APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY
EPISODE OVERVIEW
As the marketing industry – and the world at large – continues to experience its own digital transformation, marketers have seen an explosion of channels, platforms, and of course, data. To better understand the reality of today’s marketing landscape, and the tools at our disposal, we present our Tools of the Trade episode series.
Basis Technologies unifies planning, buying, optimization, and reporting so leaders get faster decisions and clearer accountability. In this partner spotlight, we talk with Leslie Johnson about how the RDI × Basis approach reduces operational drag, standardizes governance, and turns CTV/retail media investments into measurable outcomes—without adding headcount.
- What does Basis do?
- What changes when the full workflow lives in one platform?
- How do unified workflows reduce misalignment in planning and reporting?
- How do you balance automation and human control with Basis?
- How to prove Basis’s incremental value and financial impact?
- How does a unified data layer improve decision-making?
- What should clients ask when choosing an agency?
- How to run a 30- to 90-day pilot to prove Basis’s impact?
- Final thoughts and takeaways
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Reid Carr: As the marketing industry and the world at large continues to experience its own digital transformation, marketers have seen an explosion of channels, platforms, and of course data to better understand the reality of today's marketing landscape and the tools at our disposal. We present our tools of the trade episode series. In this episode, we sit down with Leslie Johnson, client development director at Basis Technologies, the platform marketers use to centralize media buying and automate the busy work, freeing teams to test more, learn faster, and scale results across CTV and retail media. Leslie, thanks for joining us.
Leslie Johnson: Thank you, Reid. Appreciate you having me here in the studio. It's always nice to get out. I work from home, so I love being out and about. The office is beautiful, so thank you for having me.
Reid Carr: Yeah, well it's great to have you in person. Always nice to be in person.
WHAT DOES BASIS DO?
Reid Carr: So first off, I tease a little bit about what Basis does, but maybe you can give us a little bit more, a little detail for our marketers here who are listening.
Leslie Johnson: Yeah, absolutely. So Basis is a media consolidation and activation platform that was built for marketers to bring the entire media buying process from planning to execution, reporting, optimization, even billing and reconciliation, all in one single interface across all digital channels. So programmatic search, social and site direct. And by connecting all these steps in one interface, what it does is it helps teams move faster, operate with more efficiency and drive stronger results. And how Basis does this is through multiple different APIs. So we have push and pull APIs with all your major buying platforms, so that's Microsoft, Google, LinkedIn, meta, even ad servers. We also have a full owned and operated DSP at its core and the tool is surrounded by all your media tools that you use to run your business. So there's an RFP tool on the front end where you can RFP partners. There's a messaging center where you can communicate to internal and external stakeholders. We have a cross channel planning tool on the front end and what's most important is our business analytics on the backend. So there's a BI tool that cuts data. Every piece of information that flows into Basis can be cut several different ways within the BI tool, both from a campaign perspective as well as a business perspective.
WHAT CHANGES WHEN THE FULL WORKFLOW LIVES IN ONE PLATFORM?
Reid Carr: Okay. So what we're talking about is just very much an all-in-one. So when you wrap in that all-in-one into that full workflow, what happens and what's benefit? What's faster? What should people know about that?
Leslie Johnson: Yeah, so Basis is it is very similar to, I would describe it almost as a Salesforce. It has those tools and then it has APIs to pull other pieces of the puzzle together. So to answer your question, a lot changes when you have that Nucleus and that center. It basically is five different platforms all wrapped up into one. So the first thing that changes, I will kind of go through all of these throughout our conversation, but first and foremost is Clarity. Businesses who use Basis instantly get a single connected view of everything that's happening across their business from planning, buying, optimization, and reporting. So what this means is they don't have to dig through emails, spreadsheets, they don't have to hunt down people pull fire drills just to get numbers, just to get forecast numbers, just to get information of where their business is at. Same with the media team, not just a leadership team. So the media team can very instantly get a pulse on their campaigns and their business, which helps them move campaigns to market quicker, adjust quicker, and then ultimately tie performance directly to the results that matter to the clients.
HOW DO UNIFIED WORKFLOWS REDUCE MISALIGNMENT IN PLANNING AND REPORTING?
Reid Carr: So with that clarity, obviously there's the underpinnings of faster as well. I think within faster oftentimes it's about then reducing rework or misalignment, kind of going back and forth. Where do these unified workflows reduce that work or minimize that misalignment between the planning and the reporting components of this?
Leslie Johnson: Yeah, so one of my favorite parts about my job is that I get to learn each of my clients' business. I get to learn about their processes, their tech stack, how they're making money, and the greatest thing is as you know, no business is the same at all. They all operate differently. They all have different key care abouts, pain points, different tech stacks that they use, which means that Basis and what it offers is different for every single business. Some features that we have within Basis are completely game changing, where the same features to another business can be kind of table stakes. They already do that well. So uncovering those pain points and those aha moments and demos is really the fun part for me. So having said that, a unified workflow definitely prevents a ton of common headaches. I mean there's so many to name, but I'm going to break down three of them.
First and foremost, we solve for cross channel campaign management. So you have really strong talent at your business. You pay people good money, you do not want them spending their time pulling reports, reformatting numbers, QAing work. Instead of spending the time hopping in and out of platforms, they're going to be able to spend that time focusing on higher level tasks, more strategy. They could very easily manage tens, thousands of line items across all channels, multiple KPIs, many, many clients all in one single interface. So that is one component. Second component is we are going to eliminate rework. So Basis is very big on you enter the information in once and never again. So all the data that you put into Basis lives there indefinitely. You don't have to input it once and that data flows throughout the platform. So that in and of itself eliminates a ton of human error.
Lastly is collaboration, and this is probably the least sexy, but the most important and something personally that I use at Basis every single day, saves my life. In Basis, all campaign communication across internal communication as well as external communication will live at the campaign level indefinitely. So that is any conversations between your planner and your strategist and your activation team or your partner that you just RFP’d, it's passing IOs back and forth, it's passing zip code list. You'll never again have to hunt down a zip file, hunt down an email that was sent two years ago just so you can onboard a new person or if someone goes on vacation. So that is huge. Everything lives at the campaign level along with your campaign data.
Reid Carr: So focusing on that collaboration component for a while, you talked about how different agencies or businesses are from one to another, but cornerstone to any of them I'm assuming is collaboration. So why is that your favorite part of it? I mean, I think we all kind of assume that communication should be foundational to any of the businesses.
Leslie Johnson: You would think that that would be table stakes and everyone talks about fragmented teams and work from home and I think that's been beat to death. Everyone does it pretty well and everyone has communication channels. They've got Slack, they've got Teams, they've got Outlook, they have enough communication channels to go around. So, I have been at a few other firms that have offered the same level of service as Basis in the past and we have not had this and it is an incredible headache. There are things lost, there are documents that are stored in the wrong place. If people are out for instance, it's hard to track those things down and pick up where they left off and you're just spending time doing that. Those are hours lost. Again, it comes down to the time that's lost doing all of that minutiae work.
HOW DO YOU BALANCE AUTOMATION AND HUMAN CONTROL WITH BASIS?
Reid Carr: Yeah, well, so obviously that gives people time back to do the things that they should do. And so, I’d be curious from your perspective—so many tasks are automated using Basis—where really should the human judgment stay firmly in control?
Leslie Johnson: Yeah, definitely. There are areas where you need human oversight, absolutely, but there are a lot of routine tasks that are so time sucking and those can all be automated. So, your campaign building, your pushing packages to ad servers, your AI optimizations, reporting, even presentation building, all of those should be automated. All of these things take a tremendous amount of time and they can be automated, so they should. So that your teams can save those hours and focus on what matters. Strategy, optimizations, forward thinking. I would say one of our raving fan features within Basis is our 50 page cross channel white labeled PowerPoint deck. And what it is: it takes three minutes to run because such a hefty file—as long as you link up your search and social accounts and programmatic—click of a button, it outputs 50 white labeled deck pages of all the campaign data across all channels, cut every which way, and it makes post-campaign and QBR processes a dream for teams. It really cuts down from days to hours. Again, it puts all the data in the PowerPoint for you. So, all you have to do is modify and put your story and voice behind it.
HOW TO PROVE BASIS’S INCREMENTAL VALUE AND FINANCIAL IMPACT?
Reid Carr: So, obviously people who use the tool quickly become big fans once they have it. But what would you say is the simplest way to prove incrementality or just decide from a finance standpoint the role that Basis is going to play, why we should use Basis and how it's going to streamline things?
Leslie Johnson: Yeah, it's a great question. Because sometimes it's hard to quantify the operational efficiencies. It really is. It comes down to do you have a handle of your FTEs and how many man hours it takes to do X, Y and Z and really dissecting the process. So, I'm going to answer that in two ways. One in the lens of an agency and then how that benefits their brand clients. For businesses, Basis automates all of the lower value work. So by consolidating systems, it helps teams manage more efficient media without adding headcount per se. So that directly improves EBITDA and profitability first and foremost. Secondly, we have BI dashboards within the tool that show all different metrics campaigns, but also business metrics like campaign count and budget manage per employee, which is a very clear proof of operational gains right there. And then from a services perspective, Basis provides real-time data across campaigns. So you will get happier clients, you will see increased turnaround times, and you'll be able to win new business from that. In turn. For brands, it means that the teams that are managing their marketing budget, they're working with cleaner data, they're able to deliver faster insights and they're able to reiterate and launch quicker.
HOW DOES A UNIFIED DATA LAYER IMPROVE DECISION-MAKING?
Reid Carr: So obviously quicker means how quickly can we get our campaign leaders with marketers time to decision is a big point. So how does the unified data layer change time to decision and the confidence in that decision at the leadership level.
Leslie Johnson: Largely, I mean that is what Basis is all about: giving them the confidence that they need to make those very swift decisions. So having that single source of truth, that Nucleus for your business eliminates so much question mark. Time, obviously errors, there's less copy paste errors, there's not as much time spent jumping from platform to platform. As a business leader, you can make decisions faster with more confidence and obviously you can get your answers without having to track it down. Then for the brand, it opens up the door to smarter testing and learning opportunities. We have a client who wants to test quantity versus quality. Narrow targeting versus broad targeting. That's very simple with Basis, you pull all the channels in, you do the AB test, I'm sure there's geos involved and Basis does all of that heavy lifting for you. You could very easily see side by side what's working, what's not, and reiterate on a dime.
We also have another client who has a very complex hierarchy. So they have a brand, they have sub-brands under that, they have initiatives under that, campaigns, geos, then they have channels and creative with them. So, it gets hairy very fast. What's cool about Basis is they can see over time over the course of a year, two years, five years, how their campaigns performed, what the KPIs were across channels, how much they spent, their rates even. So, you can see how having a tool like this over time, the business intelligence tool can get that much smarter and more robust and just a better tool for your business.
WHAT SHOULD CLIENTS ASK WHEN CHOOSING AN AGENCY?
Reid Carr: Yeah. So we're sitting here. I'm sitting here as the agency. What story would you tell then to the client side when they're evaluating possible agencies out there, knowing that some use tools like Basis, some do not, what are they missing? What should they ask of the agencies that they're talking to they're considering changing and what should they know?
Leslie Johnson: Yeah, that's a good question. I would say they should want their agency partner to be fiscally responsible. They should want them to be in a good place, happy employees that are going to stay, that aren't going to turn over. That's when it changes hands. That's when the pieces fall apart sometimes.
So ask questions like what's in your tech stack? I know that might be a loaded question, they might not understand it, but how do you operate with efficiency at the agency? What type of tools do you use? Do you use any automation features? How do you manage all the work? Honestly, how do you manage the work? As we know, the way that we buy media gets more complex. The digital channels that we buy on retail media networks popping up left and right, and it's just getting more complex. So really automation is going to have to be a factor. It's going to have to be in the equation whether we like it or not. So just asking them what are they using to help with that.
Reid Carr: And so it sounds like what they should listen to is how are they going to be fiscally responsible, which is not just paying money into different media platforms, but how they manage workflow internally and things that make sure that the people who are working on the business are able to be strategic and forward thinking and test and not get frustrated and decide to leave because they're trying to roll up their sleeves and do a lot of things that people, I think largely mostly people in media know you could automate a lot of this stuff and the agency maybe doesn't support their people with tools like that.
Leslie Johnson: Exactly. And I think a lot of people in the industry are probably even listening to this and thinking, wait, they already have that, don't they? And the fact of the matter is they have something of the effect, but it probably might not live in the same place. So there's a lot of jumping from platform to platform. There's a lot of hunting things down and cobbling things together, spreadsheets, tech stacks, and there's just a lot of time that's lost doing that. I mean, that's at the end of the day what we solve for.
Reid Carr: That's interesting. So, their answer to some of your earlier questions is, oh yeah, we do that. How do they know when they're using a tool? I mean obviously one answer will be, well, we use Basis, or the other version is, oh no, we do all that. And it could be the version that you just said, that's not really all that efficient. I mean, how do you sniff that out if you're a marketer?
Leslie Johnson: Yeah, that's another good question.
Reid Carr: Is it that simple? Just ask, are you using Basis?
Leslie Johnson: I mean, yeah, or yeah, what platforms are you using? I guess you could ask the question of how are you streamlining your process? I guess that's a general question that can be asked. An open-ended one. How are you streamlining your process? Maybe even how long does it take? How many people do you have on a particular piece of business or how do you know how many people to put on a piece of business? And that could be eye-opening going through that.
Reid Carr: Yeah, it is interesting. I think it's one of the challenges at agency. I mean earlier, one of the things you said earlier is how different everybody is from agency, agency or business to business, but I think a lot of client side might look at agencies and go, oh, they're all the same.
And at a media level, I mean they're saying, here's our media budget, and that budget's not going to change from agency to agency because they have a certain media budget. It's always a promise that somehow we're going to do it better. It will be more, in this case what we talked about, efficient, better quality, timely decisions, better decisions, spend more time on strategy and creative thinking. I don't know if that's as common of an ask or question. I think they see it all being somehow apples to apples. And I think everything you've said here is it's very much not.
Leslie Johnson: Yeah, no, and I think as an agency you kind of have to call that out a little bit and maybe provide examples and maybe that would spark a chord with them. But yeah, you're right. They probably think, I assume you have this, I just assume, but they don't know what goes on behind closed doors. They have no idea.
Reid Carr: No. And where media is today, and this is I think at the root of why Basis even exists, it is so complicated from where it was when I started my career 25 years ago in this. I always joked it was like five ways to reach a consumer back then and now hundreds, thousands of platform, hundreds of different categories of ways. And so, we need tools like Basis to help us manage that, make it efficient, because at the end of the day, we want our people thinking about how do I reach a consumer—or buyer if you're talking about b2b—what's the campaign idea, how do I use media to magnify or amplify those ideas creatively? We don't want 'em sitting there finding out who has the last file or copying and pasting some of this data from one platform to another. So, it's good to have these tools and it's very difficult for people to see how things have changed because it's changed so fast.
Leslie Johnson: Yeah, absolutely. There needs to be some sort of nucleus to normalize all of it, really.
HOW TO RUN A 30- TO 90-DAY PILOT TO PROVE BASIS’S IMPACT?
Reid Carr: So thinking about Basis in practice and if people are listening, say, Hey, I want to check this out. If you had 30 days to prove that value together, what would a pilot look like and how would someone judge success?
Leslie Johnson: Yeah, so 30 days, that's a rough one. I would hope it's 90 if it's a pilot for something with this amount of process involvement,
Reid Carr: These days we're down to 15.
Leslie Johnson: I know, right? It's like five minutes. All right, you got five minutes to prove, let's go. I would say in 30 days, if we had, well,
Reid Carr: I mean we could say it's like, look, that's not reasonable. I think we have to say that all the time to clients. How often we hear that stuff on like, oh, we want to do this, whether it's a campaign or a website or whatever. The timelines are very rarely reasonable. We can find some things here and there to create some amount of visibility within a certain, I think saying the pilot's 90, but what's the visibility at 30 to say, Hey, this is headed in the right direction. I think people want to see something quicker than a quarter away.
Leslie Johnson: Yeah, a hundred percent. There should be KPIs on the way. Absolutely. Yeah. And the only reason I say 90 days is because there's change management involved. It's hard. 30 days is scratching the surface, but I would say if we had 30 days, what we would start with is mapping out your current process and where Basis fits in. That is very important. You currently have a tech stack, you have tools. We connect to a lot of them. So where do we establish connections? Where does Basis fit into the puzzle? Second, we would identify one to three campaigns that we would start with, and ideally ones that have not launched yet so that we can go through the whole process start to finish. So planning, launching, optimization, reporting, depending on how long that is, hopefully it's probably more than 30 days.
But I'm sorry, to backtrack a little bit, we have a very robust onboarding process with onboarding managers that are excellent. We've actually won awards in a lot of our training and onboarding. So they customize the training based on who is logging into the platform on the team, their job title, how they're going to be using Basis, and they provide face-to-face training with them. And it could be weekly, it could be biweekly, depending on your timeline on how quickly you want to get going. There's also video, self-led video training. So it's a combination of both. You can go at your own pace. So once that is done and the team is using Basis, let's call it 90 days, at the end of the 90 days, we would want to sit down and basically dissect the process and what went well, where you gained efficiencies. Hopefully we can quantify those efficiencies. And if you learned anything new, if you learned something new about your channel, mix your audience, your campaigns, your client, your competitors, and I would say if we could check those boxes, it would be a successful test.
Reid Carr: Right. Well that's great. Imagine what going through and mapping our workflow must have looked like
Leslie Johnson: Oh God, we have a team that only does agency audits and it is intense.
Reid Carr: Yeah, we have a lot going on.
FINAL THOUGHTS AND TAKEAWAYS
Reid Carr: Well, anyway, this has been fascinating and certainly appreciate our partnership. Thank you for joining us. I know that our listeners got a lot of value here, so if they want to learn more about Basis, how do they find out?
Leslie Johnson: They could go to our website basis.com or linkedin.
Reid Carr: There you go. Alright, well that was fantastic, Leslie. I appreciate it.
Leslie Johnson: Thanks so much, Reid,
Reid Carr: And we look forward to you next time on another Tools of the Trade. Be sure to check out show notes from this episode and more at reddoor.biz/learn. And as always, subscribe to the marketing remix and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.