Pam Scheideler is Partner and Chief Digital Officer with Deutsch, an advertising and digital marketing agency with offices in New York and Los Angeles. The agency’s clients include Volkswagen, Taco Bell, Target, Snapple and many other global brands.
2nd Watch: When working with clients, are IT infrastructure issues overlooked or misunderstood?
Pam Scheideler: One of the trends we have seen as website and ecommerce projects have transitioned from a Waterfall to an Agile software development methodology is that we need more participation from IT and infrastructure providers during the requirements definition and architecture phases. Because the UI and features are evolving based on iterative user ing and business feedback, our infrastructure partners are not working with a static set of specifications. Instead, at the beginning and end of each sprint, we continually validate our infrastructure assumptions with our partners. 2nd Watch understands our iterative design and development process and is able to provide guidance throughout development.
2nd Watch: Recently, your agency helped Taco Bell launch online ordering. How did you choose the technology partners to pull it off?
Scheideler: Dynamic auto scaling was a big reason we selected AWS and 2nd Watch to be our partners in the solution for Taco Bell. When @katyperry tweets, her 91 million followers are listening, and we have seen huge bursts of unanticipated traffic come from social media mentions for our brands. With large media investments like Super Bowl placements and multiple product launches that can garner billions of media impressions, Taco Bell’s infrastructure is put to the on a daily basis. So we knew we needed a very flexible and reliable cloud platform and an expert partner like 2nd Watch to design the optimal environment on AWS for these demands.
2nd Watch: How have these challenges become greater in recent years, as customer experience demands become more complex?
Scheideler: Customer expectations are at an all-time high. If you asked the average person if they expect four 9’s in uptime, they probably wouldn’t understand the question. But if you asked them if they expect to be able to order a taco or shop through a messenger bot 24/7, they would say “Of course.”
2nd Watch: What role does the cloud play in digital marketing now?
Scheideler: Cloud-based hosting has absolutely changed our clients’ expectations and put a lot of pressure on IT organizations to deliver. Marketers are expecting systems to scale. It’s the job of marketing to acquire customers and generate demand and it’s the role of IT to help meet the demand and ensure business continuity. Simultaneously, digital business innovation has been exploding, which is great for consumers and the brands we serve. It’s putting IT infrastructure in the middle of emerging products and services.
2nd Watch: What other key technologies are pivotal to help marketing organizations be nimble and also efficient?
Scheideler: System monitoring has really changed the game, especially in companies with complex architectures. Finding the right people is equally important. The 2nd Watch team is always one step ahead and can bring diverse stakeholders together to troubleshoot system performance issues.
