Discover how Goodway Group is pushing the boundaries of digital marketing with the launch of GRADIANT and G-Comm. CEO Jay Friedman shares the strategic vision, market needs, and future trends driving these innovative initiatives.
Goodway Group, a leading name in digital marketing, has embarked on an exciting new chapter with the launch of two groundbreaking divisions: GRADIANT and G-Comm.
GRADIANT, a modern funnel marketing agency, is set to redefine media investment by bridging the gap between brand and performance marketing, providing CFO-friendly outcomes with advanced data science and machine learning techniques.
G-Comm, on the other hand, is a specialized retail media accelerator designed to empower retailers and brands to maximize engagement and market share through upgraded retail media networks.
In this exclusive Q&A, Jay Friedman, CEO of Goodway Group, delves into the strategic vision behind these innovative ventures. He discusses the market needs that GRADIANT and G-Comm are poised to address, the challenges faced during their development, and the future of retail media.
Join us as we explore how these new initiatives will enhance client success, integrate with Goodway’s existing entities, and set new standards in digital marketing.
Strategic Vision: The Launch of GRADIANT and G-Comm
Lynne d Johnson: Could you elaborate on the strategic vision behind launching GRADIANT and G-Comm? What specific gaps in the market are these brands designed to fill?
Jay Friedman: Goodway Group’s strategic vision, as I’ve always challenged our teams, is to “stay ahead of and navigate the market for our clients.” We launched GRADIANT, a modern-funnel agency, and G-Comm, a pioneering retail media accelerator, to specifically take clients into the future of marketing.
GRADIANT was built from a clear market need. We’ve had dozens of clients ask us how to bridge brand and performance, to measure the impact of them together, and do so in a way the CFO and the brand’s analytics teams will trust and understand. Our success here is timed perfectly with the acceleration of machine learning and how agencies use AI to improve cost efficiency, scale, and proof of results. G-Comm takes the retail media hockey stick and empowers brands and retailers to maximize the data, closed-loop measurement, and maximize market share opportunities through the brand/retail partnerships.
Filling Market Gaps: Addressing Unmet Needs
LdJ: How do you envision GRADIANT and G-Comm enhancing your clients’ success? Could you give an example of how these new brands might work together with existing entities like CvE and Tuff to create a more cohesive strategy?
JF: GRADIANT and G-COMM flow seamlessly from CvE and seamlessly to Tuff. All marketers pursue specific business outcomes. Our group starts with those business outcomes and works backward through our Outcome Engineering™ process. CvE is a modern marketing consultancy that ensures clients have the right strategies and technologies to have competitive edges in efficiency and effectiveness.
Once that strategy is deployed, GRADIANT and G-COMM (for retail) bring it to life in market and deliver results that a top consultancy would tell a brand to expect from their agency. As GRADIANT brings the strategy to life, Tuff will often engage in growth marketing components of the strategy – including performance media, CRO, LPO, SEO, and CaaS (creative as a service) – to drive demand at a rate the client hasn’t previously experienced.
Client Success: Enhancing Outcomes through Integration
LdJ: Launching new brands often comes with a unique set of challenges and opportunities. What were some of the biggest hurdles you faced during the development of GRADIANT and G-Comm, and how did you overcome them?
JF: We knew this was the right direction for Goodway Group because it delivered on exactly what our clients and other marketers have told us they need to succeed. The hurdles with initiatives like this are most often around communication – ensuring our clients and staff see the connections between our five agencies and how each is best in its class, yet they’re even better when together.
The Future of Retail Media: Trends and Impact
LdJ: With G-Comm focusing on accelerating retail media networks, what trends are you seeing in this space? How important do you believe RMNs will be for the future of retail and for the advertising ecosystem overall?
JF: Retail media is the future because identity resolution will continue to be more difficult, even if cookie deprecation continues to be delayed. Due to this and linear TV’s decline, retail media has soared to $50B and faster than any other part of digital ever has.
It’s more than these industry forces. Consumers want to discover new products that help them express themselves, and connect them with other human beings. Retail media can be a huge driver of this!
Measuring Success: KPIs and Business Objectives
LdJ: What metrics or KPIs have you established to measure the success of GRADIANT and G-Comm? How will you track and evaluate their impact on your overall business objectives?
JF: We define our success by our clients’ success; in fact, it ties to an internal motto of “making clients heroes.” Part of our success will be measured by continued growth with our existing clients. One reason we made this transition was to segment our client types based on their specific needs – retaining and expanding with our current clients remains a north star.
Of course, we’ve established key performance indicators (KPIs) such as revenue growth, client satisfaction, and market share to measure the success of GRADIANT and G-Comm. We’ll track and evaluate their impact on our overall business objectives by monitoring KPIs such as return on investment (ROI), customer acquisition costs, and client retention rates.