DATA UNDERPINS EVERYTHING
To get the balance right, everything we do has to start with the audience. We need a deep understanding of the audience at each stage of their online journey. Who they are, where they interact, how they search for information, how they speak and what their motivations are. Once we understand this, we can build highly effective content strategies and media plans for brand and product campaigns and we can create successful channel strategies for social media platforms from YouTube to TikTok. Data underpins all of Dialect’s activity. Understanding the audience, building content and media plans, measuring how they respond, optimising the creative and media plans all require data and insights. And this is where Dialect has focused its innovation.

We were one of the very first agencies to connect eyeball to wallet attribution, tracking the effectiveness of content and media all the way to an Amazon purchase in the US & Canada. We have also developed a proprietary data platform, Dialect’s Data Desk, which gives our clients a 360 view beyond their specific media campaign, allowing them to plug in a host of other data sources covering social listening, search analysis, share of voice and ecommerce sales data to get a much broader view than just their campaign metrics.

THE ROAD TO GLOBAL LEADERSHIP
We have come a long way. In 2011, Dialect’s founders John Gower and Jack McHenry were working out of John’s living room in the Mission district of San Francisco, with a handful of team members creating content that helped brands create loyalty. They analysed the typical user journeys online and on mobile to understand the power of content as an engagement tool and applied this knowledge to help brands retain customers.

In 2015, this same approach was applied to acquiring new customers for brands, at all stages of the funnel (awareness, consideration and conversion) – again using the right type of content placed where the right audience would see and engage with it.

This method gained traction and in 2016 the UK office was established (initially in Bristol and then Bath) to allow us to gain access to digital marketing and creative talent in the region. Since then, Dialect has grown. 2020 revenues are up 140% year-on-year to $11.9m, with offices now in San Francisco, LA, Toronto, London and Bath, and an ever expanding team.

SUCCESS THROUGH OUR PEOPLE
The success of this growth strategy is totally dependent on Dialect’s people. The leadership team have set themselves the objective of developing the best possible agency culture to recruit, develop and retain the best people. The start point for this culture is a shared set of values, as well as ensuring we genuinely put our people first; developing their skills, providing them career opportunities, looking after their mental
health and providing them with the funds and time for social aspects of the team.

It is by combining this focus in attracting, developing and keeping the best people and investing in data and tech innovation that we will be sure to achieve our mission of being the first choice agency for the world’s biggest tech and gaming brands.