Leading with data

As an 8(a) certified, woman–owned firm delivering services on the GSA MAS schedule, Montage Marketing Group has been a leader in strategic marketing and communications for industries such as healthcare, the environment, and workplaces. 

It blends marketing strategy, design, and data to serve government agencies, nonprofits, and private sector clients.

What sets it apart is its mission to create connections that make a difference. A key component of that strategy is investing in its rapidly growing data and analytics portfolio by layering in advanced analytics into its marketing strategies, products, and engagements.

Using a legacy system

The data team at Montage Marketing Group struggled with a legacy data system that:

1. Took upwards of a week to prepare manual reports
2. Hindered its ability to analyze marketing performance and customer engagement effectively
3. Had data spread out across multiple locations

Its existing setup on Microsoft Azure was not yielding the desired level of insight, and their marketing team was often making decisions based on incomplete data, which led to less effective marketing strategies.

Designing for specific needs

Beginning early 2020, Velocity Sense partnered with Montage Marketing Group to transform its marketing data analytics processes.

Montage wanted to test the solution through a pilot project before committing to a full implementation. It needed a robust solution that could handle large volumes of data with flexibility and provide deep insights into customer behavior and campaign effectiveness.

Most importantly, with Montage’s core clients in the government sector, the data infrastructure needed to adhere to strict security protocols.

Lastly, the solution needed to be user-friendly for marketers with limited technical skills and to integrate seamlessly with their existing tools.

From proof-of-concept to full-scale

Before undertaking the larger project, Velocity Sense completed a pilot project to demonstrate the capabilities in a proof-of-concept without any risk to Montage. This pilot allowed the Montage team to see firsthand the improvements in data processing and analytics.

A new marketing data infrastructure

We collaborated with its Director of Data Analytics to help architect a solution that centralized and automated all its data sources for seamless integration. After a proof-of-concept proved its value, Montage moved forward with a full-scale implementation.

In 6 months, Velocity Sense implemented Montage’s new full-scale marketing data infrastructure from scratch using a phased approach. Its design consisted of a state-of-the-art data warehouse that provided Montage’s marketing team with easy access to real-time data and insights by building new data pipelines using an Extract, Load, and Transform data integration process.

The new marketing data infrastructure consisted of a suite of advanced data tools: Fivetran and custom Python applications to extract data from sources, dbt Cloud to transform raw data into final report models, Airflow and Dagster for orchestration, and Snowflake to serve as the business’s data warehouse. 

Additionally, advanced security protocols were implemented to comply with strict security requirements.

Its new marketing data infrastructure automated and streamlined the collection and integration of data from various sources, ensuring high data quality and reliability for analysis.

Driving impact across Montage Marketing Group

Velocity Sense provided a single pane view for Montage’s entire data sources, with a unified catalog and lineage tracking across all data assets. This enabled the data team to standardize workflows while preserving autonomy for different teams, supporting both data scientists and analysts with varying skill levels through a single cohesive platform.

By modernizing its data infrastructure, Montage achieved significant results with its clients by improving their engagement rates and visibility to campaign performance. Implementing a proof-of-concept allowed Montage to see the potential of a full-scale data overhaul without any upfront commitment.

To ensure Montage’s marketing data team could continue to leverage the new system to its fullest potential, Velocity Sense created detailed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and conducted extensive training sessions. This enabled their data analysts and scientists to independently build and manage their data analytics and reports.

Montage Marketing Group now enjoys a robust marketing data infrastructure that delivers comprehensive insights, empowering their marketing team to make informed decisions that drive successful outcomes.