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    Salsify Partner Spotlight: WPP

    Brand experience agency VML is a WPP company and Salsify partner. Together, VML and Salsify provide customers with deep, holistic, end-to-end technology solutions and organizational services.

    In our partner spotlight, Gemma Spence, chief digital commerce officer at VML, shares how brands can flourish in digital commerce by building the right digital shelf foundations, and Dennis Peek, strategy director at VML, offers insight into critical operational trends, including data aggregation and technological investments.

    Spotlight on Gemma Spence, Chief Digital Commerce Officer at VML

    “For businesses to truly flourish within digital commerce, they have to have the right foundations in place — and the right foundations are built within the digital shelf. The unique thing here is that Salsify is one of the largest end-to-end technology solutions within the digital shelf.”

    — Gemma Spence, Chief Digital Commerce Officer, VML

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    Video Transcript: Spotlight on Gemma Spence

    Hi, I'm Gemma Spence. I'm the chief digital commerce officer at VML, a WPP company. I'm passionate about all things digital shelf because it's ultimately the digital spine of any organization.

    For businesses to truly flourish within digital commerce, they have to have the right foundations in place — and the right foundations are built within the digital shelf.

    The unique thing here is that Salsify is one of the largest end-to-end technology solutions within the digital shelf. You know, whether that is around content, whether that's around PIM [product information management], DAM [digital asset management], retail integrations.

    Where WPP comes at it is that we are a creative transformation organization. So when you put the two together, the power — in terms of being able to do that end-to-end breadth — as well as the depth.

    And within WPP, we have many different front-goers. Whether you're thinking about it from a creative or from a media or from a data lens, actually, again, by clipping these different components together, you're able to create a modular, end-to-end approach that is right and built first and foremost around the client's needs.

    In the clients where we have been very successful, whether that has been globally or top-down or, indeed, grassroots bottom-up, within a market, we have spent a lot of time ascertaining what the client's objectives are and what their needs are and then build it around what it might be around governance and taxonomy.

    It might be around the data tech and tools. It might be around measurement and attribution, optimization, or retail reach. So I think by getting those aspects and plays and doing that degree of consultation and discovery with clients, we can build something that really works for them and their organizational structure now, as well as making them future-proofed.

    Spotlight on Dennis Peek, Strategy Director at VML

    “WPP and Salsify, they come together in a great strategy. And the strategy is that we want to help our clients to win on the digital shelf.”

    — Dennis Peek, Strategy Director, VML

    See Transcript

    Video Transcript: Spotlight on Dennis Peek

    My name is Dennis Peek, and I work for VML, a WPP company, and I'm a strategy director, specifically for the digital shelf and product experience management — and the reason why I love this domain is because of how important it is for our clients.

    Because if you look at ecommerce as a category, brand manufacturers specifically, 95% of the money that they make in this category is all channeled through the digital shelf. So that's why I think it's important because it matters most to our customers.

    WPP and Salsify, they come together in a great strategy. And the strategy is that we want to help our clients to win on the digital shelf.

    And I think we both see that PXM, product experience management, is like a key enabler. So it's a great place to get your data together, is to have a place where you can store all of your retailer requirements, your consumer requirements, and make compelling content experiences.

    I think to do that from one platform is fundamentally important for our customers. I think one of the major, key major trends that we're seeing is that brands are starting to create multidisciplinary teams within their organization to be better at digital shelf.

    So, traditionally, I think a lot of digital shelf experience was in local markets. And now big enterprises are starting to formulate global teams supportive of those local markets, in order to have a better customer experience and a better consumer experience.

    What we also see is that a lot of data coming out of local markets, sales data, performance data, retail media data, can be used at the center to create better content experiences, and I think all of the technology investments that we've seen our customers make are very supportive of that initiative — and I I think that's great to see.

    So VML and WPP conduct an annual research we call the “Future Shopper Report,” and in the “Future Shopper Report,” we interview annually more than 30,000 consumers across all global markets about their shopping habits and their shopping needs.

    So what Salsify and VML and WPP have done is to be able to translate those shopper needs into tangible capabilities that our clients exactly need to deliver experience at scale.

    And Salsify is being a fundamentally important technology because on top of this technology, we've been able to provide meaningful services to clients that made them independently able to own their complete customer journey.

    “So I think by getting those aspects and plays and doing that degree of consultation and discovery with clients, we can build something that really works for them and their organizational structure now, as well as making them future-proofed.”

    Gemma Spence, Chief Digital Commerce Officer, VML
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    “[Salsify is] a fundamentally important technology because on top of this technology, we've been able to provide meaningful services to clients that made them independently able to own their complete customer journey.”

    Dennis Peek, Strategy Director, VML
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