planning for 2021?

Goh: For us at Section, 2020 has been a year of introspection as we look to practice what we preach, and continuously iterate and improve on the way we operate both as an agency, and as a business. We felt that for us to clearly articulate what Section stands for, it required us to reorganise our offering into clear themes that can be understood easily by our people and clients alike.

As of this year, we have now split our offering into three categories - Experience, Social and Implementation. Underpinning this we have our tech and production teams who help us bring our creations to life.

Moving into 2021, we are looking to focus more on building our own dedicated research and measurement capabilities in-house. We feel that user feedback is an important aspect of developing better products and user experiences, and by introducing this function in-house, it will allow us to act more decisively when it comes to making design decisions.

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