Brendan Keevers

General Manager/Head of Digital Performance

Leading Digital Performance in McCann for over 2 years, Brendan has now joined Smart to provide his knowledge on a broader scope. Brendan has worked in the industry from a ground-up background for over 15 years starting out in graphic design and signage where he learnt the art of communication to direct physical behaviours. Over time, he has transferred that knowledge through digital platforms with a firm ability in IT and how people interact with digital platforms in their everyday lives.

Brendan looks for efficiencies in digital interactions and communications in how organisations direct the flow of their users and also how the digital landscape facilitates this interaction. Technology today is being more integrated into common life where historically technology there was a clear input/output transaction, however, now more than ever, technology is working with us in an ongoing relationship and at a pace that is often faster than we can adopt it.

Where Brendan operates is within this landscape, using his vast knowledge of digital mediums and human interaction to provide sound direction and strategic advice to better these interactions and clarify the communication. This is the trend of large tech firms now looking to create digital solutions for physical problems, automation and also AI+Machine learning integration.

Over the course of his career, Brendan has worked within Digital, Strategy, Design and IT with a sole focus around eCommerce and information value-exchange with a strong focus on conversion optimisations and using digital mediums within marketing to achieve organisational goals.

Brendan has worked across many major Australian brands in delivering successful digital media driven solutions to maximise any project he’s been a part of. He understands the relationship that modern people have with digital media to create spaces where creativity can thrive and build on the ever-changing landscape that digital interaction evolves. Brendan has worked with University of Melbourne, Melbourne Airport, HiSmile Teeth, Muscle Nation, Navitas, Menulog, Movember to name a few.

Projects

University of Melbourne Recruitment through SEM

What we did

We took this opportunity to wipe the slate again and rebuild the account for a second time in year 2. This wasn't a light undertaking, but we took it upon our remit to rebuild it again with a whole review of their data from year 1. Where we learnt here was that we had to build and then rebuild again where we maximised the best opportunity to get maximum results. This was also fast-tracked due to the COVID-19 pandemic, where 9-12 months work needed to be delivered within a 6 month period in order to capture the volume that was needed within this medium while advertising sensitivities where required.

The University of Melbourne had over 10 faculties, each with its own requirements and idiosyncrasies individual to each faculty, then some faculties with 10 or more key courses that required their own individual settings themselves. This took the account from year one of approximately 200 campaigns, to double the size of just under 400 campaigns. Further to this, the ad groups went from 400 to 2000 to match our planned approach.

Why did we do this? This is because we understood the requirements needed by the client and we didn't sweat the hard stuff. Without looking to make shortcuts on our behalf, we could see the approach needed through strong data analysis, and we planned a solid execution process and executed efficiently and with precision each step of the way.

Why it’s smart

McCann/Smart worked in SEM with The University of Melbourne for 2 years. Within the first year, the Search team grew Completed Applications by +443%. In the second year, this grew again by another +377%. This account over the 2 years that we worked with them had an overall growth of completed applications through SEM by +1,493%, yes, you read that correctly.

SMART is ready.

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