Partner spotlight: How CJ Worx Expanded Market Positioning and Boosted Commercial Growth with Relay42

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At Relay42 we love shining a light on our partners and the great work they are doing. In this article, we caught up with CJ Worx to find out about their mission to become a pioneer in the creative agency space and to lead Thailand and APAC into a data-led digital future. 

Here is the story of how CJ Worx’s fearless approach to innovation and a partnership with Relay42 helped them achieve significant successes for clients, including a 465% increase in leads in under six months. 


Recognizing the potential of harnessing and integrating customer data

As Thailand’s most awarded digital advertising agency, CJ Worx knows a thing or two about delivering strategic and creative media services throughout APAC. Always on the lookout for new ways to add value to their clients and their business,  they had ambitions to move away from being solely a creative agency.  Marketing and advertising were becoming increasingly reliant on insights into customer data so they set out to partner with a business that could help them to expand their service offering and ensure they could continue to thrive in a data-driven future. 

Historically, uptake and knowledge of data in marketing have been minimal. Brands in Thailand were unaware of how data insights could benefit them and uptake of data management platforms (DMP) was low.  At the time, media agencies managed their DMPs but this approach lacked transparency and meant the agency controlled clients’ access to their data. Furthermore, all the data was shared across all clients of the media agency. This way of working was not compliant and meant the clients were locked into the agency relationship. They did not ‘own’ their data. This siloed approach meant that companies were far removed from their customer data and they couldn’t be sure it was protected.

CJ Worx recognized the challenge and the potential of harnessing and integrating their client’s customer data.

Discovering the ideal data partner

CJ Worx quickly identified Relay42, which at the time was a well-established and successful first-party data DMP (later a leading CDP) with the technical capabilities and in-house knowledge to support CJ Worx as they pursued their ambition to be a pioneering agency in APAC. 

Relay42 and CJ Worx were a natural match, as both strive to lead digital transformation in the marketing industry. They recognized the market shifting away from paid media and unknown third-party data towards brands seeking deeper customer understanding.

What distinguished Relay42 on the CDP market was its DNA stemming from a DMP background which provided a unique combination of strength in both managing unknown prospects and paid media channels, as well as known customers and owned channels.

With Relay42, the team at CJ Worx was able to bring creative campaign ideas to the client and ensure that the customer journey is optimized and that cost-per-acquisition (CPA) is minimized. This enhanced offering significantly increased the scope of their client offering; providing upsell and cross-sell opportunities as well as positioning them as thought leaders in a highly competitive marketplace.  


ENABLING CJ WORX TO MERGE CREATIVITY AND DATA AND PIONEER THE MARKET

The Relay42 CDP enabled CJ Worx to become the first creative agency in Thailand to integrate the creative, media, and data sides of marketing and offer all services under one roof. They can offer the added value of data-driven marketing campaigns that are based on actual data and adapt the creative, who it is targeted at and when it is served to optimize impact and conversions.  This means CJ Worx obtained a unique position in the market and differentiates them from competitors.  

Educating the market on the value of data
The first step of the cooperation was educating the local market. Relay42’s team developed and implemented a comprehensive training program with CJ Worx’s team. Training included how to position a DMP (and later on a CDP) in a complex organization, how to ideate and develop use cases, and how to manage audiences and user journeys. This meant that every internal stakeholder could then educate the market about data management. 

CJ Worx and Relay42 developed a process that enabled clients to access their data compliantly. Clients could view, analyze and manage customer data and CJ Worx could use the insights to devise impactful creative campaigns that drive conversions and enhance the customer journey. 

Optimizing ad spend with enriched data
With Relay42, CJ Worx can now integrate first, second, and third-party data which allows them to define and target the right audience. For instance, by using first-party data, CJ Worx can create lookalike modeling and apply it to second and third-party audiences to target specific segments on external websites. 

Relay42’s Customer Data Platform also enables CJ Worx to add second-party data from their Spider network into the mix. They can use this network of websites and publications to deliver precisely targeted campaigns to leads in selected industries. This approach significantly streamlines the end-to-end sales funnel and optimizes ad spend. 


Case study: Driving customer acquisition at a global automotive brand in APAC 

A good example of this process and the benefits it offers can be seen in a case study for Honda, one of CJ Worx’s automotive clients. After a customer browses a car catalog, they are presented with an advert on Facebook for specific models that have caught their interest. When they click on the targeted ad it takes them to a personalized landing page which then leads them to an appointment with an automotive salesperson. 

This customer journey is simple and straightforward and not at all difficult to implement when you have the right technology. And the benefits are significant. 

Within the first three months of implementing Relay42’s CDP and launching the first use cases, the brand saw an 11% increase in purchase rate, a 46% uplift in qualified leads, and a 40% reduction in the media budget.


Another successful example came from the use case for a global automotive car loan company.  For this project, CJ Worx aimed to optimize the brand’s ad targeting across channels and thereby make customer acquisition more effective and efficient. After implementing the Relay42 CDP, the brand was able to achieve a 465% increase in leads — 3 times more than their initial KPIs. This highly personalized strategy also optimized the media spend, resulting in an 84% reduction in cost per lead (CPL).


A unified approach to marketing success
The partnership with Relay42 meant CJ Worx could integrate creative media with data, a pioneering approach which put them years ahead of even the large, established agencies in APAC. They have set a new standard and can now offer high-value support to clients throughout the entire sales funnel.


Relay42 enables CJ Worx to make a difference throughout the whole sales funnel:

Click on the image for a full-screen view
 

The team at CJ Worx can work together with their clients to adjust the media and advertising activation to reflect data insights so they can time ad campaigns more effectively. Furthermore, clients can use their own data to get a better understanding of customer behavior which can be used to strengthen their overarching sales, marketing, and business development strategy. 

In 2021, after seeing the success of the data-driven marketing campaigns and the increasing customer demand, CJ Worx launched a new company called The Red Carbon which uses cutting-edge data capture technologies to improve decision-making, boost marketing performance, and enhance business processes.



Key achievements since working with Relay42

Unique market positioning: CJ Worx was able to expand its business and establish a unique position in the market. They became pioneers of a data-led approach to marketing which differentiated themselves from their competitors and secured their position as thought leaders in the APAC marketing space. 
Revenue increase: By expanding its services and adding more value to clients, CJ Worx was able to significantly increase consultancy hours. This resulted in a significant boost in revenue and stronger client relationships. 

Upsell existing customers: Being able to offer additional services that were scarce or unavailable in the market enabled CJ Worx to upsell to existing customers. It also attracted new customers to the company and was a strong driver of conversions.

Increased campaign performance: CJ Worx are pioneers, adopting this approach years before even the large, established agencies. Clients can now use their data insights to boost campaign performance and strengthen their wider sales, marketing, and business development strategy. They can time ad campaigns more effectively. This added value increases client loyalty and gives CJ Worx a competitive edge. 
 


Looking into the future

The partnership continues to go from strength to strength. Later in 2023 CJ Worx is planning an AI implementation which will help them and their clients get even deeper insights into what is driving different audiences to convert and which media is getting the best engagement. CJ Worx is planning to continue its expansion further into the automotive market and to approach new leads in the healthcare sector. 

Both Relay42 and CJ Worx are excited about continuing to work together to bring data-led innovation to APAC and achieve amazing results for clients in a variety of B2C sectors. 

If you would like to find out more about Relay42’s solutions or about becoming a partner, contact us today.