Wavemaker Norway turns five years old – the agency manager is looking forward to the continuation
What do you think is the most exciting thing about leading Wavemaker in Norway?
– The quick answer is customers and people. Leading a company is largely about leading people, and for me, succeeding in developing and running Wavemaker together with talented employees is my greatest motivation in everyday life, says Catherine The garden.
– Fortunately, Wavemaker consists of many incredibly competent and committed people, who challenge each other, and me, on a daily basis. This means that we are constantly increasing our knowledge and competence, which are the most important ingredients for successfully running a media agency. In addition, we have a fantastic global network behind us where over 7,000 Wavemakers are linked together in a common operating system. Through it we can “meet” and exchange experience, get help and stay up to date on trends and developments globally.
– In addition to people, I am passionate about our customers. We work with so many exciting customers in several categories. The fact that we are able to help them create growth with good media and communication strategies is what really drives me and makes me look forward to going to work every day.
What was it like to establish Wavemaker in Norway?
– It has been and is very exciting to establish Wavemaker in the Norwegian market. Firstly, there is a big difference between building a company from scratch versus establishing and new product through the merger of existing companies. Wavemaker came about because we, across more than 80 markets in the world, merged into an existing company with many dedicated people and a lot of expertise. This gave Wavemaker a power right from the start.
– The focus is simple and clear; We want to create growth for our customers. Wavemaker is founded on seamlessly connecting media, content and technology together in a way that realizes the growth potential we identify. Looking at where the customer’s growth potential is as a starting point for our work is an exciting approach to media consultancy. Our success will depend on the customer’s success, and that is a good starting point for a good collaboration!
Cathrine Hagen is managing director of the media agency Wavemaker Norge, which turns five in December.
How would you describe Wavemaker as an agency?
– Wavemaker is an agency where the knowledge and experience of our advisers in combination with our own data and developed tools create the best media strategies. I believe we have a competitive advantage in our tools and first-party data, which is primarily about consumer insight and media planning.
– “Wavemaker Momentum” is the world’s largest database of buying journeys built up from over 1.5 million insight studies on how and why consumers do what they do, throughout the entire buying journey. Right from a passive phase to an actual purchase. Here we have data from over 90 markers and over 50 different categories. We have also carried out some Norwegian Momentum studies which give us a unique insight into the category, including furniture, building materials, groceries and consumer electronics.
– We can use the data from Momentum in our media planning tool Arkitekt, so that we can, for example, create target groups and segment those who are triggered in a category for various reasons, or target groups of those who have a strong sense of which brand they want to buy next gang.
– This media planning tool is one of the crudest things I’ve seen in my almost 20 years in the industry and is a tool our owners WPP have put considerable resources into developing. In addition to data from Momentum, it uses other first-party data and with the help of machine learning and artificial intelligence, it is a unique tool for our advisers that saves a lot of time on work that previously took a long time. That time can be used for dialogue with the customer instead. Because no matter how good the tool is, it needs input and correction from skilled and experienced advisers.
– In many ways, we can combine the best of people, data and tools to give our customers the most optimal mix of channels that ensures the highest ROI.
What does the future look like for a media agency?
– The last three years have shown us that it is difficult to predict what will come around the next bend. Our industry is changing rapidly and our most important task is to stay at the forefront of this development. I then think of digital transformation, fragmentation of media channels and, not least, rapid changes in consumer behaviour. These changes greatly affect how we as a company organize ourselves, and what expertise Wavemaker will need in the future.
– At the same time, there is something that is constant – and which I believe will continue to be constant for all future; Wavemaker must be rock solid on the best media strategies. We have experienced and skilled advisers, we have unique data for use in self-developed media planning tools. With that as a fundamental, we shall every day, for many years to come, deliver plans and strategies that create growth for our customers.
– A development that has become clearer in recent years is necessary for competence that extends beyond the more traditional “media agency roles”. Compared to five years ago, we have today employed specialists in several different areas to both support and further develop our customers – especially when it comes to digital initiatives. Wavemaker today has its own specialists within content production E-commerce, Digital strategy, Data and analysis. This is to be able to provide the service our customers expect from us, while at the same time it helps to develop and raise competence in several areas internally, concludes Cathrine Hagen, CEO of Wavemaker Norway.
At Wavemaker, we believe there are always new ways to create growth. Based on an understanding of the consumer’s purchase journey within the category, we work every day to uncover the growth potential for our customers. By seamlessly linking media, content and technology together, we change attitudes and consumers in order to realize the growth potential.
Wavemaker is 100% owned by WPP and is under the GroupM umbrella. WPP is the world’s largest player in the field of communications across advertising, media and PR agencies. GroupM is the media agency umbrella of WPP