Andrew Au and the Success of Intercept Group
Andrew Au is the Co-Founder and President of Intercept Group. His journey started by moonlighting in the marketing department at Pepsi, coming out of school with fresh ideas. After a while, Andrew and his wife decided to start Intercept Group, a marketing agency, out of the pure ambition to bring fresh and young ideas to the forefront of their business. Now into their 13th year, Intercept Group works with big names such as Microsoft, Scotiabank, FedEx, and more. Andrew states that their success has been based on being accountable and transparent with their clients and their clients being the same way. “The agency should be a natural extension of the client,” Andrew explains. Without being able to have the transparency and trust between the two entities, the agency to client relationship would be lost.
How do you stay engaged and at the same time empower success? It's all built on trust while trying to work cohesively, for different reasons. With clients budgets declining and fierce competition rising, creating trust between clients and agencies is a sensitive battle.
Andrew mentions that Intercept Group’s niche is mainly modern B2B world, focusing on getting the customer journey right and merging sales and marketing together to figure out the right marketing campaign to drive lead generation, brand equity, loyalty, etc; all revenue based outcomes. Using Microsoft as an example, Andrew explains the problem of how to sell more ads to their clients and how do we get them to use it more? Ultimately the more you use it the more revenue will come through.
On the topic of Physical VS. Digital Marketing, Andrew states that a blended approach is the sweet spot. Stimulating senses with in-person approaches, such as direct mail or product orders, while also targeting online, like email campaigns and ads, creating a full picture of success. The question is what is the right mix for your brand or audience, and knowing what is more important for you. A lot of people right now consider digital approaches to be the only way to go, but in a world of digital everything, incorporating an in-person physical moment, like direct mail, can be the missing piece of the puzzle for many small businesses. Andrew says in this digital age we tend to forget to add human factors into our strategies, like cultural intelligence, and focus solely on artificial intelligence which is a downfall. Human interaction, real-life experiences, and personal connections are slowly becoming neglected and Andrew thinks its something that needs to be nurtured back into the world of marketing.
Written by Juliana Bermudez