I think, biggest challenge facing today's marketers
is just the sheer choice of what they can
or cannot do with the money they have.
There's more channels to invest in marketing
than ever before in history.
You have the potential of all this data and analytics,
but actually really realizing that day-to-day is tough.
And that's what Catalyst does for me.
It brings together all that analytics in a very simple,
easy to interface way.
It's designed to be used by decision makers,
not statisticians.
And it helps them make objective choices
about where best to spend the money.
That's the real magic of Catalyst for me.
So if I was to talk briefly
about this software-enabled consulting model
that we've had between BCG
and Diageo on the Marketing Catalyst Program,
I'd characterize it that the BCG team
has almost been two teams.
There's been a consulting team,
that is kinda like a traditional consulting team,
and a technology team, actually
building all the Catalyst software behind the scenes,
very much in tandem with us rolling this whole theory,
this whole approach out across the business.
It's meant that, as we've been developing
a capability that is very much new to the world,
we've been able to be really responsive
to the needs of Diageo as a client,
and our 30, 40, 50 countries around the world
where we're deploying this software
are getting something really relevant to them.
So now that the MSP Catalyst is deployed,
I think Diageo has a few really valuable new capabilities.
I think if I look in the area of strategic allocation
of our A&P budget,
we're able to bring a much more fact-based lens
to that question of 'what's the right budget
for my brand?' anywhere in the world,
which would have been before
a much more emotional conversation.
And then if I look at actually how we spend that money,
Catalyst is enabling us
to actually really deploy those budgets
channel by channel, week by week,
in a way that we have a really clear understanding
of the likely short- and long-term returns on investment.
That's really powerful insight for us to have,
and it's a huge new capability
for our marketing organization.
Software-enabled consulting, as I see it,
it's all about consulting
that is trying to deliver impact,
you know, not a recommendation,
not an advisory, not a benchmark,
but actual results with the client.
And when you're working in a large, complex company,
as I'm sure many of BCG's clients are,
actually software is a great enabler
of getting an idea, a set of principles,
an analytical approach, rolled out
to a large, complex business
in a way where the decision-making people
spread all across that business
can actually have the facts,
the analysis they need at their fingertips,
every day to make those decisions better.
If I was to talk briefly about
my overall experience working with BCG,
it would be a really positive one.
No doubt about it.
You know, I've had the absolute privilege
of working with outstanding group
of individuals across both your consulting
and technology teams in the last couple of years.
Smart, hard working, really dedicated
to delivering great impact for us, Diageo as a client,
and most of all actually just really
great, down-to-earth people to come into the office
and sit with every day.