Anthony Del Rio, Dan Taylor, Ian Golamco.
Enero Group’s digital agency Orchard has hired Anthony Del Rio to lead a new experimentation practice focused on data-driven testing for marketing campaigns.
Del Rio joins from EssenceMediacom, where he was experimentation director, to help formalise what Orchard describes as five years of internal testing methodology into a client service offering.
He has held roles as a senior strategy consultant at Deloitte, and has worked at brands including Samsung, Carnival Australia and Time Inc.
The agency is positioning the practice as a way for clients to test marketing concepts and digital experiences before full rollouts, using statistical analysis to measure effectiveness and reduce investment risk.
"For too long, agencies have pressured clients to be brave without giving them the tools to back it up," said Mikaela Crimmins, chief strategy officer at Orchard.
"The pace of change right now is downright gnarly, but instead of freezing with 'what should I do,' our experimentation practice is helping clients learn fast, fail fast, and adapt faster."
Del Rio will work alongside Dan Taylor, Orchard's director of data, insights and analytics, who developed the agency's testing approaches over the past five years. The team includes specialists in business strategy, behavioural science and statistical modelling.
Orchard has achieved Gold Solution Partner status with testing platform Optimizely, which provides the technical infrastructure for running controlled experiments across websites, mobile apps and marketing campaigns.
"We're taking hunches and hypotheses and turning them into clear, testable pathways to growth," Taylor said. "It's innovation with guardrails and we're seeing incredible results."
The practice is already working with clients including Hyundai, Tourism Tasmania and Beyond Bank to test different approaches to customer experience, website design and marketing messaging before broader implementation.
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