Chandos Quill: Inside Epsilon’s Partner Strategy for the AI and Data Era

Chandos Quill
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[00:00:00] Chandos Quill: It's a new mindset for a lot of our sellers, because part of our business is a digital media business. It's a very different go to market motion, than it is on the marketing owned channel side, uh, CRM side. So, some of our sellers are kind of newer to that idea of how you, can use especially in like an AWS partner to help us get those relationships with IT.

[00:00:24] Get those relationships with procurement, get our deals through faster, especially with the Marketplace. So we are just at the beginning of unlocking that potential. So I'm very excited about it. It's a lot of work to do though.

[00:00:36] Chip Rodgers: Epsilon is, there's sort of three part, I mean, you have the data business we've been talking about, but you also have products that you bring to market, uh, and then you have services as well.

[00:00:47] How do you think about that sort of constellation of those three elements and then in the context of working with partners?

[00:00:54] Chandos Quill: What we've tried to do is within each of those categories of partners, we focus on the [00:01:00] most important thing that Epsilon can bring to add value on top of the partners' technology or products.

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[00:01:10] Chip Rodgers: Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Inside Partnering and uh, we are here today. Two or day three. It's like day three. It's Wednesday.

[00:01:19] Chandos Quill: Yeah. Yeah, Wednesday. Yeah.

[00:01:21] Chip Rodgers: Uh, at, uh, at reinvent and oh my gosh, it's, uh, just a huge event. So much to like, you just never feel like you can touch, even scratch the surface.

[00:01:31] Chandos Quill: Yeah, for sure. And it's hard to even maneuver around to get to meetings and so forth. A lot of people here.

[00:01:37] Chip Rodgers: A lot of people, and you know, the keynote lets out and it's just like this mad crush.

[00:01:41] Chandos Quill: Mm-hmm. Yes. Definitely. Survival skills. That's right.

[00:01:46] Chip Rodgers: So, uh, we are here on the show floor actually today, and, uh, I'm so excited to be joined by, uh, Chandos Quill and Chandos.

[00:01:54] Is, senior Vice President of Channels and Alliances at, , Epsilon. And, , welcome. [00:02:00]

[00:02:00] Chandos Quill: Thank you. Yeah. I'm happy to be chatting with you. Yeah.

[00:02:03] Chip Rodgers: Yeah. So this is an interesting conversation. I'm looking forward to it. So, Chandos has a long history and. Uh, ad tech and, marketing data companies with, uh, gosh, going back to, Experian. Experian going back to Experian days. Yeah. Merkel, Acxiom and a number of, you know, those like very large, always working with, marketing data that marketers need. Yes. To be able to, uh, to run their programs. So. I love to get into this. I think it's, it's really interesting sort of the, this combination of services, technology and data, and you're right in the middle of all that.

[00:02:40] So, Chandos, maybe let's start, just tell me a little bit about what you and your team are up to at Epsilon.

[00:02:47] Chandos Quill: Yeah. Um, maybe it might be helpful for some of your viewers to understand, uh, who Epsilon is and what we do. You teed it up really nicely, but, um, Epsilon is part of the Publicis group. Which is a [00:03:00] large, uh, one of the largest global agency holdcos.

[00:03:03] So the Epsilon Division within Publicis is really the, as you described, accurately, the data services and technology arm of the agency, HoldCo. So, um, and our whole focus is providing those data driven solutions and services to marketers. To help them acquire more customers and to develop deeper, longer lasting relationships with their existing customers.

[00:03:28] Yeah. So that's what we do at the very highest level. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:03:31] Chip Rodgers: And so your team, in terms of partnerships, , tell me a little bit about the kinds of partnerships that you are, working on. Why are you here at re:Invent? What's the what are your objectives here? And, um, let, let's start, start there.

[00:03:45] Chandos Quill: Yeah. So I joined, uh, Epsilon about a year and a half ago. Okay. And, uh, was specifically brought in to build a partnership function. Um, we had a few pockets of people doing partnerships, but we didn't have a [00:04:00] centralized partnership function. So I would say we were in a very like ad hoc, opportunistic, uh, level of maturity, if you will.

[00:04:08] Chip Rodgers: You know, it's funny, there are a lot of companies that are like that, that just like sort of partnerships sort of grow, organically, organically, organically, but also

[00:04:15] Chandos Quill: siloed. Yeah. Yeah, that was very much our situation. I like that. 'cause I, I happen to be somebody that's a builder. I like to build teams, uh, build talent, build strategies, and go to market.

[00:04:27] So, uh, for me it was the perfect place to land. And, , so for the past year that's, you know, building that found, that initial foundation has really been the focus for me and my team. It was assessing the talent, bringing together the teams, putting together a, a comprehensive strategy and plan, um, and building some of those foundational things like just tracking our success.

[00:04:51] Key, key part of our

[00:04:52] Chip Rodgers: Kind of important,

[00:04:53] Chandos Quill: Very important. So I started with that. But also just making sure that our partner strategy was really tied to the corporate [00:05:00] direction and the product strategy too. There was a lot of work of just connecting the dots there. Yeah.

[00:05:05] Chip Rodgers: Um, that's so important too. And so it's something that I think a lot of times people don't.

[00:05:09] Real. I mean, that's really, that makes the, it, it helps the executive team understand what the value of partnering is, right? Yeah. Which and then that's how you unlock resources.

[00:05:22] Chandos Quill: Yeah. No, it's funny, we sometimes think that just because a company's been around for a while, they, they understand everything.

[00:05:30] But the build, buy, partner, I mean, those are three very important parts of a go to market strategy. , And we had to do a little reminding of people, that partner is the third leg of the stool. And then also just starting to build that foundation with the sales team, you know, understanding how to use partners to drive more revenue through the channel.

[00:05:52] Chip Rodgers: Yeah. So talk a little bit about, tell us a little bit about the kinds of partners that you're that you are working with today. [00:06:00]

[00:06:00] Chandos Quill: Yeah. So we have, several different categories of partners. We have infrastructure partners like AWS, , and Databricks, , as two good examples of, uh, infrastructure partners.

[00:06:11] We have technology solution partners. , Think about, you know, especially in the marketing and advertising space, those are companies that are, you know, Adobe's, Salesforce, Braze. A lot of our clients have invested in those tech stacks. And so we wrap our services and data around those technologies, or we supplement with our, our own technology solutions.

[00:06:32] So, then we have a, a data channel, so using our data to fuel the ad tech ecosystem, so working with DSPs and different platforms, , and also just more regional kind of companies that provide marketing, direct marketing services to their clients. So we have a data channel and then we have a, uh, product

[00:06:53] integration and point solution set of partners. Those are more point solutions that plug into our [00:07:00] platform for providing a more robust solution to our clients. Example would be our loyalty platform. There are very specialized providers out there that do gamification, mobile wallet solutions that we plug into to provide a more comprehensive solution for our enterprise clients.

[00:07:17] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:07:18] Chip Rodgers: That's a wide range of partners. Yeah. Although

[00:07:22] Chandos Quill: what we've done is very specifically focused on quality versus quantity in each of those categories. Especially 'cause I'm built still in the process of building the team and scaling and I proving the value to executives and sales. So, my message to all of our partners is we're leaning in on the ones that are really matter and continuing to grow and scale those versus signing up, 20, 30 new ones.

[00:07:44] Right. Yeah.

[00:07:45] Chip Rodgers: That's really important. I love that approach. I think especially as you're building and growing and trying to prove out the value. Yeah. You know, you, you only got so many resources to get going and so you really need to focus.

[00:07:56] Chandos Quill: Yeah. I've been very fortunate that I have a lot of [00:08:00] support and was, I've been given a lot of resources I need to build this, function and competency in the company.

[00:08:06] But yeah, it's not unlimited, so. Uh, we're in the point where I got a lot of stuff put in place and now we need to continue to prove and, and then do our business case to get more, more support.

[00:08:15] Chip Rodgers: Yeah. That's terrific. So,, talk a little bit about the infrastructure, partners we're here at re:Invent and, how are you working with AWS or other cloud providers?

[00:08:28] Chandos Quill: Yeah, so it's an important go to market for us. By the end of this year, so coming up here in the next couple weeks, we will have had all of our products and services in their marketplace. We actually, this year, in the last quarter, closed a extremely large deal through the marketplace, our first deal.

[00:08:45] Chip Rodgers: Congratulations.

[00:08:47] Chandos Quill: That's exciting. It is exciting, and it's gotten the tension of our sales people. So the wheels are starting to spin. We've certainly gotten the attention of AWS, I mean, Publicis, um, generally has, a strong presence and, and relationship with AWS. We're also a [00:09:00] big client, but from a partnering perspective, we're now focusing on how do we start to promote and support those offerings in the marketplace and get that flywheel going with our sales and their sales.

[00:09:12] So we're here. Really getting those conversations going and determining our plan for 2026 with them.

[00:09:19] Chip Rodgers: So that's, uh, that's terrific. I think those initial, stories, customer stories and, and deal stories are really important when you're trying to get the field, you know, working together and to get people excited about, uh, about the partnership.

[00:09:35] Chandos Quill: Yeah. It's a new mindset for a lot of our sellers, um, because part of our business is a digital media business. It's a very different go to market motion, than it is on the marketing, you know, kind of owned channel side, uh, CRM side. So, some of our sellers are kind of newer to that idea of how you, can use especially in like an AWS partner to help us get those relationships with IT.[00:10:00]

[00:10:00] Get those relationships with procurement, get our deals through faster, especially with the marketplace. So I, we are just at the beginning of unlocking that potential. So I'm very excited about it. It's a lot of work to do though.

[00:10:13] Chip Rodgers: A lot of work to do. But, you know, it's interesting because, Epsilon or you know, an e company that's in the marketing data, market.

[00:10:23] Your sellers have relationships with, uh, with the line of business, right? With marketing and sales and, then the AWS sellers have relationships with IT. So there's, it's a good, you know, combination to unlock accounts.

[00:10:39] Chandos Quill: Yeah, you're absolutely right. And that's another reason why these infrastructure partners we're really leaning into, I think it's two sides of the same coin, but generally a good thing.

[00:10:48] One is, you're absolutely right. Like we value each other's relationships because of the expertise we have in marketing and the advertising side of, you know, an enterprise and then they have the IT side. It's not [00:11:00] always easy to get the sellers to figure that out. So that's where I think the hard work comes and, um, a lot of the sales enablement and things that we need to do this next year to kind of get them better educated and then those win stories on top to give the fuel.

[00:11:14] That's, I mean, that's probably the majority of my focus for 2026. Yeah.

[00:11:20] Chip Rodgers: Yeah. You have a, you have a big win, right? Yeah. And so having that, that sales person talk about the value and sort of getting that out to everybody else.

[00:11:29] Huge, huge thing.

[00:11:30] Chandos Quill: Yep. Absolutely. That's top on the list.

[00:11:35] Chip Rodgers: So, um. Being in the data business, how do you think about data privacy and some of the, those, challenges around, around data, especially in, as you're working with partners could you share your thoughts about that?

[00:11:49] Chandos Quill: Yeah, so being a, uh, in the data business, consumer data business. Privacy. It's not new for a data company. There's always been privacy regulations. They [00:12:00] just continue to kind of increase and get more, uh, focus more recently, especially in Europe and then now in the US. But it's not a new thing for a company like us.

[00:12:10] We have, um, Chief Privacy Officer, our legal counsel, they stay in touch with all of the different laws that are developing. And then provide us guidance on what we need to do to adjust our data collection and data management capabilities in order to comply with the upcoming, uh, laws. And then we provide a lot of thought leadership and, and support to our clients around that too.

[00:12:34] In fact, many of our clients and partners look to us to, you know, 'cause we have the resources to understand what the laws mean and what you should or shouldn't do, or what best practices are out there. And so. We pr we bring that perspective to our partners and to our clients. Um, but it is a very important aspect of our business.

[00:12:52] Yeah.

[00:12:53] Chip Rodgers: Yeah. I could, I, I could see where, partners would really rely on your, you know, [00:13:00] your expertise and the thought leadership that you bring in that area because you're, you are sharing data or you're allowing the partner to leverage that data, so they wanna make sure that they're. In compliance.

[00:13:13] Chandos Quill: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, in a lot of the technology that's developing now, you know, we have our own, uh, clean room solution. We are working with some of the infrastructure partners on how we take our clean room, which is more about activation for marketing and advertising, and connect that to more of an enterprise clean room strategy.

[00:13:31] And, you know, I think everybody's trying to protect and, limit the amount of information that flows, but still enable businesses to operate. So I think there's a lot of really interesting work that we're doing from a solution partner solution perspective with some of our infrastructure partners around that.

[00:13:48] Chip Rodgers: Yeah. Yeah. How, what you know, with the introduction of AI and over the last, you know, two or three years, how has that impacted to many people, it's still a little bit of a black box, and so you've got [00:14:00] all this data. AI is mucking around in there, you know, how are you thinking about, or how is Epsilon thinking about, you know, those challenges?

[00:14:08] Chandos Quill: Yeah, I mean, AI is a huge part of our strategy from, Arthur our CEO of Publicis group all the way down to Epsilon. And so everybody is looking at how do we leverage AI to do things better? How do we build that into our platform and our products to make it easier for clients? There's some exciting things.

[00:14:28] I mean, obviously in the agency world, it's AI to better understand and create audiences, create more personalization. That's the exciting thing. In marketing, we've always talked about the dream being one-to-one marketing. Right. And it's been very hard to do over the years. But now with all, even though we have all these different technologies, all these different channels.

[00:14:48] Now we have AI on top that can really help bridge the gap between those things and maybe create true one-to-one marketing, including the content that is more catered to each individual. [00:15:00] I mean, it's pretty exciting. Yeah. So that, that overall theme and then all of the data the technology, the services, our media, business, our agents, creative agencies, you can think about, hey, how AI plays a part in each of those, and then orchestrating that for a brand.

[00:15:15] That's what we're working on.

[00:15:17] Chip Rodgers: Really. Fascinating, fascinating, and exciting. Yeah. Um, yeah, I think, and so one-to-one marketing, like very specific marketing for each person. Yeah. Personalized. Yeah, personalized. And then also I would think, uh, ABM as well, right? Account base. So you're, you've got things that are personalized.

[00:15:36] It could be to, into an entire buying team, but you may have different messages very specific for the account.

[00:15:42] Chandos Quill: Yeah. And that's where our partners come into play as we create more go to market with our partners. And you brought up a good point, like an AWS who's talking to the, you know, technology side.

[00:15:53] We're talking to the marketing side. We can use all of that knowledge to better create the message for both, right? That's catered to [00:16:00] the, the decision maker, the buying, buying, and what matters most to those different constituents. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:16:06] Chip Rodgers: Epsilon is, there's sort of three part, I mean, you have the data business we've been talking about, but you also have products that you bring to market, uh, and then you have services as well.

[00:16:17] How do you think about that sort of constellation of those three elements and then in the context of working with partners?

[00:16:24] Chandos Quill: Yeah, it's, um, sometimes a blessing and a curse. And then there's the group dynamics as well, right? They have relate different services that they provide, uh, creative services, creative strategy services, but within Epsilon you know, I think what we, what we've tried to do is within each of those categories of partners, we focus on the most important thing that Epsilon can bring to add value on top of the partners' technology or products.

[00:16:49] Yeah. Don't try to be everything to everybody. It, it's just really hard and confusing. For example, from an infrastructure side, we're leaning, really leaning in on our, you know, technology products [00:17:00] and data. With some of our technology solution providers, we're focused more on services. So it kind of depends on the, generally speaking, the category of partner and where we start and where we focus to get traction.

[00:17:12] And then there's other things we can always continue to build in. And that's the exciting opportunity as we continue to scale. Yeah.

[00:17:20] Chip Rodgers: As you're, as you were talking, I sort of imagine this like matrix of the technology, you know, the different categories of your offerings mm-hmm. And then the different partner types and you've got different things that you're doing with each category.

[00:17:34] Category.

[00:17:34] Chandos Quill: Yeah. I think the challenge I have sometimes in my team is, is just staying focused. 'Cause we can do so much with so many different of those. Partners. And so this year I'm ki I've kind of focused on less is more, you know, we don't need more partners because we could do so much with a partner potentially, but let's just get traction early with one thing or one vertical or whatever.

[00:17:57] And then we build, build from there. I mean, [00:18:00] I think we have time. You know, I, I, I don't think we're under pressure , you know, because it's a new thing the expectation for luckily for me is lower. So just proving that value and continue to show steady growth and improvement. You know, that's kind of the phase we're in, which is good.

[00:18:14] Yeah.

[00:18:15] Chip Rodgers: It's exciting. It's exciting. Yeah. Yeah. And what a great, I'd love to hear an update, you know, as you, continue to grow the function and, and, and build value for Epsilon.

[00:18:25] Chandos Quill: For sure. Next time we'll do an interview with some of our partners.

[00:18:28] Chip Rodgers: Terrific. Love to. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:18:29] We can talk about

[00:18:30] Chandos Quill: our success. Yeah. I love it.

[00:18:33] Chip Rodgers: Chandos, this has been fantastic. I really appreciate you taking some time and sharing what's happening at Epsilon and your, your, uh, journey right now. And, uh, and very exciting.

[00:18:43] Chandos Quill: Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. It's been fun chatting with you. Yeah,

[00:18:46] Chip Rodgers: So thank you all as well for joining another episode of Inside Partnering and, Chandos, thanks for joining and we will see you next time.

[00:18:54] In the meantime, don't forget to like, share, and, subscribe. Thanks everybody. See you next [00:19:00] time.

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