How to develop the group-wide Activation Pilot for one of the leading social media companies

In 2021, the CEO of one of the worldwide leading social media companies, ABC, hired me to develop her group-wide Activation Pilot

Activation Pilot for social media company ABC

The global activation team was built as a pilot within Ecommerce sales team in Q2 2021 to focus on Venture Capital (VC) funded clients capable of quickly and efficiently scaling from very low revenue to a higher revenue run-rate. Once accounts spend few quarters with Activation team, depending on the suitability and scaling of the account, the accounts are graduated — transferred off, handed over — from Activation team to a regular team for further scaling.

It was the end of Q4 2021, and the CEO and her Top Leadership wanted to assess the performance of the team since its inception. They have tasked me with analyzing the data and assessing the performance.

1. Accounts performance

First, I led my team to analyze how the accounts performed in the Activation team and after graduation. I identified whether there are specific characteristics in the accounts that are performing well vs others.

Total in Activation team vs after graduation, Revenue, 2021 Q2–2021 Q4, in USD

My team derived the result that the accounts in the Activation team performed better than after graduation. Specifically, the accounts in the Marketplace performed better than others.

In Activation team vs after graduation per quarter, Revenue, 2021 Q2–2021 Q4, in USD

• Accounts in Activation team performed better than after graduation
• Best overall performance of accounts in Activation team in 2021 Q4 vs after graduation in 2021 Q3
• Specific characteristics of accounts in Sub Vertical Marketplace are performing well vs others in Activation team

In Activation team vs after graduation per Sub Vertical, Revenue, 2021 Q2–2021 Q4, in USD

2. VC funding impacting performance

Second, I managed my team leaderd to provide a recommendation on whether to continue the Activation pilot and/or changes to make to the approach and considerations before we finalize the Activation operating model.

VC funding in Activation team vs after graduation per quarter, VC funding, 2021 Q2–2021 Q4, in USD

My team derived that VC funding is the highest after graduation. Especially, VC funding is the highest after graduation in E-Commerce Industry.

Revenue in Activation team vs after graduation per quarter, Revenue, 2021 Q2–2021 Q4, in USD

• Despite best performance of accounts in Activation team in 2021 Q3, VC funding is the highest after graduation
• Account by account details in activation portfolio show that VC funding is the highest after graduation in E-Commerce Industry

VC funding in Activation team vs after graduation per Industry, VC funding, 2021 Q2–2021 Q4, in USD

3. Recommendation

Third, my team derived a recommendation on how VC funding is impacting performance of the Activation accounts.

I recommended the CEO to continue the Activation pilot to quickly and efficiently scale but make changes to the approach in customer insight, activation process, planning and organization.

Recommendation

1. Know clients

• Get holistic understanding of primary VC funded customers personas (e.g., more data about customer type, region) and what motivates them to engage with social media company ABC (e.g., product, channel)

2. Customer insight

• Define further stages that make up VC funded client’s lifecycles, broader ideal lifecycle (more data about client in Activation team and after graduation) and indicators to automatically know in which stage they are in

3. Activation process

• Identify changes which are to be seen on optimal journey (in Marketplace and E-Commerce Industry) and point which is needed to move clients speedily to next stage (Best performance in a 2-months Activation)
• Define which sales and marketing activities efficiently engage and convert customers currently (Information about activities needed)
• Determine time and behaviors displayed when VC funded client moves to new stage in lifecycle (Time effect of VC funding after graduation) and act automatically

4. Planning

• Number of people of Ecomm sales team currently working in Activation and after graduation stage of lifecycle vs are needed to accomplish sales business goal
• Improvements to be incorporated to enhance speed of customer movement and investments needed to ensure more people move to after graduation stage

5. Organization

• Ensure customers enjoy unified experience with social media company ABC brand via sales team who coordinates all experiences
• Check if necessary for sales team to go through re-organization to enhance cohesiveness of customer experience

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