We're excited to introduce Matt DiBenedetti, the new Senior Vice President and Executive Creative Director at RKD Group.
With more than 25 years of experience, Matt leads our omnichannel Performance Creative practice. His unique expertise in blending data, technology and creative strategy is set to transform how we support our clients, helping them engage donors in more impactful ways than ever before.
In this episode of the RKD Group: Thinkers podcast, Matt discusses his background and approach to audience-first creativity in the nonprofit sector. He emphasizes the importance of data-driven decision-making and personalization in fundraising.
He shares about:
- The crucial nature of data-driven decision-making and personalization in fundraising
- How an omnichannel approach and the use of technology can optimize creative content
- The importance of thinking outside the box and embracing new ideas in the creative process
- Mentors who have played a significant role in his career growth and development
Show chapters
00:00 Matt's Background and Trend-Bucking Career
03:06 The Importance of Data-Driven Decision-Making and Personalization in Fundraising
06:27 Optimizing Creative Content through an Omnichannel Approach
09:18 Embracing Innovation and Thinking Outside the Box in the Creative Process
17:19 The Role of Mentors in Career Growth and Development
Meet our guest
Transcript
Justin McCord
Matt, you seem like the type of person that bucks some trends. I don't know if you know that or not.
Matt DiBenedetti
I did not know that; it's funny that you say that. I've only been here for a few months now, and as I've gotten started, we had some initiatives for me coming in, and once I got here, there's a few more that I've added on, and I've jumped in headfirst. So, I feel like I'm making some differences in a short time here.
Justin McCord
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, I think one of the primary trends that I have observed in your background is that your time here at RKD, this is the third company that you've worked at in your career. And that is incredibly uncommon in this sector and, broadly, just like, within our generation. So, the three companies in some close to 30 years: that's rare. And that is where you are definitely a trend -bucker. So, what excited you? Why this opportunity? What was it about this that you felt like it was the right time for a new challenge?
Matt DiBenedetti
Yeah. Well, let me start. When I stayed with my former organizations for longer periods of time, it's largely due to personal growth. They kept challenging me, and I kept growing, and I kept learning, and that was just exciting to begin with. So, I was able to not only help the organizations, but everything I was learning I could apply in the future. And that's what brought me to where I am today, where I was previously at a hyper-growth agency, I wore a lot of hats, and I learned about technology, and personalization, and media networks and tactics, and approaches for optimization, and coming to nonprofit, or to be able to support fundraising specifically, it just seems that this space can benefit from everything that I've learned. I feel that, you know, there's been approaches that have been in nonprofit for so long and not much has changed. Where a lot of my experience came from is the commercial space and in the commercial agency space. And there's been a lot of investment with technology and learned approaches that have been proven to work, and I feel that I can apply them here and really make, as I mentioned, just some great impacts out of the gate. And that's really what interested me here. I feel like I can come here and truly make a difference, not only for our clients, but just in this space at large.
Ronnie Richard
So, thinking about that, what you've seen in the commercial space, what you're seeing in the nonprofit space now, what is it about your approach to creative and how you think about creative that's … what are you bringing that's different, that you're seeing here now that you've had a few months to observe?
Matt DiBenedetti
Yeah, yeah, that's a great question. I think everything, there's several approaches that add up to the overall solution, but everything is all about data. It's, everything is founded in data. And that's what everything is built off of. First of all, you want to start with best practices, right? And best practices is a term you hear all over and every agency say, you know, say they have best practices, but are those practices based in data?
Proven techniques and approaches that work in different verticals and different channels―once those are documented, you train your teams on those, and then you truly apply those best practices. For instance, our documented best practices will outperform any creative, any standard creative, just by giving us that chance to audit what you have and refresh it based on those data-tested best practices.
So that's the first foundation. The second is―and you're probably starting to hear this more and more coming out of RKD―it's all around personalization, right? It's content relevancy; you only have split seconds to make an impact. Donors, and consumers and audiences are just overwhelmed with information coming their way across the different channels, on their phones, just from everyone. With that limited time, how are you going to make your creative and content messaging relate to a particular individual? How are you going to capture their attention?
So what you need to do is first define specifically who are you speaking to. So, we're not just speaking to a one-size-fits-all audience anymore. We want to define specific audiences, understand who they are, analyze the data on who they are so that you can, in turn, resonate with that audience. And this is, you're just getting me excited here because this is … there's a general approach; it's the signs behind the scenes that really help support us here where, as you're developing that content for each particular audience, you wanna relate to those audiences both on an emotional level as well as a rational level. We each think from both sides of our brain. So you need to develop that key messaging based on what you understand of that audience that's going to relate with each individual. And then ...
These approaches will help determine the overall strategic angles that you can take in those audiences that you're speaking to. For instance, the different audiences can be age-based, they can be donor-interest-based, they can be based on their past actions or even weather and location. You're going to speak to each one of those audiences separately. I'm going to keep rolling here because this is the whole linear track here.
Justin McCord
It is. It's definitely a linear track. Keep going, man.
Matt DiBenedetti
You're free to stop me if you have any questions. So now you're engaging with these audiences with content that's going to relate to them. But this industry is very channel-centric where today, where even you see agencies and even the nonprofit organizations themselves are very siloed, where …
Ronnie Richard
Yeah, yeah, keep going.
Matt DiBenedetti
… They might submit an RFP to us, from my short time here from what I've seen, just for direct mail or just for digital and email channels, where we need to think about our channels holistically from an omnichannel perspective, how they're going to support one another.
Because as you're speaking with these donors and you're engaging with them, you want to engage where they want to be reached and follow their experience as well across channels. So I urge any nonprofit organizations that are sending out RFPs, think about it to us and to the world. Think about really omnichannel approaches versus just that single channel because they truly do need to work together.
Justin McCord
I think there are two things that come to mind as you're sharing that, Matt. One, I had this picture come to mind over the weekend that speaks to that channel hold that we have within the sector and how that relates to RFPs and/or just broad fundraising decision making that occurs right now in the space.
And for me, this mental picture was, you know, we as an organization may be at point A, and point B is the destination that we're trying to get to. But because there's such a channel hold, it's like, if I had a destination that I wanted to get to, but I demanded that Uber only use blue cars to get me there, and I'm only interested in a blue car. And Uber is saying, no, no, no, like, here are the cars that are from least amount to most amount within your budget, or here are the cars that offer different features. Like, don't worry about the color, but I'm so fixated on the color in the same way that, many times, we get so fixated on the channel as being the vehicle to get from A to B, and it's not necessarily the channel. Like, that's a lot of the trappings that we're stuck in.
As someone who is arguably just as much engineer as creative, how do you change someone's perspective on wanting just blue cars and instead say, no, no, no, let's talk about what's the right vehicle to get you from point A to point B?
Matt DiBenedetti
Yeah, yeah, it's a really good example you gave with the Uber because it's around audience, right? They've generated a model to appeal to different audiences, and that's exactly what we're doing. And I think the proof to be able to change the mindset of this ecosystem is proving it out. Again, it's data-based. It's … take your traditional channel set creative, and then compare that to an Omni-channel, audience-approach creative, and, and, and it's, it's testing; it's, it's … you're proving it out with the data testing.
So it's these case studies that we're bringing forward to really prove out that this truly does work. Now, I don't want to say that any channel doesn't work by itself. There are specific cases where you may need single channels, but truly, the channels working together support one another, and I've seen it through the commercial landscape on how it works, but you can't take just my word for it. You need to see the proof. And our clients are going to need to see the proof that the audience-led, omnichannel approach truly does work. And go ahead. Go ahead.
Justin McCord
All right, so, Matt, have you ever read and/or watched “Moneyball”?
Matt DiBenedetti
Yeah, yeah, yep.
Justin McCord
All right, so if I make a “Moneyball” reference, that's not gonna, like, you're not just gonna blink at me. All right.
Matt DiBenedetti
No, no, it's a great movie. And again, they use data, right?
Justin McCord
What was I was gonna say? Like, do you feel like Jonah Hill's character?
Matt DiBenedetti
Funny that you say that.
Justin McCord
Like, because you're―and look, I just love the creative process. I love seeing creativity come to life. I understand everything you're saying, but I'm still drawn to, ‘What's the message that resonates with me as a decision maker?’ And sometimes that gets in the way of me making the right decisions for, like, a broader expression into a market. Like, so it feels very much like a “Moneyball” kind of moment. And you're a Jonah Hill type of character walking into this thing.
Matt DiBenedetti
Yeah. Yeah, it's also a convergence, right? So we're talking about, data-led technology is finally here. It's robust. It's cost effective to use now. We think about the way we're developing creative differently. You're seeing this, where the approaches that we use are about developing templates now as opposed to an individual creative, a template that is highly adaptable for every situation. You can't think of templates as a bad thing. Templates are a great thing because they allow the ability to use dynamic content; it’s adaptable to every scenario, every audience. With that dynamic content, it automatically builds templates.
This enables, this data-centric approach enables a lot of benefits. It's going to enable production efficiencies, right? So that it's going to reflect actually what it costs for our clients to produce content at larger, at a greater scale. So they're going to see costs get reduced. They're going to see speed to market being a factor as well where, when you're working in this data-centric model where you're developing multitudes of content for audiences, you're working in, essentially, a content matrix versus building each creative individually. So that's where you're saving costs, but you're also getting, getting to market faster because you can immediately upload content and push, push out that content dynamically. So, time speed to market.
And then there's the optimization piece as well. And we didn't even talk about that. When you're in this data-build, creative model, you can start employing tactics such as rapid optimization, where you can put multitudes of content into the market at the same time using DCO technologies, where for each audience, you might want to test ten different―let's make it simple―ten different headlines, or ten different backgrounds or combinations of that with different CTAs, and so on, against, maybe, four different audiences. And then, once this creative is put into market, the technology can auto remove any underperforming creative―that if it performs, if certain creative is not performing, it's going to automatically improve or automatically leave the highest performing creative in market. And that's just going to allow dollars for your media dollars, and so on, to be maximized.
So I think when you're asking for proof, the proof, once you employ it, it comes with time, cost, money, performance. So, it's taking that first step to prove it out really for each client.
Ronnie Richard
Really curious. So in college, I started down a track of civil engineering before I switched over into writing and journalism. And my wife is a computer engineer. So I've spent a lot of time around engineers, and Justin kind of referenced earlier, like, you speak and sound like an engineer. And I'm curious, like, did you … which were you first? Were you creative or engineer? Or did it kind of develop together in this mutual track? How did that come about for you in your path to where you are now?
Matt DiBenedetti
Yeah, I think I'm in an interesting place where I started creative, right? That has been my background since I was two years old and the artwork I used to create. But once I moved into my professional career, developing creative for clients, I had an aptitude for technology.
And actually production as well. Earlier in my career, I started supporting print production, and I was able to translate to the creatives how they needed to develop their creative to be production ready, basically. So switching that, immediately working in production, and then technology as that started evolving with digital asset management systems and workflow systems and with the internet boom, you know, putting my age out there, but I grasped that technology quickly and started seeing the benefits of implementing those technologies. I would create justification cases to be able to bring in those different systems to make work more efficient, more cost effective, less errors.
And then we moved into the ability to be able to personalize, right? And that was kind of bringing it all together, understanding the technology side of it in … I should almost say it the other way around, understanding the creative side of it, and really grasping the technology and bringing the two together, that's been my role. And that's where I've been lucky enough in this time of our world to grow up in that space and fortunately be on the cusp of it with the agencies I worked with.
Justin McCord
Who were some of the folks, who have been some of the folks through your career that have been mentors or that stand out as truly leaning in to help you grow? Like, who are some of those individuals that are on your Mount Rushmore within your career?
Matt DiBenedetti
Yeah, I think ... I hope three isn't too many. I think three come to mind immediately, actually. Let me go in chronological order for my career. There was a chief creative officer that I worked with―and this is still when I was in the design and creative side of things―where he really taught us to―when I say, “us,” me and my team―to think outside the box. Very specifically, I can think of a couple of examples where we had some nonprofit, nonprofit-based prospects that we were pitching. We had Feeding America where it was an RFP that we responded to, and everything's going digital, right? And we said, let's go traditional approach here. Let's send them something in the mail. We made these elaborate kits that we sent in a mail-in response to our RFP where we got canvas bags that you would, like potato sacks. And we stuffed our response in that. And anyway, so the takeaway is, he had us thinking outside the box, no matter what we were doing, from pitching all the way through execution. So, I took a lot of those thinking-outside-the-box moments from this individual.
You were, you made a comment about my technology aptitude, and my executive creative director at my last job, who I reported to, really put a lot of trust in me to advance the technology. It's coming up with solutions. We saw industry challenges, and, and she allowed me to figure it out, basically, and build a story around how we were going to go to market, around the operationalizing process, and reducing cost and things that resonated loudly in the market. How could we get this creative to perform better using content solutions, and so on? So I had a lot of trust from her.
And then I think the most recent example, somebody that you all know, Chris Pritchard. I worked with him at my previous agency as well. And he led strategy, and I led a large creative team, and we had to come up with a solution for this emerging industry. And most people, if I say it, don't even know what it is, but it's retail media networks, where retail media networks came on the scene seven years ago or so and became this huge industry, and nobody knew how it could work. The short story of what it is, just for anybody if they don't know: If you think about any retailer, they have data on everybody, right? Anybody who shops there, that they would essentially act as their own media organization and be able to target very specifically you and you based on the products that you used to shop for. So in this space, particularly, we had to support hundreds of clients that would be advertising with each media network and produce thousands of ads on a monthly basis. And how do you support that kind of volume? And we had to figure it out. And I worked with Chris, and he trusted me here, as well, to develop that creative scenario. I don't know. I think it was mutual respect. I learned a lot about Chris and his approaches for personalization, and relevancy and so on. And then, tactically, I would bring that to life. So I looked at him as some inspiration as well.
Ronnie Richard
I’m curious, Matt, when you need to come up with a new idea or something innovative, what is, like, your go-to process? Because every creative has a way that they can escape from all the day-to-day stuff, and brainstorm and come up with new, fresh ideas. Like, what's your process for that?
Matt DiBenedetti
Yeah, I ... It's interesting. I don't think I've ever been asked this question, but before I do anything, I put on a soundtrack station. I stream music while I'm working, music that's going to inspire me. And it's usually movie soundtracks, so just instrumental, something that really gets you going. Yeah, music score.
Ronnie Richard
John Williams, some Hans Zimmer.
Matt DiBenedetti
Absolutely. You get it, right? And they go all day long. And in fact, if we weren't talking right now, they would be on. But that sets the foundation for my creativity. And then I will take the challenge and write it down in my own words. So, I bring up a Word document and start putting all of the challenges and all the pieces together and then distill that and think through the process of how I want to bring this to life. So it's ... I write in my spare time, so to be able to visualize it, then I will take that outline and usually move that to something visual, a visual application, and then build it out from there. So, if it's a presentation in PowerPoint―I tell every story with a PowerPoint. I'm surprised I'm not using one right now, if you gave me some time here ... Or a design application to bring a creative to life, and then ... God, there's really so much to it. And then there's developing the content. There's tools that I have built and turned onto my teams as well to be able to develop content. It's tools to ask yourself questions. So, ask yourself questions, come up with those answers. If you think about it, it's kind of like a personal creative brief. So, ask yourself questions. Maybe it's audience questions, or whatever it may be, and then break those answers, and then extract the headlines and things like that out of that. So it's quite a creative process, but it's funny, I've never asked anybody the question, and I'd be curious to see other people's answers to that response. But I'm sure it always starts with music in the background.
Justin McCord
Very common, very common. Well, listen, Matt, we're thrilled, one, that you're a part of our team, so, you know, love that you have transitioned into this space and that you're bringing a new rigor of self-reflection and architecture to the way that we're connecting with donors across the many clients that we work with. So, good on you for answering the call, whenever it came.
Matt DiBenedetti
Thank you. I appreciate it. I'm excited to be here at RKD, and I'm excited for everything that I'm looking forward to bringing to each and every one of our clients. I'm looking forward to just the, really even the short term more than anything because we're gonna change this industry, and there's just so much potential to be able to help everybody, and the next six months, I think, just as I get out there and start speaking to our clients, it's, we're going to flip the script overnight. So I'm really looking forward to it. So thank you very much for your time as well.
Justin McCord
Totally agree. All right, man, we'll catch up down the road.
Matt DiBenedetti
Take care.
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