Executive summary:
In 2022, Dan Mandle joined broadhead as SVP of Data Science. He faced a tough challenge right away: stitching together a clear story from the agency’s work to the client’s outcomes. The data was often stuck in silos and Dan's team drowned in busy work. He used Funnel to bring order to the data, empower his team, deliver better results for clients and even grow new service offerings.
Key results:
- Cut data management spend by 50% compared to their legacy solution.
- Enabled lucrative service offerings, like marketing mix modeling.
- Scaled new client onboarding without hiring additional staff.
Agency profile:
broadhead is one of the leading independent full-service marketing agencies in the US, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. With 220 employees across 5 offices and an average annual growth rate of 120% in the last 3 years, they power brands that transform how we eat, move and live.
The challenge - Data silos hindering strategic insights
When Dan joined the food, transportation and lifestyle agency as the SVP of Data Science, the data structure he found at broadhead came with some road blocks.
"Our teams were like islands," Dan recalls. "PR had its numbers, performance had theirs and it was a struggle to connect the dots."
This disconnect made it hard to show the full impact of broadhead's work or to realize their vision of being a data-led organization. The ad hoc nature of their approach left Dan's teams stuck building (and then troubleshooting) one-off reports with limited perspectives. This meant they couldn’t do marketing science at scale.
"We were firefighters, not strategists," Dan says. "We had smart people, but it was hard for them to succeed."
The existing analytics platforms didn't make matters easier either. It was rigid, hard to expand and came with poor support. Dan needed a way to bring data together, make that data trustworthy and get it into everyone's hands.
The solution - Unified data, empowered teams with Funnel:
Dan had used Funnel in a previous role and saw its potential to solve the challenge at hand. To get buy-in from leadership, though, he needed to build a business case.
"I wanted to show that we could bring tons of data together, set clear rules and make it accessible," Dan explains.
Dan decided to put Funnel to the test. His data operations team cataloged the data sources, corresponding dimensions, and measures that were part of the existing system. They ingested the necessary reports from multiple channels like organic social, PPC ads, email marketing, and website data.
“Funnel’s ability to flexibly handle inputs made it really easy to initiate our test,” says Dan. “If the data connections we needed didn’t exist in Funnel, the platform gave us plenty of alternative solutions for how we might yet include them–whether by spreadsheet, custom file imports or even custom data source connections Funnel’s own tech team built for us!”
Then came the real magic. The team mapped everything together and set clear rules. "We made sure everyone agreed on what counts as a conversion," Dan notes. "No more debates about definitions."
With clean, consistent data in hand, the team sent their data to BigQuery to run deeper analyses and, ultimately, long-term storage. "Suddenly, we could see the whole picture," Dan says. "It was like turning on the lights in a dark room. And paying less for the electricity!”
The results - Data-driven growth, 50% cost savings, scalable solutions:
The change was dramatic. “Once we showed how our Funnel implementation could reduce spend by 50% relative to what we were spending before to solve this problem, we were approved to make Funnel an official part of the agency’s technology stack.”
First, everyone could access the data they needed without worrying about accuracy. And the team could finally focus on crafting strategy and building new models, instead of just troubleshooting.
Additionally, Funnel became the bridge between teams and with clients.
"It's our connective tissue," Dan explains. "We're all speaking the same language now."
Another sizable impact was apparent in how Funnel affected broadhead’s business model. With a more robust data solution that enabled strategic thinking, broadhead’s Data Science & Analytics team was able to start offering advanced services like marketing mix modeling.
"We're not only running campaigns or reporting on them," Dan says. "We're showing clients how they help drive real business."
Now, broadhead can use Funnel in new and exciting ways. “Next week we’re meeting with our social media team to find out how we might automate some of their manual processes,” says Dan. “That’s a whole group of skilled practitioners itching to get back to the part of their jobs that’s fulfilling–engaging in the channels, not just wrangling reports.”
Meanwhile, the company continues to engage with more clients and provide additional services without hiring more staff. “We’re now in the process of onboarding a whole portfolio of new clients from a recent acquisition. Back in 2022, that would have taken considerably more people to do. And stressed us out, given all the new data sources we have to connect,” says Dan.
For Dan, the biggest win was seeing his vision of data democratization come to life and bringing the disparate “working islands” together.
"We've given teams the power of data without sacrificing governance," he says with pride. "That's the holy grail for any data-led organization."
According to Dan, it can be daunting to take on data disorder like he experienced, but the leap of faith is worth it.
"Don't be afraid to shake things up,” he said. “With the right tool and approach, you can move your [clients’] data from a staid spreadsheet into a dynamic data warehouse that lets you be as creative with the stories you want to tell, as the rest of an agency’s staff can be with the materials of their own departments’ crafts."
Interested in transforming your marketing reporting strategy? Contact us to learn more
