Unlocking the Power of Customer Relationships with R/GA's Meghan Phillips

Meghan is managing director of R/GA’s brand relationship design practice. She started at R/GA in 2016 as associate director of the marketing sciences discipline, leading a team focused on helping brands change the way they use data to inspire creativity, connect with people, and evolve their business. She has developed data-driven approaches for several brands seeking to better connect with their audiences, including Samsung, Mailchimp, Instagram, Verizon, and ESPN. She has also overseen numerous research initiatives with the goal of ensuring that brands are equipped with the strongest insights available to guide their decision-making.

Prior to working at R/GA, Meghan’s professional experience has ranged across a number of industries from leadership consulting to media analytics to collegiate athletics – all with a focus on data, research, and statistics.

Meghan holds a master’s in business administration from the Boston College Carroll School of Management, where she concentrated on a cross-functional program devoted to understanding the complex nature of today’s global service economy - and the symbiotic relationship between business operations & strategy, marketing, and technology.

Q> Tell us a little bit about yourself… What is your professional background and what do you enjoy doing in your free time?

Meghan> I entered the workplace knowing my calling was to work in the sports and entertainment industry. In the earliest stages of my career, I kept in-game statistics for my university’s athletic program, parlayed an in-class assignment into a full-time job with an adjunct professor, sports agent, and joined an ambitious team seeking to start a football-focused streaming network. 

But as we know, the best-laid plans…. Since then, my career has been an unconventional path through the marketing world, where I ultimately found a home in advertising.

In my personal life, I am kept very busy with three young kids and a large dog (who may actually be the neediest of them all).

Q> Could you share your experience transitioning into your role at R/GA as a member of the Marketing Science team, now known as Applied Intelligence?

Meghan> When I joined R/GA's marketing sciences team in 2016, I had no idea how much the marketing landscape or the trajectory of my career would change. 

Over the past seven years, we've witnessed significant shifts in consumer expectations and the emphasis on data-driven decision-making. This evolution places increasing importance on teams that understand how to capture, analyse, and use data to create impact across the consumer journey. From a personal standpoint, this meant watching my (and my teams’) remit expand from ‘the reporting team’ to a robust strategic discipline. 

Alongside these changes, we also saw the simultaneous reduction of both consumers’ attention and marketers’ budgets, forcing brands to prioritise retention over acquisition. This created a growing demand for partners that can help them better use data to understand, identify, and engage their customers.

As a response to this demand, R/GA established Brand Relationship Design. With my proven track record of leveraging data and consumer insights to drive impact, I was appointed managing director of the BRD Practice, focusing on expanding our capabilities, enhancing client work, and nurturing talent.

Q> What is Brand Relationship Design and how can brands benefit from it? 

Meghan> Brand Relationship Design is R/GA’s centre of excellence with the mission of unlocking the power of customer relationships to drive sustainable brand growth. We have the expertise and capabilities to partner with brands at every stage of the customer lifecycle and at every altitude within the scope of a project, working together to tackle the most critical customer challenges.

Our work is rooted in data and sits at the intersection of design and technology. We aim to deliver meaningful and engaging work without sacrificing creativity or scale.

If you have shared any of the following strategic ambitions with your team, you are ultimately seeking to evolve the design of your brand-customer relationship:

- We need to define how we onboard, retain, and grow the customers we already have.

- We need to build a data-driven experience and think about how we collect, store, and use that data.

- We need a system that creates templates, modules, etc, that helps us get to market quickly.

- We want to make _______ [design systems, local toolkits, or content like emails, landing pages and SMS messages]

Q> What kind of brands are you looking to partner with? 

Meghan> Our best client relationships are characterised by key attributes that drive successful collaboration:

1. First and foremost, they are brands that have a genuine commitment to enhancing their approach to customer engagement. This alignment in values is crucial for us. 

2. Also critical is that our clients are empowered to drive meaningful change within their organisation. This empowerment enables us to work more effectively and drive innovation together.  

3. Equally important, we believe in a partnership built on trust and accountability. It’s essential that both our teams (client and R/GA) approach the relationship with this foundation. 

Beyond these fundamental considerations, we are interested in working with any brand that desires to improve or evolve their customer engagement strategies. We have worked with brands across a spectrum of industries, including finance, entertainment, health, consumer electronics, and more. We are always excited to apply our expertise to new categories.

Q> How should brands approach customer relationships today?

Meghan> In the current landscape, there's plenty of advice on how brands should approach customer relationships: be personalized, be differentiated, be innovative, and be streamlined.

But, in my view, it’s a lot simpler than that. Brands should aim to be genuinely likable.

And what I mean by that is to behave as you would in any other relationship. It’s about being trustworthy, creating memorable experiences, demonstrating understanding and care, celebrating moments of excitement, and showing up when needed. 

Customers turn to your brand because they believe you offer a solution to their problems or can help them achieve their goals. Your responsibility, then, is to use your available data and resources to support them in this journey - and to do it in a way that feels human and empathic, just like any other meaningful connection in life.

Q> What is the role of emerging tech when designing relationships between brands and their consumers?

Meghan> Emerging technology empowers brands to create stronger, more meaningful consumer relationships by offering personalised and interactive experiences. These technologies also provide valuable insights for continuous improvement and enable brands to demonstrate a commitment to customer needs and values.

A few examples:

- Advancements in AI, machine learning, and natural language processing allow us to deliver personalised experiences in real time, helping us better connect with the needs of customers.

- Chatbots and AI-driven customer service improve communications through quick and efficient responses, making customers feel heard and validated.

- Augments (A/R), virtual (V/R), and mixed (M/R) reality technologies offer immersive and interactive experiences that create memorable and emotionally resonant interactions.

- Big data analytics and sentiment analysis tools enable brands to gather insights from customer feedback and social media conversations. This data can be used to continuously improve products, services, and marketing efforts, demonstrating a commitment to customer needs and preferences.

It is worth noting, however, that brand-customer relationships are not exclusively dependent on the latest technology. You can work within the confines of your available data and technology to deliver valuable customer experiences.