Tim Letscher. Colle+McVoy
Title: Director, digital strategy and analytics
Age: 45
Tim Letscher aims to wake brands up to emerging opportunities to reach "constantly connected" consumers as director of digital strategy and analytics at Minneapolis ad agency Colle+McVoy.
Letscher, for that matter, suggests thinking "awake/asleep" rather than "online/offline" when plotting a strategy to reach consumers who are connected nearly around the clock — like the more than 60 percent of smartphone owners who sleep with the device by their bed.
"You're never actually done trying to sell to a consumer," Letscher said. "You're hopefully empowering the consumer so they can do some of the selling for you. Social media has allowed us to keep that constant connectedness going on."
He also recommends engaging consumers on their terms, not the brand's. "A lot of times they don't want a relationship with you," Letscher said. "But they do want you to always be there and responsive to their needs and desires."
In his newly created position, Letscher oversees creation of all programs that guide client interactions online and across digital platforms. He also will have a leading role in developing new business. Letscher joined Colle+McVoy, an integrated agency that "excels at modernizing iconic brands," in late March.
Letscher most recently worked at Carmichael Lynch as senior strategist for brand activation. He has more than 20 years of experience developing brand identities and online environments for small businesses and big corporate clients as both an agency executive and an entrepreneur at agencies and venture companies in the Twin Cities and Chicago. He has a bachelor's of fine arts degree from the University of Notre Dame.
Q: What did you like about this opportunity at Colle+McVoy?
A: The digital strategy and analytics group is housed within the same group. The analytics can inform the digital strategy in this constant cycle. They think in forward-thinking terms and they have the creative and strategic minds here than can make this a reality.
Q: How does the idea of never being done selling to a consumer affect a brand's digital strategy?
A: It's not like a campaign where you're done with it, because you're always connected now. Those analytics have to be constantly feeding the strategy and you have to be able to make these adjustments on the fly. Joining those two at the hip brings that back-end knowledge of a project to constantly be informing the front end of a project, so you get this continuous loop going.
Q: What key challenge do you face?
A: A lot of clients are risk-averse. I'm trying to keep on pushing that boundary. It's my duty to help lead them into that future. You can do as much research as you can and get as many insights and as much hard data, but making that final leap, that's the beauty of creativity, that's where the magic happens.
