Introducing SubscriberX

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This is a podcast episode titled, Introducing SubscriberX. The summary for this episode is: We’re excited to announce the launch of SubscriberX—an integrated solution powered by Salesforce that empowers marketers to grow their subscriber base, increase revenue, and drive customer loyalty. SubscriberX enables subscription-based companies, particularly in media and entertainment to connect with their customers across the customer lifecycle, drive personalization, and create meaningful customer experiences.
Why we created SubscriberX
01:30 MIN
How SubscriberX covers the entire consumer lifecycle
01:21 MIN
The Salesforce technologies that make up SubscriberX
03:19 MIN
SubscriberX is for more than media + entertainment
00:44 MIN

Intro: Welcome to the In The Clouds podcast. In The Clouds is a marketing cloud podcast powered by Lev, the most influential marketing- focused Salesforce consultancy in the world. Lev is customer experience obsessed and podcast hosts Bobby Tichy and Cole Fisher have partnered with some of the world's most well- known brands to help them master meaningful one- on- one connection with their customers. In this podcast, they'll combine strategy and deep technical expertise to share best practices, how- tos and real life use cases and solutions for the world's top brands using Salesforce products today.

Bobby Tichy: Welcome to the In The Clouds podcast. This is Bobby Tichy and Cole Fisher, and we have our first two time guest with us here today, Tim Mosa. Tim, how you doing?

Tim Mosa: I'm doing well, Bobby, how are you guys doing?

Bobby Tichy: Any better, I'd be twins.

Tim Mosa: Glad to hear it. You and Cole are always upbeat and optimistic I appreciate it.

Cole Fisher: That's because we're talking with you, Tim.

Bobby Tichy: Yeah.

Tim Mosa: Thank you, Cole, that's kind of you. Don't lie to me.

Bobby Tichy: Well, it's been a little while since we've come together and released a podcast and obviously COVID has been hard for us to get together. So we're excited to have Tim join us today to talk through Subscriber Experience. It's a new offering from Lev under the Salesforce platform. So first, Tim, if you wouldn't mind just doing a brief intro of yourself and your role here at Lev, and then we can jump into SubscriberX.

Tim Mosa: Thanks, Bobby, happy to. Yeah, my name's Tim Mosa, I'm a managing director at Lev and I lead our media and entertainment practice for which there are a number of different responsibilities, but one of them is developing and helping our firm to develop offerings like SubscriberX that you're going to hear about today, which is meant to solve for challenging, interesting marketing and consumer experience- related problems that we're seeing in the media and entertainment space. So thank you for having me today. I'm excited to be here.

Bobby Tichy: Yeah, for sure.

Cole Fisher: So before we get into exactly what Subscriber X is, can you give us a little background of how it came about and what common pain points really were brought up that this really solves for?

Tim Mosa: Yeah, happy to. Cole, I think it really just stems from the fact that consumption patterns of content in the media and entertainment space really have changed. That's a fancy way of saying that as more and more streaming capabilities become available in the marketplace, more and more people are gravitating towards streaming as their preferred distribution channel and that preferred distribution channel becomes more and more direct to consumer, which forces our clients in many instances, who haven't had a direct to consumer arm and have been B2B, those clients are forced to address what we as marketers are familiar with as it relates to customer experience, customer engagements, customer delight through the channel or the product, which in this case is streaming. And as those consumption patterns have changed, forcing our clients to address their consumers in a new way, they're increasingly looking to technology to help address those customer experience, customer engagement challenges. There's a gap in the marketplace right now, or a gap for our clients to use technology to solve for those challenges. So with that in mind, we came up with this idea of SubscriberX.

Bobby Tichy: As it relates to the offering itself and the technology behind it, what powers SubscriberX?

Tim Mosa: Yeah. SubscriberX, theoretically it's meant to manage the entirety of the consumer life cycle outside of the application. Meaning, take for example, any streaming platform that you might be familiar with guys, maybe you're on Disney +, or you have Hulu or Netflix, those companies are very, very focused, as they should be, on the experience while you're in the app, while you're watching either on your smart TV or on your smartphone. They're focused on that experience once you log in and as you search for content and as you watch that content. What we seek to do is to think about that same consumer you guys, or your friends and family when you're outside the application. As I said, the entirety of the life cycle. So from shopping and browsing in marketing terms, from that awareness stage, all the way through registration activation, delivery of content recommendations and engagement, and then driving loyalty and creating an environment where you cross- sell, upsell and extend the relationship with that consumer and enrich both the experience of that consumer, but also drive revenue for our clients. SubscriberX is meant to cover that entirety of the lifecycle, using a variety of different products under the Salesforce suite of clouds that they have, which I'm happy to describe in further detail.

Bobby Tichy: That would be great. Yeah, I think it'd be beneficial for us to understand, especially for folks who might be interested," Do I have some of these components already or what other components would I need?"

Tim Mosa: Yeah and that's a great question because every client is going to have their own technology ecosystem, their own marketing ecosystem, and they may have some of these, they may be missing some of these things, but what we did for SubscriberX and our go- to- market offering was we have designed it and connected a number of Salesforce clouds together to drive that end- to- end consumer lifecycle. One of them on the frontend of that lifecycle, the awareness and shopping and browsing and registration would be the Industry Cloud for Media, which is a Salesforce solution, formerly known as Vlocity. Some of you may know it as Vlocity, but it's the Salesforce Media Industry Cloud that is used for that shopping, browsing, registration, component. So we use that to get people signed up for whatever service it is they're looking for. It could be a streaming service. It could be audio, it could be podcasts, it could be books, audio books, et cetera. When we couple that with the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which is something Lev is exceptionally strong in and we use the marketing cloud for the ongoing engagements of that same consumer, once they've registered and we'll use marketing cloud for things like activation or content recommendations. We can also use it to announce the release of new content, great examples there, like when a new album comes out on Spotify, or if a new piece of content like episodic television comes out, say on Disney +, Mandalorian two is set to launch. I mean, these are great examples of ways that we can use the Marketing Cloud to announce the release of that content to the subscribers and get them excited about that content that's coming their way. So you've got the industry Media Cloud plus Marketing Cloud, that's the core, that's the heart of what we're trying to do, but we have coupled that with several other technology offerings from the Salesforce ecosystem that would include Service Cloud, that's a natural play. You connect that in and if, as a subscriber you have a problem or a ticket and you want to raise that through the different channels that Service Cloud provides, we can do so and take that data and make it part of our ongoing communication with the consumer. We also connected with Interaction Studio so that we can capture not only information about known subscribers, but also anonymous subscribers and use that interaction studio platform to distribute communications or campaigns through the website for both known and anonymous users. Then we also are planning to include a customer 360. So we'll have the consumer data platform available so that as we ingest data from all these different sources from the web, through email, through the service channel, through the app for behavior as well, we can take all of that and put it into the CDP. So there's four or five technologies that connect together, but really the impetus and the starting point for it was the industry Media Cloud, coupled with Salesforce Marketing Cloud as the starting point.

Cole Fisher: Very cool. So this sort of symphony of products from Salesforce and data being leveraged to enhance and amplify the subscriber experience, who's best off suited to leverage that? Is it streaming services like Netflix or Disney +, or are there other types of Salesforce customers or prospects, or potential customers, that best benefit from this?

Tim Mosa: Yeah, this was something that became a very interesting topic of conversation within Lev and within Salesforce as we built out SubscriberX. You're spot on Cole, I think it's easy to gravitate towards a very high profile platform like Netflix or Hulu as an example, Disney +, certainly those are clients who are candidates for an offering like SubscriberX and several of those clients are clients of Lev. But if you broaden the aperture and if you think about other sectors within media and entertainment and beyond that are offering a direct- to- consumer streaming service or product, it gets really, really interesting really, really quickly. Some of the examples that we've discussed our clients like a Fender as an example, Fender the guitar manufacturer, they offer online instrument lessons for guitar, for bass and ukulele, I think the drums perhaps as well. Another great example would be any sort of online education. In the era of COVID, where we have students who are streaming or zooming their classes online, presently, that's certainly an application, but you guys may have heard recently that Google made the announcement that they would like to try and get into streaming education as a product, allowing people from around the globe to sign up for and engage in and get credits for say, like algebra two or trigonometry, which can be streamed to them around the world. Then there's other industries as well that fall outside. We've talked about higher education. We've talked about media and entertainment, but also anything you're, you're subscribing to a monthly service. Trunk Club provides a monthly clothes service based on your preferences that they deliver to you. There's things like Grammarly, online subscription for writing documents and changing or correcting your grammar. All of these things have the components of what we're discussing. There is a barrier to entry that's fairly low, you sign up online. There's content that's delivered to the consumer over the internet and through a proper device, smart TV, smartphone, et cetera. Our clients in all of those instances, want to engage with those subscribers as much as possible to delight them, to keep them engaged, to keep them coming back to their service, and ultimately to continue to keep them renewing for that monthly or that annual subscription.

Bobby Tichy: I think that parlays right into what my next question was going to be, was what industries are we seeing adopt SubscriberX or would be good candidates for it? I think that the based on what you just mentioned, outlines that it's really anybody who has a subscription type of model, not just a streaming service or something like that. I think it's important to note too, that we've also integrated with fulfillment providers as well. So you mentioned Trunk Club as an example, but there's been some others where there's a monthly box that's delivered with certain goods, like fishing supplies or something like that, like all of the monthly boxes that have come out to the market would be a great candidate for this too.

Tim Mosa: It's really true, Bobby and the other one that I didn't mention, but a lot of people paid attention to was streaming fitness services. Peloton is obviously maybe the most well- known brand in that genre, but that's another great example. You sign up, you register online, you're streaming the workouts, whether they're stored content where you're watching live and you're interacting with a trainer and there is competition for your attention as a consumer, not only to work out, maybe it's Peloton, but the competition is for your attention span and for your available free time and keeping that workout fanatic, or that cyclist enthusiastic on the Peloton, or the movie fan, keeping that in person in front of Disney +, that is the challenge that all of our clients are struggling with. That's the challenge that SubscriberX is meant to help resolve for our clients.

Cole Fisher: Very cool. So you mentioned all these moving parts that comprise SubscriberX, is there anybody today that is executing on all or most of these components that has some sort of success or some sort of cool story coming along right now?

Tim Mosa: Yeah. I think there's a number of clients that are doing pieces of it and then there are some clients that are certainly more advanced than others. I think... If you point towards our client, which is Disney streaming services and of course I can't give away too much, but the outbound consumer engagement there through email and mobile channels are an example of how SubscriberX can help our clients distribute messages into the marketplace about the service that they're providing, the product, the content that comes through the product, the value that the consumer gets for that subscription. That's one of the finest examples, especially given the scale and reach, not only globally, but also just in terms of the sheer volume, 50, 60 million subscribers signed up for Disney +. So that's probably the shining example, but there are several others, many others, especially in the media and entertainment space.

Bobby Tichy: Anything else Tim, that you think is pertinent for folks to know about SubscriberX or what it does or how it could be used?

Tim Mosa: I think if anybody's just interested in learning more, you can certainly reach out to me, or through you guys. Happy to just have a conversation about not only questions about SubscriberX and how that could help our clients, but just more broadly speaking happy to have a conversation about how those of us at Lev, who are doing marketing in the media and entertainment space are seeing this change consumption patterns drive challenges within the organization, that can be affected or influenced not only by technology, but also through data, as Cole mentioned previously. Also through creative operational changes, as well as measurement, because those are all things that are ancillary to SubscriberX, but certainly might be a value for a client to have a further conversation about.

Bobby Tichy: Yeah, I think that one thing that Tim is being a little bit modest by is his decades of experience in the media entertainment space, not to age you Tim.

Cole Fisher: Isn't it like seven or eight decades now Tim?

Tim Mosa: It is, it is. There's a lot of gray in the beard, I can't deny it.

Bobby Tichy: I think what's really cool is not only the industry expertise, but combining that with the expertise on the Salesforce platform has really been beneficial to our customers. So thanks again for walking us through that, Tim and for the folks who are interested, you can always go to our website, levdigital.com or email us at the podcast, inthecloudsatlevdigital. com as well. So moving onto a really important part of the podcast as always, completely unrelated. I think I probably know the answer to this question for Tim, but the topic this week is favorite sports team of all time, which is the team in the year. So Tim I'll let you start because I can see you glowing based on what happened yesterday.

Tim Mosa: Well, I am from Los Angeles and you guys know I'm a big Dodger fan. So the day after we won the World Series Championship for 2020 is a good time to ask this question. It's the Dodgers.

Cole Fisher: crosstalk fan in game six though?

Tim Mosa: Say that again, Cole, I missed it, what?

Cole Fisher: I said, didn't you become a Dodgers fan during game six? I thought that's [crosstalk 00: 19: 55 ].

Tim Mosa: Fairweather, right? Fairweather. No, I meant that decades of experience means I've been a long suffering Dodger fan now. My favorite team is the Dodgers from'88 and we did win the World Series that year. There's the famous Gibson home run that everybody knows about, or many people know about, but the team was very much an underdog. We were not expected to beat the Athletic As, the Oakland Athletics that year. the team really just came together and it was a lot of fun. So that's my team, the'88 Dodgers, for sure. How about you guys?

Cole Fisher: Bobby? I'll go, I was going to flip it over to you, but there's a youth hockey team in Minnesota called District 5. They became the Mighty Ducks, no.

Tim Mosa: Wow. Really tying it together with the media and entertainment vibe, huh?

Cole Fisher: We watch a lot of Disney +, sorry guys. They got this new thing where they hook me when I'm not even at the screen and they... Telling you, it's a whole experience, I'll tell you guys about it some time. No, so there's a lot of ways you can go because a team can be pretty... So when I was younger, being a football fan, got to love'06,'07,'05 ish Colts, Super Bowl or not, depending on those years. I mean, I always enjoyed watching the early'90s Bills, the lovable Bills-

Tim Mosa: Oh wow.

Cole Fisher: ...inaudible'04 consecutively, for Super Bowls but I would have to say my number one even precedes me is Miracle On Ice, 1980 USA, Olympic hockey team, all time greatest sports story and biggest upset in history. So, that one's got to go down for me all time.

Tim Mosa: I know you're a hockey fan Cole and a player, so I was half expecting that. Yeah, that's a great one. That's a good call, good call.

Cole Fisher: crosstalk for you.

Tim Mosa: Yeah, no, that's great.

Bobby Tichy: Well, I want to make sure that I get the year right here.

Cole Fisher: 1984 Cobra Kai?

Bobby Tichy: Close, close.

Tim Mosa: Danny LaRusso, Valley champion.

Bobby Tichy: I think it was 1998 or 1999. Wabash Valley Animal Hospital, little league team.

Cole Fisher: Oh God.

Bobby Tichy: No. So mine is easy. It's the'96 Bowls. So I grew up in a suburb of Chicago, so the Bulls were everything. Michael Jordan was everything to us and I still remember that year. They went 72 and 10, which has now been beaten by the Warriors, but they didn't win the championship that year. So it doesn't really count.

Cole Fisher: Asterisk.

Bobby Tichy: Yep. But I still remember, I would watch every game the next morning, I would dissect the box score. One night, I remember I didn't watch a game and it was at the Atlanta Hawks. It was on WGN, I'll never forget this. I was like eight years old. And I was like," Well, it's okay. I don't need to watch it tonight. It's the Hawks. The Bulls are like 40 and four, they're going to win." The next morning, I get the box score and they lost. I was like," Well, they lost because I didn't watch."

Tim Mosa: Of course they did.

Bobby Tichy: So the whole season-

Cole Fisher: You're an integral part of the team, Bobby.

Tim Mosa: You are.

Bobby Tichy: I tell you why, the way I root for them, watch them on television is almost as much as Dennis Rodman's contributing. But yeah, that was by far the best. That was a lot of fun.

Tim Mosa: Bobby Tichy, sixth man award-

Bobby Tichy: Exactly.

Tim Mosa: ...1998.

Bobby Tichy: I'm just glad that we got on a podcast that we didn't mention. Jalen Rose.

Tim Mosa: Oh, I know you, we know all about your Jalen Rose obsession.

Bobby Tichy: Do you think Jalen Rose is going to listen to this podcast? If so, should we talk about him a little bit?

Cole Fisher: I don't know, he hasn't text me back.

Tim Mosa: I think he's a big fan. I think he's a big fan of Lev and I'm sure he'll be listening, yeah.

Bobby Tichy: Yeah, Jalen Rose first implementer of SubscriberX. You heard it here first.

Tim Mosa: There you go, there you go.

Bobby Tichy: All right.

Tim Mosa: And The Last Dance streaming now on Netflix.

Bobby Tichy: Oh yeah, there you go.

Tim Mosa: If you need help engaging with your consumers, let us know, Netflix.

Bobby Tichy: Yeah, exactly. Awesome. Well, thanks Tim, thanks Cole. Really appreciate the time and we'll talk to everybody soon.

Tim Mosa: Thanks guys, appreciate it. Bye now.

DESCRIPTION

We’re excited to announce the launch of SubscriberX—an integrated solution powered by Salesforce that empowers marketers to grow their subscriber base, increase revenue, and drive customer loyalty. SubscriberX enables subscription-based companies, particularly in media and entertainment to connect with their customers across the customer lifecycle, drive personalization, and create meaningful customer experiences.

Tim Mosa, Lev's Managing Director, Strategic Sales joins the hosts to discuss:

+ Why SubscriberX was created

+ What Salesforce technologies power SusbscriberX

+ How SubscriberX can benefit more than just media + entertainment companies

Today's Guests

Guest Thumbnail

Tim Mosa

|Managing Director, Strategic Sales