Partner spotlight: Oliver Norman, Co-CEO at IN Digital

For the second episode of our partner spotlight series, our Partner Manager Sam Spira sat down with Oliver Norman, Co-CEO at IN Digital.

In their 40-minute conversation, the two covered everything from the agency model chosen by IN Digital, the modern challenges associated with data ownership in the age of AI, and the importance of clean, quality data for brands looking to build an agentic AI operation (including a hot take from Oliver).

Watch the full video below, or continue reading for an overview of some of the standout topics and quotes from their chat.

Everyone's data is a mess. Which team should be the owner?

Opening up the conversation, Oliver explains how common it is for teams, at the start of a collaboration, are afraid that their data operations are messier than they actually are:

Everybody says their data is in a mess. There are few companies that are truly, fundamentally proud of what their data is like.

- Oliver Norman, Co-CEO at IN Digital

Oliver explains that ownership is necessarily shared across teams, since no single function has the full picture, with technical teams managing the infrastructure, while marketing understands what data is actually useful to leverage:

You would not expect the CTO side of a brand's organization to be able to understand what data is relevant, accurate, correct, useful to bring in from paid media channels... That is the marketing team's function to own, the understanding of what the useful data is and what the quality of that is.

- Oliver Norman, Co-CEO at IN Digital

This naturally explains the agency model of IN Digital. Rather than operating at arm's length, the marketing agency embeds its experts directly within its clients teams, working alongside them day to day:

IN Digital is basically built on the simple statement that if you have more proximity, all those problems disappear. Transparency, visibility, ownership, proactivity, those things all happen naturally if the people on the agency side are sat next to the marketing director on a day-to-day basis.

- Oliver Norman, Co-CEO at IN Digital

The importance of proximity as well as data operations is exacerbated today by the prominence of AI.

AI is changing marketing, and this time the hype is real

The current AI hype can feel like other waves of innovations of the past decade, but Oliver acknowledges that it feels different this time around:

We've been doing this for a long time and every year for the past fifteen years, people have said 'the world of marketing is changing, it's revolution' ever year SEO is dead, etc... And to be honest it's never been true. There's never been a really radical quick shift. Obviously things have changed a lot but there's always been a lot of hyperbole. For the the first time ever I'm jumping on the bandwagon of the hyperbole laugh I do think this time things are changing really fast.

- Oliver Norman, Co-CEO at IN Digital

As teams look to catch the AI train (something Oliver considers important), the importance of data quality is made even more critical:

The thing that makes your agentic AI capabilities powerful is essentially how quickly that AI agent can access that data, so it can carry out instructions and tasks on your behalf.

- Oliver Norman, Co-CEO at IN Digital

But this focus on AI can come at a cost most brands haven't seen coming.

The hot take: Who owns your AI agents?

Asked by Sam for a controversial opinion on the topic of data, Oliver shares his view on the unforeseen consequences of current AI agentic efforts:

I think it might piss off the half of LinkedIn that's agencies and consultancies and tech firms. But I think that brands are right now walking into a trap which they haven't seen coming... At the moment, any brand who has got an agency or consultancy on retainer is subsidizing that company's R&D budget into agentic AI. But most likely the IP for those AI agents is owned by the agency, not by the brand.

- Oliver Norman, Co-CEO at IN Digital

This raises potential problems that, according to Oliver, brands may not have anticipated and might only feel the impact of in months or years:

Brands are subsidizing an R&D budget into building an operational capability which is a black box which they don't own, they don't control, they can't see into, and can't do a handover.

- Oliver Norman, Co-CEO at IN Digital

With this in mind, Oliver shares some of the priorities brands should be working on.

Takeaways for brands and agencies moving forward

To conclude the conversation, Oliver advises brands to focus on data collection and activation, where best practices will go a long way in improving their data operations and feeding their agentic AI efforts:

The first thing we would say is, unless you really think you've got the right infrastructure, the right tools, the right setup, it's never too late, and it's also definitely never too early to start trying to fix that. So first things first, it's a simple thing of data collection, data storage, data activation. Fix data collection and data storage as much as possible, really important priority. The second thing I would advise is to think carefully about how data will be used in a world of agentic AI. We're seeing new challenges crop up around data security, data access, etc.

- Oliver Norman, Co-CEO at IN Digital

For agencies, the Co-CEO highlights the importance of proximity, and circles back to IN Digital's model, which Sam notes has led to a number of great successes and awards, including for their work with the Financial Times and other clients:

A lot of our awards have been around transforming data into revenue and new campaigns. (...) It's very clear that none of those things would have been possible if we hadn't been working quite so closely with the clients.

- Oliver Norman, Co-CEO at IN Digital

To learn more about the great work of Oliver and his team, visit the IN Digital website. And to discover how we help organizations build sustainable data collection and activation practices, book a time with an expert.