AO Digital launches with a focus on customer marketing needs

AO established its digital marketing business as customer needs extended beyond consultancy. The launch in 2019 reflected an approach that would become central to the Group’s operations: build a relationship through one service, understand what the customer needs next, and bring in the right capabilities from across AO.

To develop the practice, AO brought in experienced leadership and began offering marketing services alongside its existing technology work. An early automotive marketing engagement gave the new business a substantial customer assignment. As the relationship developed, software requirements also emerged, creating opportunities to support the customer beyond the original marketing brief.

AO Digital’s work started with the outcome the customer wanted to achieve. That could mean attracting customers, generating better leads or supporting sales growth. Creative and brand work formed part of the offering, guided by the business objective and supported by AO’s consulting experience and technical understanding.

As the practice grew, AO Digital became a full-service agency with a through-the-line offering spanning television, radio, digital and out-of-home advertising. This enabled customers to bring different channels together around a shared objective, with creative execution supported by the systems needed to manage the resulting customer activity.

The technical side of marketing was a particular strength. Working with AO’s software business, the team could connect campaigns to lead management systems, track enquiries through supporting software and integrate with customer relationship management platforms. This helped connect marketing activity with the processes used to capture, manage and follow up on potential customers.

As its offering developed, AO also became a HubSpot partner, adding to its ability to support customers with connected marketing and CRM capabilities.

The launch of AO Digital therefore represented more than the addition of another service. It helped establish a way of working across the Group: serve the customer well, understand the next business requirement, and combine marketing, consulting and software capabilities to support it.