Benoît Schildknecht (SKEMA 2010), Digital Marketing Senior Director, Dassault Systèmes

Hello Benoît, could you tell us a bit about your background?

Of course! While at SKEMA, I spent my placement year working in sales at P&G and was hired by the company right after graduating. I spent six years there in different sales positions. It was there that I became aware of the growing role of e-commerce and digital marketing. After P&G, I decided to change career directions, to the digital world.

I joined Rocket Internet and the Jumia adventure, an e-commerce platform aiming to be the Amazon of Africa. I spent two and a half years with them in Morocco, learning the different e-commerce roles while adapting this model to the local market. It was a very entrepreneurial experience.

I then joined Groupon, the fifth largest e-commerce site in France back then. There, I was in charge of the department managing national offers.

Since 2018, I've been with Dassault Systèmes. First, I worked in London, where I launched the marketplace offers connecting our customers to each other across their different business lines. Right now, I'm in charge of Digital Marketing worldwide and based in Vélizy.

What were the key moments in your career that enabled you to advance in the field of digital marketing?

Every position I've held has taught me valuable lessons. At P&G, I gained a solid grounding and learned to work in a structured environment. The Rocket Internet/Jumia experience was particularly enriching and entrepreneurial, allowing me to adapt e-commerce to a new market. At Dassault Systèmes, I had to adjust my methods for a BtoB environment where the cycles are longer and the products more complex.

What are your main responsibilities in your role as Digital Marketing Senior Director at Dassault Systèmes?

Dassault Systèmes operates in a variety of sectors (manufacturing, life sciences, construction) on a global scale. The role of my digital marketing teams is to ensure that digital campaigns are properly executed in line with the objectives of each marketing programme, while maintaining a consistent user journey.

We use a range of tactics, such as SEO, SEA, social media, online media displays, programmatic marketing, and ABM. The ultimate aim is to raise the profile of our products and acquire new customers.

What have been the greatest challenges in your career and how did your studies at SKEMA prepare you to meet them?

Thinking outside the box has been key in my career, and SKEMA really helped me in that respect. The diversity of educational projects, professors, associations and students helped me to develop that skill further. In the corporate world, every new position comes with its own set of inherited processes and dogmas. Sometimes it’s hard to tell yourself that you can do things differently. Thinking outside the box can challenge this status quo and help the teams, missions and company to grow. The key is to use it tactfully and sparingly, and not to change everything all the time.

You're a graduate of the Class of 2010. Why did you choose SKEMA for your Master's degree?

I’m going to sound like an old man, but I actually joined ESC Lille 😊. I chose that school mainly during the admissions period: the atmosphere was good, the city was welcoming, and the students seemed to thrive there more than in the other schools I visited. When I look at SKEMA's rankings today, I feel like I bet on the right horse 😉.

What did you enjoy most about your time at SKEMA and what is your fondest memory?

Those years are unforgettable, with many wonderful memories. You have to live them to the full. I was lucky enough to preside over the Student Union (Esc'alibar, yes, we dared). It was an incredible, enriching adventure with the other members of the team, the associations, the professors, the Communications Department (hello Mr. Mendolia 😊) and the school’s management. The role also came with responsibilities: managing large budgets, opening the Kfèt coffee bar every day, student safety, the orientation weekend, helping the other associations, ongoing discussions with the school’s management, etc.

My fondest memory: the closing ceremony of our Student Union year. We received a spontaneous and heartfelt show of appreciation from almost 800 people in the main lecture hall in Lille. It was an unforgettable moment.

A funny anecdote: I was a member of the Board of Directors when the CERAM/ESC Lille merger that led to the creation of SKEMA was finalised, so my signature will be on the SKEMA Business School merger documents forever!

What technical and soft skills are essential to succeed in digital marketing?

Digital marketing is all the rage, but it's a very specific profession. In my opinion, the profiles that have a more or less high level of the following qualities are the ones that do best in this area:

• • Data-driven
• A very strong interest in technology and its evolutions
• An understanding of probabilistic models
• An understanding of user journeys/buying processes and the implications for the choice of marketing activities
• Good communication skills to evangelise digital marketing within your company, especially in large organisations or those driven by “offline” methods
• And in specialised fields like search marketing, there's also a balance to be struck between a love of maths and a love of semantics.

Finally, I often tell my teams that to get into digital marketing, you have to enjoy doing thankless tasks. If you're not prepared to change 300 meta tags or review 200 Google taglines in a day, you probably won’t like this job. Let me reassure you: AI and low-code/no-code technologies are making it easier and easier for us.

How do you make sure you are up to date with the latest trends and technologies in digital marketing?

Let's face it, it's complicated. We often make major changes based on the KPIs of the moment, following current trends and technologies. However, as markets, technology and methods evolve, it's difficult to keep up with these changes.

To stay competitive, focus on your end-users. What is true one year may not be true a few years later. Keep your finger on the pulse: read the trade press, attend events, stay connected to influential people and your customers. Take an interest in other markets, even if they're far removed from yours. Use agile, well-integrated tools from the outset, so you can adapt to change. Talk to your peers, your SKEMA network and your former colleagues.

A word of advice: as the vast majority of your business will be done through Google, follow John Mueller on X.

How do you encourage innovation and creativity within your team?

Don't restrict your teams. I stick to my motto: "They didn’t know it was impossible, so they did it."

Listen to them, in informal settings too: chatting at the coffee machine, in the corridors or over lunch.

Train them for the future. If you're convinced that a technology like AI is going to revolutionise your business, get your teams to familiarise themselves with it and play around with it. I guarantee they'll find the best ways to use it.

What role do you think emerging technologies (like AI and augmented reality) will play in digital marketing?

Digital marketing is just one means of marketing. The basis of marketing is market segmentation. The more accurately you segment your market and the more you are able to personalise your responses, the higher your reach and conversion rates will be.

In recent years, we have mainly used data collected by third-party cookies to improve segmentation and personalisation. Today, with the end of cookies in sight and the arrival of AI, we’re having us to reinvent ourselves.

I believe that the future will be turned on its head by the arrival of quantum technology in hardware. Thanks to this, combined with AI and data, we will be able to offer each user a unique, personalised experience in real time. So, digital marketing has a bright future ahead.

Do you have any advice for our students and/or recent graduates?

Travel, discover different professions, take risks in your professional life, especially in the beginning. This will enrich your career.

Do you have a motto/mantra to share?

Good ideas without good execution are an illusion.