Insights

I. Questions to ask your agency about data.

Being a good partner is about asking good questions to help you and your partners.

Media reviews are not the easiest exercise. Depending on your scope and scale, it can mean months of back/forth, chem meetings, intros, deep dives, 1:1's and more. One topic sure to be a big part of the discussion is data. Agencies continue to evolve their capabilities around data and analytics. Some better than others. One key consideration is to ensure your strategy and interest around data. That is, today and looking into the future. In the best case, your culture is beginning to look at data to empower decisions. If not, that's an article I'm organizing as we speak.

 

Whether you're in review or not, data should be an ongoing topic of discussion. With that in mind, here are some topics to consider.

 
Strategy.
Do I want my media agency to build, organize and own my data ecosystem? Are there elements you are currently leveraging in-house? Are there external partners you're considering to help build your ecosystem.
 
Cost.
What elements of the data costs of my agency contract are fixed vs. variable, even if they’re pass thru costs? Rarely will the agency specific call out the technical debt in their system. Still, its important to know exactly what your costs are.
 
Security.
How is the agency’s data stack permissioned? Which laws, regulations and industry guidelines do they align to in the markets they manage, e.g. SOC2? Where does the agency’s data stack end, e.g. do they store Personal Identifiable Information (PII)? This is a very important topic and its important to know if they've had any breaches. If they have, what protocols are in place?
 
Sources.
What kinds of data sources, at what scale and at what granularity is data onboarded from the agency’s partners? It's important to get access at the most granular detail as possible. This can increase the size of data stored, but helps empower analysis in greater detail.
 
New Sources.
How do I get new data sources added to my agency-led ecosystem? Is there a cost to add new sources? This can be part of the cost conversation. Depending on the third-parties the agency uses in their stack, some charge by seat or by row of data or account, etc.
 
QA.
How is the agency reconciling data in the ecosystem? How are you able to QA data, especially planned vs. actual? Establishing a Single Source of Truth (SSOT) is key. The data integrity and ability to QA that data is even more critical.
 
Exports.
How do I get data out of my agency-led ecosystem? Whether its for internal modeling, external modeling, audits, etc. how is data exported? Can they do straight S3 bucket swaps or direct feed into your data lake? This is both for big asks and for small requests to follow-up on a signal.
 
Roadmap.
What is the future roadmap of features and functionality in their system? How often is the roadmap updated?
 
Access.
How do the agency’s team access data today, e.g. dedicated group/shared service, direct pulls by media team members, Jira-style ticket request system? The goal is to understand any potential roadblocks in advance.
 
Historical Data.
How do I transition my historical data and reports to the new agency?
 
Change + Transition.
What happens to my data and the ecosystem if I change agencies? As a brand, what are YOU going to do with a dump of data on your doorstep. What will the new partner do with it?
 
Outputs
How long does it take to get new outputs built, e.g. email report, export report, dashboard, etc.