Press release – Customer Collective strengthens offering in data science and digital analytics with the arrival of addData and B-New Digital
Diegem, June 29th 2021 – After acquiring the Dutch full-service agency Fightclub last week, Customer Collective announces yet another expansion. To start, a new data entity will be founded within the group: addData. Besides this new creation, B-New Digital joins Customer Collective and reinforces Upthrust’s digital analytics expertise. With these entities coming on board, Customer Collective is able to enlarge and deepen its offer to help the end customer even better than before.
Customer Collective focuses on ‘Customer Ownership’, implying that the end customer should be at the heart of every activity. This calls for a unique combination of strategy, digital, data, technology and creativity. The group unites different companies with those areas of expertise. The entities work closely together and set up multidisciplinary teams with complementary profiles to ensure the best impact for clients. When Customer Collective was launched back in March 2021, it was made out of The House of Marketing (strategic marketing consulting & interim management), Upthrust (growth marketing & digital product studio), Grava (digital performance) and Dignify (CRM & marketing technology). Last week, Fightclub, a brand and performance agency from the Netherlands, joined the group. Today, they create a new data entity with addData and B-New Digital strengthens the group with its digital analytics expertise.
addData
As a brand-new entity, addData focuses on everything that deals with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, specifically in marketing. Lies Taerwe, Managing Director at The House of Marketing explains: “There are numerous companies that are experts in AI, but they often offer very technical applications that don’t necessarily match the specific issues a marketing manager has to deal with. Today, a CMO will hear about AI at every conference he or she attends but doesn’t really know what to do with it. With the specific approach of addData we solve that issue.”
addData brings data scientists and engineers with deep technical expertise together with others with a background in consulting. The latter are important to build the bridge as they understand the challenges and frustrations of a CMO and are able to translate those into very technical solutions. Managing Director David Vansteenbrugge has more than 10 years of experience in the agency world and used to work as the Managing Director of the full-service agency Duke & Grace. Needless to say, he knows all about the CMO and what they deal with on a daily basis. In addition, the team can count on other rock-solid profiles such as co-founders Wim Hellemans and Frank Cornelis. CTO Wim Hellemans has more than 20 years of experience in the end-to-end implementation and maintenance of data science models. He set up multiple data science teams, the last one for Riaktr. As a consultant, he was involved in the data science departments of big players in the telecom sector, such as MultiChoice, Vodacom, Telenet, Orange and Proximus. COO Frank Cornelis makes the switch from Upthrust where he started to develop the data branch. Frank has worked in different management positions in consulting and corporates and brings 16 years of experience as a data scientist in marketing and sales environments to the table.
To integrate AI, addData focuses on 3 aspects. David Vansteenbrugge, Managing Director of addData: “The first one is the set-up of pragmatic experiments. Based on models that have been tested and approved we only need a few weeks to show results that help the customer to trust the use of AI. The technology keeps getting easier to apply, so now’s the time to start working with it as a marketing team. The second aspect is the implementation of a solid data architecture that is integrated in an existing technical setup or the implementation of a Customer Data Platform (CDP). This allows to run scaled campaigns that are not only smarter, but also more efficient. With Customer Collective, addData can not only take on the application of AI but also the creative execution and marketing automation. We are convinced that this area of expertise will be crucial for all organizations and that’s why we also help to build, train and coach an in-house data science team.”
B-New Digital joins Upthrust
B-New Digital focuses entirely on advanced digital analytics. The company implements advanced tool stacks to create a set-up that allows for a very specific measurement of all digital touchpoints. Those are then transformed into tangible business dashboards. Based on those insights, digital experiences are optimized for the purpose of digital growth. “Cross-platform advanced digital analytics provide reliable data that allow you to take objective decisions regarding user behavior, future personalization and, basically, about all your other marketing efforts. By taking away the technical complexity, B-New Digital bridges the gap between IT, data and marketing”, Dennis De Cat, Managing Partner at Upthrust explains. B-New Digital has expertise in, amongst others, Firebase, Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target, Google Analytics, Google Optimize and Google Data Studio.
“The digital landscape keeps getting more and more complex because of GDPR and cookie blocking by third parties. Our mission is to make sure the collection, analysis and activation of data remains as simple as possible for our customers. We look forward to working together with the other entities of Customer Collective, that each have their own area of expertise but still keep close ties with data and digital analytics. By joining the group, we get the opportunity to enlarge our offer and build synergies By reaching more brands and sectors, we can contribute to the long-term goal of helping clients to stay as relevant as possible for their end customer”, says Laurens Aertssen, founder of B-New Digital.
The B-New Digital team has 8 digital analytics consultants and works for customers such as AG Insurance and Immoweb. As a result of this acquisition, the company is absorbed into Upthrust, which will allow them to strengthen their digital analytics capabilities even further.
***End of press release***
About Customer Collective
Customer Collective helps companies to build strong relationships centered around their most important growth asset: their customer. We call it ‘Customer Ownership’. The end customer is at the heart of every activity, including identifying their needs, the creation of products and services to fulfil those, building customer experiences and developing relationships through up- and cros- selling and tackling the churn. This calls for a unique combination of strategy, digital, data, technology and creativity. Customer Collective focusses on 5 building blocks and therefore joins forces from The House of Marketing, Upthrust, Grava, Dignify and Fightclub. As opposed to other players on the European market, the companies work closely together. For each project they select the best profiles with complementary expertise and skills to have the best possible impact.
Customer Collective is powered by Down2Earth Capital and Quanteus Group.
For more information, go to www.customercollective.eu.
About addData
addData helps ambitious organizations leverage the power of artificial intelligence in the most pragmatic way possible. We help CMOs and CEOs set up their first experiments in machine learning and help them build a 360° view on their customer base as a trusted implementation partner of customer data platforms. We combine the deep technical expertise of data scientists with the creative and strategic know-how of consultants to help bridge the gap between decision makers and the realm of artificial intelligence.
For more information, go to www.adddata.eu.
About B-New Digital
B-New Digital is a digital services company focused on digital growth. In a complex digital landscape impacted by GDPR, cookie blocking and a wide range of different tools, it’s their mission to keep the collection, analysis, and activation of customer data child’s play. Their team implements advanced tool stacks to build a set-up through which all digital touchpoints are measured. Insights are derived from reliable data, which are then used to optimize digital experiences. B-New Digital’s consultants have extensive experience in a.o. Google Analytics, Firebase, Adobe Analytics, Google Optimize, Adobe Target and Google Data Studio.
For more information, visit www.b-new.be.
Press contacts:
Grégory Delens
Managing Partner Customer Collective
gregory.delens@thom.eu
+32 (0)479 74 97 46
David Vansteenbrugge
Managing Director addData
david.vansteenbrugge@adddata.eu
+32 (0)494 08 58 91
Laurens Aertssen
Founder B-New Digital
laurens@b-new.be
+32 (0)486 75 23 20