Aegon UK is a pension, insurance and investment company, and we’ve been working with them since 2006, delivering a range of marketing, digital and technology services.

Think

Aegon UK wanted a solution that would incorporate a digital and an agile way of working into the heart of its marketing strategy and operations. The overall objective was to develop a multichannel marketing management system which would deliver time and cost savings. To have a clearer understanding of Aegon’s objectives, we led 5 weeks of discovery activity, including multiple workshops.

Create

The solution was centred on our Marketing Operations Suite (MOS) – an integrated set of tools to manage multichannel communications. Using four of our MOS modules: Workflow Manager, Asset Manager, Marcom Store and Operations Manager, Aegon can now manage all of its marketing operations in a more efficient and collaborative way.

Deliver

All marketing activity and assets are available in a centralised location, giving Aegon the additional ability to measure and analyse data, across all projects. A single sign on function was added, allowing third party agencies to engage and upload assets to relevant projects.

• Job speeds increased by 89%
• ¼ of a million historic assets stored
• Accessed by 100s of end users
• 1000s of active projects centralised

“Aegon UK as a business has transformed over the last few years and digital is now very much the focus of all we do. APS has supported us at every stage on this journey and we now have an in-house design studio powered by APS with Account Managers, Digital Designers and Web Developers. APS listen, get what we want very quickly and always deliver what they promise. They are really easy to work with and great to have in my team.”

Head of Brand and Digital, Aegon UK

Discover

For a number of years, we have worked with Philips to produce and mail their referral marketing communications, delivering between 100-200k customers pieces per month across their lifeline, well-being and professional healthcare divisions.

Design

Philips asked us to look at innovating their existing direct mail packs, as it was felt that they had become outdated in their creative execution and customer impact.

Deliver

We suggested a new design each month, including a tactile and eye-catching pop-up self-mailer, something Philips had not previously tried before. The mailer had a soft touch coating to add interest when picked up by the respondent.

Develop

Harnessing our extensive vendor base, we were able to deliver production cost savings of over $3.5k, as well as giving Philips new options for their direct mailing. Through their monthly A/B testing, we are working with Philips to use insights gained to further improve response rates.

With Philips recently acquiring Biotelemetry, the Philips research department were looking to launch a new technology that would allow clinical trial patients to do ECG’s at home and send the results directly to the relevant clinics.

We were tasked with helping to create a new kit of marketing collateral. This involved the design and concepting of ideas, in line with current Philips brand standards whilst incorporating new brand standards for Philips Biotel Research too.

Our teams developed a multitude of assets including brochures, social media posts and an animated sales video. Furthermore, we coordinated a photo shoot for new lifestyle imagery which involved location scouting and model casting.

“We had a challenge to bring a new product to our portfolio of services with pre and post marketing materials in a specific timeframe while working to adopt a new brand.  Once we found The APS Group we felt instantly confident in the team’s abilities to meet all the creative, copyrighting, as well as, their ability to walk us through new approval processes to deliver all the material on time and within budget.”

Amanda Myers, Philips Bio-Tel Research , Demand Generation Specialist

Think

Albert Heijn is the largest Dutch supermarket chain. They came to us as they wanted to…

• Introduce technology and automation
• Have detailed reporting and MI
• Speed up the time to market and introduce a more efficient way of working
• A plan for continued savings
• Bring in global and multi-sector expertise

We led a 12 week discovery review engaging with various teams and analysing everything from process and goals to vendors and trial testing.

Create

We then created a tailor-made print management solution complete with a near-site account team. Together we put in place specific SLAs, defined a vendor network and standard set up products, scoped out a technology roadmap and rolled out the process to all of Albert Heijn’s stakeholders.

Deliver

Since discovery we have successfully implemented our print management solution across all 940 plus stores.

All processes are documented and captured using our Marketing Operations Suite. In fact, our technology has reduced lead times and given 3-4 days extra per campaign.

Albert Heijn has also been able to save 19% on the cost of their printed products.

“The automated and flexible way of working of APS ensures a seamless execution of our campaigns.”

European Sourcing Marketing Manager, Ahold Delhaize