New York, February 18th, 2021

WPP agencies Geometry and VMLY&R joined forces in 2020 to create VMLY&R COMMERCE, a new end-to-end “Creative Commerce Company” combining the talent and scale of two thriving global offerings.

The company provides world-leading expertise and delivery for clients at a time of global growth in e-commerce.

Beth Ann Kaminkow is currently the Global CEO of VMLY&R COMMERCE following a successful career in the marketing industry. 

In an interview with TIA, she gave details on the merger between Geometry and VMLY&R and described the way e-commerce influence will continue to change the way we do business.

To kick things off, what makes New York an attractive place to do business?

New York is a true center of culture and commerce. It’s a city that is historically on the cutting edge. And during challenging times like these, ‘necessity truly does become the mother of invention’ across NY.

This is a city that is continuously reinventing, and when it gets knocked down it rebuilds stronger. As an agency in this epicenter, we are able to engage in real time with brands who are exploring new experiential ways to reach consumers.

Commerce is always evolving, and there is no better place than New York to begin the reimagination process. Inspiration is everywhere. Commerce within New York is constantly shifting to suit the current moment and to be at the beat of culture.

Tell us about your personal journey, how did you find yourself being the Global CEO of VMLY&R Commerce?

For the past fifteen years I began to see the opportunities opening for agencies to help clients, across sectors, to reimagine commerce online and offline. I have always gravitated to roles within marketing that were in areas of emerging, integrated capability and that required pioneering and experimenting. My career has spanned agency side, client side, and consulting.

A career in marketing is such a privilege for the continuous learning it offers, the global travel, the brilliant people you get to collaborate with, and the amazing teams that go beyond colleagues and become friends for life.

As for some chronology leading to VMLY&R COMMERCE, my career took off at a Technology-focused agency that I was on the founding team of and was purchased by Omnicom. From there I went on to lead TracyLocke as the first female CEO in its one-hundred-year history, and then served as the first Global Chief Marketing Officer of Westfield Corp and CEO for Kantar Consulting Americas. I then served as Global CEO of Geometry until we became VMLY&R COMMERCE.

Being an end-to-end global Creative Commerce Company clearly brings big advantages for the agency. If you have to highlight one thing about this merger between Geometry and VMLY&R, what would it be?

With VMLY&R COMMERCE, we’re bringing together robust commerce talent and scale to provide world-class expertise and delivery across the commerce and shopper journey from global to local. VMLY&R and Geometry have a history of partnering closely across many shared clients including Colgate-Palmolive, Ford, General Mills and Unilever, to name a few.

To be successful as an agency, you must remain relevant and ahead of the changes taking place in marketing, media, and sales. VMLY&R is the most relevant, modern agency, built for how companies, brands and clients want to partner and build capability today.

Our overarching mission is to create connected brands with commerce at the core of that consumer experience. We at VMLY&R COMMERCE believe that Commerce holds the most untapped creative potential to grow brands and people.

VMLY&R COMMERCE brings together the best digital commerce and retail-obsessed talent to offer clients end-to-end Creative Commerce enabled by our proprietary IP – Living Commerce Platform.

You’ve worked with some brilliant brands, how will e-commerce influence the way we do business?

As the e-commerce landscape continues to expand, all agencies have turned their attention to the space as the hot new service area. We are not in the space because the revenue happens to be shifting there. We are experts and practitioners that have a passion for commerce as the most creative channel for both building brands, engaging consumers, and driving conversion.

Our approach is built on years of building know-how in a technology platform and tools, methodologies, and talent intent on helping clients how to evolve their business to be optimized around unified commerce.

The growth in e-commerce demands that we understand the consumer and meet them on their terms. They can literally discover and buy at any moment anywhere. This also opens up these channels, marketplaces and eco-systems for deeper experience and engagement.

We call it Creative Commerce. We believe you cannot look at the e-commerce channel(s) in isolation and must take a panoramic, unified view of all places and ways a brand is discovered, shopped and bought. When Geometry merged with VMLY&R, we brought together our respective commerce capabilities to provide world-leading expertise and delivery for clients at a time of unprecedented global growth in ecommerce.

As the pandemic accelerates new consumer behaviors and expectations, commerce is fast becoming the new digital transformation channel that clients must build new capability around. With the launch of VMLY&R COMMERCE, we can now offer our clients creative commerce at scale, harnessing data and technology to build brands and sell products across channels.

The COVID-19 crisis accelerated an expansion of e-commerce towards new firms, customers and types of products. How is the pandemic impacting your e-commerce project pipeline?

During the COVID-19 crisis, we have seen e-commerce evolve in a way that previously would have taken decades. The impact of this health crisis on the physical store experience has only strengthened ecommerce.

The role of automation, the ability to deliver digital personalization, to build elements of social media and story-telling directly into the purchasing experience, all create a sense of urgency in the role of Online + Offline, Commerce as the center of gravity in marketing and sales.

The idea of upper funnel and lower funnel or above-the-line and below-the-line work is now completely irrelevant. The most important place to grow a brand and win a consumer is in and through commerce.

Fortunately, our pipeline is quite full. If you are looking for a place to grow your career, look for an agency specializing in Commerce. If you are looking for an agency partner to help build your capability, give us a call!

In the cycle of conferences of “El Ojo de Iberoamérica” ​​2020, you said that the future of creative commerce is where the physical and digital meet, in order to facilitate experiences for people. Can you tell us more about this idea? What’s the most important factor that leads companies to create successful e-commerce experiences?

Consumers do not differentiate between online and offline behaviors. They navigate their lives with devices enhancing their experiences and facilitating what they need and want to buy.

Companies cannot silo and separate out their channels, they must create seamless experiences that anticipate the expectations of their consumers along their journey. Key to this is the data to better understand how consumers want to engage and what it will take to elevate this experience to provide value for the exchange of your consumer time.

E-commerce is not meant to mirror a physical experience online. It is optimized when the online engagement exploits the benefits of the technology and the platform. Success also requires continuous improvement and evolution.

Based on your experience, what are the most important roles in an ecommerce team and any third-party agencies engaged to deliver a project?

Most important is a highly diverse, collaborative, multi-disciplinary team. You need data and analytics specialists, you need Creative technologists, you need motion graphics skills, you need strategists (but not necessarily your typical planner), you need platform or marketplace specialists. 

As for agencies, you need production capability expertise in digital content optimization. You need highly agile teams focused on real-time precision performance with the potential to deliver at scale.

What impact do you believe machine learning and big data will have on the world of e-commerce?

We are gathering new patterns of recognition data that inform and allow us to live in a massive creative laboratory. We are overcoming the challenges of “either/or” thinking when it comes to human vs. machine learning –we have learned during this time period that to survive both are absolutely necessary.

This also opens up a massive opportunity and growth mindset for our talent across agencies to learn and apply new skills in real-time.

Accessibility can be difficult to acknowledge, how do you ensure that your clients understand what you are recommending and all users are considered during projects?

To the first part of your question, we are very careful not to speak or get caught-up in jargon. We meet our clients where they are and recognize that even the most global large companies aren’t yet proficient and expert in commerce. They also work in legacy silos and commerce requires bridging across many functions within an organization – namely between Sales and Marketing.

We watched during Digital Transformation how many agencies became a crutch for their clients v. a capability builder. Over time this broke down trust and there was a lack of transparency. That is not how we approach our partnerships.

We at ‘VYC’ believe inclusivity and accessibility will become central to consumer-brand trust post-pandemic. At VMLY&R Commerce we are committed to working with brands who are putting purpose at the forefront of everything they do, and want to ensure that they reach consumers across all markets and needs.

Where do you go if you want to get inspired?

For intrinsic inspiration, I begin my days with a run by the beach or the river as much as I can! For extrinsic inspiration, I love museums, galleries, and exhibits.

What are some strategies you’ve learned that can help women achieve a more prominent role in their organizations?

Let your ambitions be known. Seek out sponsors (not just mentors); leaders who will actively speak up for you when opportunities open up. Go for opportunities you may have to grow into, don’t wait until you can fill the entire requirement list for a role.

Create roles by filling gaps that exist in emerging areas of the business. Standout through your ability to effectively lead teams and inspire others.

What’s one must-do experience in NY in your opinion?

The highline which now spans 34th street down to the Meatpacking area. It runs along the West Side with the Hudson river a couple of blocks away. It is a restored, elevated subway line that has been turned into the most inspiring, invigorating 20+ block walk in NYC.

The sight-lines, the architecture, the mix of people, the gardens and seating areas. You can jump on and off and duck into galleries, cafes and shopping below.

Can you name a fun-fact people would be surprised to learn about you?

My fantasy career side hustle is a DJ. I love mixing music and producing tracks. Someday I would love to perform in a stadium filled with thousands. I may be a 70-year-old DJ if my dream comes true.

Thanks Beth!

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