OTTO continues elevating multi-channel marketing planning and controlling

OTTO is a leading e-commerce company based in Hamburg, Germany. Founded in 1949 by Werner Otto, it has developed from a mail order company into the largest German online retailer. OTTO started on the internet as early as 1995, recognizing trends before many others and is still a pioneer of new technologies in e-commerce today.

The challenge: Marketing planning and controlling was rigid and complex

OTTO has been optimizing marketing planning with Board for a number of years. In the past, OTTO managed marketing plans through a range of static spreadsheets. This cumbersome process, riddled with manual consolidation and revisions, took a staggering two to three months to complete. Dominic Lindstädt, Team Lead Business Analytics notes:

“Marketing is aware that financial activity planning is an important factor for successful marketing activities. Yet it’s probably one of the more unpopular tasks in marketing. Instead of thinking in stories and images, the marketing team must calculate costs and record unemotional figures. Doing this through confusing spreadsheets with incomprehensible macros doesn’t exactly increase motivation for accurate planning.” 

For the marketing controlling department, organizing planning processes in a way that produced reliable figures to be incorporated into an overall plan and at a desired time was a challenge. Various spreadsheets had to be carefully prepared, consolidated, and data transferred to Microsoft Access so everyone involved could retrieve information in the data warehouse.

Marketing craved a solution that would not only expedite planning but also free them from the tedium of number crunching. They needed a platform that allowed them to translate marketing strategies into actionable budgets and data-driven decisions.

So, OTTO launched a search for new planning software for their marketing. Working alongside the Technical Unit and Technical Purchasing team, OTTO narrowed down its list of potential vendors to a select few. In the end, it was the Board planning platform that convinced the team.

The decisive factors for selecting Board were:

• high levels of flexibility
• a user-friendly interface with intuitive screens
• the capability to develop the planning system further, utilizing in-house resources. 

Dominic Lindstädt recalls: 

"Marketing in particular has to quickly react to new market developments. That's why it’s essential for us to adapt and develop the system independent of external resources and bottlenecks in our own IT department. At OTTO, we have a motto that summarizes this perfectly: 'you own it - you run it!’"

The solution: Streamlined workflows and shortened cycles

Marketing Channels & Products at OTTO involves various channels including paid search, display advertising, social ads, newsletters, push notifications, and print formats. In addition to providing financial data, marketing controlling also analyses performance data from its marketing activities. Each channel was planned separately in static spreadsheets, a process both tedious and time-consuming. Consolidating data came at great expense for the team.

The initial implementation of Board, including setting up planning capsules and training employees, took less than five months to go live. "That's extremely fast for a company like OTTO. Especially as there were only two people working full-time on our side," emphasizes Dominic Lindstädt. 

The project was supported by a Board consultant, who contributed expertise specific to the implementation. For example, the introduction of a new data warehouse solution at OTTO led to performance problems—meaning a solution had to be found.

A wide variety of OTTO employees in Marketing are using Board, including:

• marketing planners
• campaign managers
• team leads
• budget holders for the different marketing channels
• operational planners
• strategic planners (who define strategy guidelines)
• controllers and analysts (who interpret figures and incorporate them into overarching plans).

Planning for the financial year begins 1-3 months before its start on March 1, with top-down specifications that incorporate strategic aspects and industry benchmarks. Marketing managers then proceed with detailed planning, breaking down the targets according to channels, partners and campaigns, throughout the year. Thanks to the defined workflow established in Board, everyone involved knows when they must enter data, when the final check is carried out by marketing controlling, and when planning is released.

In weekly meetings, managers and planners take a look at planned and actual data in real-time, enabling quick adjustments as required. Dominic Lindstädt says: 

"Board gives us the flexibility to shift budgets quickly and easily, keeping focus on market requirements at all times. We can plan and prioritize important retail dates such as Black Friday or Christmas sales accordingly. The entire planning process is much more lean and simple. Data and processes are standardized and many tasks automated. As a result, we can start marketing planning later and are closer to the operational deadlines with more up-to-date data, allowing us to plan in a more targeted manner.”

The marketing controlling team at OTTO appreciates the flexibility of Board. It offers many options for planning, mapping topics, providing parameters dynamically, and visualizing the entire controlling process. Further enhancing the flexibility of marketing planning remains the focus of the upcoming development steps.

The benefits: Optimized processes and self-sufficiency

"The rapid realization and availability of Board had really raised awareness in the company. After all, speed is a mission critical factor in our volatile retail industry.” This is how Dominic Lindstädt summarizes his impression of Board. He continues, “We were only a small project team with people who have an affinity for technology but aren’t IT professionals. Nevertheless, we can design, adapt, and push the development of the planning system self-sufficiently – which is exactly what we wanted."

For day-to-day business, the largest benefit is the centralized provision of data. With a single point of truth, everyone involved is on the same page and speaks the same language. And, thanks to Board, the time to prepare and consolidate various spreadsheets is massively reduced. Dominic Lindstädt confirms:

"It used to take one person two to three months to collect information, consolidate data and spreadsheets, and carry out various revisions. Today, with Board, this is done within a single week. We also have a final, synchronized status in Board, which makes it much easier for us controllers to monitor budgets. Looking back, we can see what an important milestone the introduction of Board was. We’re able to optimize processes dramatically—a quantum leap for us!”

The marketing department is also pleased. Board's intuitive design minimizes the amount of training required and leads to high levels of acceptance in the team. This leaves more time for other marketing tasks. And planning, which has long been a thorn in the side of OTTO marketing managers, is now more fun and increasingly accepted.