DATA

MANAGEMENT
PLATFORMS
Using Big Data to Power
Marketing Performance
MAY 2013
Lauren T. Fisher
Contributors: David Hallerman, Tracy Tang, Mitchel Winkels

Read this on
eMarketer for iPad
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Important Priorities for Future Data Management
Platform (DMP) Support According to US Marketing
Professionals, Sep 2012
Theres a big to-do about Big Data and data % of respondents
management platforms (DMPs) in the digital
Customer insight development 93%
advertising space. From audience targeting to
Targeted media buying 90%
cross-platform measurement and attribution, DMPs
Campaign/channel attribution 86%
enable marketers to use their Big Data to make
Multichannel integration & optimization 84%
smarter and more efficient marketing decisions.
Emerging channel deployment 84%

But like any new trend, buzz currently surpasses expert Channel optimization 83%

adoption and usage. Brands are using Big Data to build a CRM program optimization 76%
holistic picture of their potential and real customers and Creative content optimization 73%
then target those users, but many still find it challenging
Site content optimization 69%
to extract cross-channel insight from that data.
Advertising yield optimization 59%

For now it seems most brands have access to DMPs Note: respondents include advertisers, marketers, publishers, technology
developers and marketing service providers
through their programmatic inventory providers, like Source: Winterberry Group and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), "The
demand-side platforms (DSPs) or ad exchanges. Because Data Management Platform: Foundation for Right-Time Customer
Engagement," Nov 12, 2012
of this, the majority of DMP use comes in the form of 153583 www.eMarketer.com
audience targeting. But the real value of DMPs is their
ability to provide a more strategic view of digital or
cross-platform performance. Though marketers are just
beginning to use them for this purpose, many are already
hopeful DMP usage will yield real-time campaign insights.
CONTENTS
KEY QUESTIONS 3 Data, Todays Digital Advertising Currency
7 Targeting
What are Big Data and DMPs?
10 Digital and Cross-Platform Attribution
How are marketers using DMPs for
12 eMarketer Interviews
audience targeting?
13 Related eMarketer Reports
How are publishers using DMPs for audience 13 Related Links
targeting?
13 Editorial and Production Contributors
How are marketers using DMPs for digital and
cross-platform attribution?

How are DMPs different from CRM platforms?

DATA MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS: USING BIG DATA TO POWER MARKETING PERFORMANCE 2013 EMARKETER INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2
 DATA: TODAYS DIGITAL To address the Big Data surplus and begin to convert this
currency into actionable results for digital advertising and
ADVERTISING CURRENCY future marketing initiatives, many marketers are looking
to DMPs.
Nearly every action taken in the digital space requires
data input and results in data output, putting
a massive amount of information at marketers BIG DATA
disposal. Data is the currency of todays digital
The high value placed on data in todays advertising
advertising ecosystem, and everything from media
ecosystem has heightened focus on Big Data: a
planning to analyticsand every campaign execution catch-all phrase that describes any data or information
in betweenruns on it. a company collects on its audience, customers or
users. A very general term, Big Data can refer to
Columbia Business School and New York American first-party customer information, third-party audience
Marketing Association (NYAMA) found 91% of US data, offline purchase data, online advertising behavioral
marketers surveyed believed successful brands used data data, campaign analytics and much more. Alone, each
to drive marketing decisions. of these data assets describes some aspect of a users
actions, interests and intent. When combined, they
But research suggests this is no easy task. Ziff Davis become Big Data.
found 49% of companies polled worldwide had enacted
a data management strategy as of fall 2012, and According to Dr. Mark Grether, COO of Xaxis, GroupMs
according to a survey from IT staffing service Robert Half agency trading desk, Big Data typically falls into
Technology, just 23% of US chief information officers three categories:
(CIOs) said they were collecting customer data such
as demographic information or buying habits. Of that First-party data. This is any information the advertiser
small percentage, less than half (46%) reported having or company owns and collects, for example, customer
the resources or systems to analyze the information relationship management (CRM) data, in-store sales
they gathered. data or advertising campaign data. First-party data is
the foundation for any audience insight, analysis and
attribution and is the cornerstone of any Big Data strategy.
Collection of Customer Data and the Use of the Data
to Generate Strategic Reports and Insights According
to US CIOs, Nov 2012 Third-party data. This is any information purchased from
% of respondents a data reseller or provider, most commonly in the form
of cookies. Companies like BlueKai, Bizo and eXelate
Don't are common third-party data providers. Such cookie data
know
2% could be demographic in nature; it could be psychographic
Yes or even behavioral. This information is commonly used
46%
No in campaign targeting, identifying additional prospects
53%
Don't and enhancing campaign analytics. Data can be either
know Yes
2% native to digital (for example, from ecommerce sites or
23%
Companies that have
publishers) or from a traditional data source (for example,
sufficient resources customer loyalty data or offline purchase data). Any
to utilize** the data
they collect advertiser or publisher can rent this data, so it is not
No
76% uncommon for many companies to be using the same
set of cookies to power their audience targeting or other
display advertising efforts.
Companies that
collect customer data*
Note: *email addresses, demographics, buying habits, etc.; **have a
technology team with sufficient personnel to access and generate strategic
reports and insights from the customer data they collect
Source: Robert Half Technology as cited in press release, Jan 24, 2013
150952 www.eMarketer.com

DATA MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS: USING BIG DATA TO POWER MARKETING PERFORMANCE 2013 EMARKETER INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 3
Second-party data. This is any information that display
ad inventory providers such as a DSP, ad exchange,
agency trading desk or supply-side platform (SSP) owns.
All of these inventory providers and sellers collect data,
which they make available to companies using their
services. For example, advertisers using a DSP to execute
their display ad buys can have access to any number of
user cookies or ad placements across the DSPs network
of partners. Companies that do not use one of these
services would not be privy to second-party data.
Grether also noted another data type that companies
could include in their data management strategy.
Referred to as external data, this category included
other information sets that can be tied in to determine
causal relationships and ad performancesuch as the
weather, financial trends and current events. For example,
a financial investment firm might track stock market
fluctuations to determine the effect on new account
sign-ups. What is different about this information is that it
does not pertain to any one individual or user.
Bear in mind that hundreds, if not thousands, of data
assets can fit into each of the categories mentioned
above. As a result, marketers have the potential to include
just as many datapoints in their Big Data strategies.
However, most marketers agree that when it comes to
Big Data, bigger isnt always better.
Its not Big Data that were interested in, said Troy
Lerner, president of Booyah Advertising, an ad agency
that recently built is own agency trading desk. Its fresh
data and first-party data. Thats what we want.
Determining which data is right for a Big Data plan is only
one step toward converting those assets into actionable
insight. Companies must then organize and standardize
the information into meaningful segments.
It can prove challenging to integrate disparate sets of
data coming from social media, campaign analytics,
offline sources or third parties. In fact, Big Data solution
provider Infochimps surveyed IT professionals in North
America, and 83% of respondents said processing such
information was a leading Big Data challenge, followed
by managing the information (42%) and analyzing the
data (41%).
DATA MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS: USING BIG DATA TO POWER MARKETING PERFORMANCE 2013 EMARKETER INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 4
Leading Big Data Challenges According to IT
Professionals in North America, 2012
% of respondents
Processing the data
83%
Ongoing management of the data
42%
Analyzing the data
41%
Source: Infochimps, "CIOs & Big Data," Feb 6, 2013
152611 www.eMarketer.com
The one thing thats so difficult about Big Data is that
at the end of the day, its about those big insights, said
Sean Muzzy, CEO of Neo@Ogilvy. People want those
key nuggets that, having all of this data in one place, you
can actually uncover.
To uncover those insights by organizing, processing and
analyzing this data, most marketers are turning to DMPs.
For more on how marketers are using Big Data
for ecommerce, please see eMarketers May 2012
report, How Retailers Are Leveraging Big Data to
Personalize Ecommerce.
DMPS
If data is the currency of digital marketing, then the DMP
is the bank. Big Data is stored and standardized here so
that each data asset can be tied to a particular customer
or audience segment. Once standardized, marketers
can use that information to power multiple functions,
both within digital and across a companys broader
marketing program.
The DMP is really a central nervous system that allows
you to compile all of these data sources and turn them
into a meaningful set of [audience] segments that you can
use for multiple purposes, said Tim Waddell, director of
product marketing for AudienceManager, Adobes DMP.
Waddells analogy highlights both the uniqueness of a
DMP as well as its place within the ad tech ecosystem.
As he states, a core use of the DMP is to organize and
house a variety of data sourcesa function thats not
much different from other marketing databases like a
CRM system, analytics tool or call center database.
As the primary repository for customer data, one might
assume a database such as a CRM system would
suffice for Big Data. But CRM tools are only capable of
housing certain sets of customer information and data
and in limited amounts. What sets a DMP apart is its
ability to house a much larger and broader spectrum of
information. Marketers use DMPs to integrate information
from all marketing databases, including a CRM system, in
addition to many other data sources.
DMPs can house both structured data, typically
quantitative in nature, as well as unstructured data, often
qualitative in naturefor example, social network data.
Once all of these disparate sources are entered, DMPs
can standardize them to build a larger, more descriptive
picture of a customer or audience base marketers can
act on.
The DMP is fundamentally different in that it allows
us to generate a much broader view of the consumer
journey than most digital technologies would have access
to, said Richard Lloyd, Xaxis data management platform
director. In an ad server, for example, you might only
see a subset of the total volume of events a consumer is
participating in. The DMP gives us a complete history of
that journey that we can use to really understand which
components of that journey are actually driving value from
an engagement or conversion perspective.
The DMPs central role within the advertising technology
ecosystem makes it possible to act on this audience
intelligence in a variety of ways. It is one of the few
technologies that integrate with nearly every other
system required to execute and track digital advertising
programs: marketing automation, CRM systems, ad
servers, dynamic content servers, email marketing tools,
attribution tools, ad verification software and much more.
This positions the DMP as the furnace of the digital ad
enginea capability that has only been leveraged within
the past couple of years.
Eighteen months ago, a DMP was just a big box sucking
in data, said Mark Zagorski, CEO of data provider
eXelate. Now you have two branches emerging: There
are data marketing platforms, which allow us to activate
all of that data for targeting and more efficient ad delivery,
and then theres the data analytics side, which allows
us to use the data to better inform online and offline
marketing decisions.
DATA MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS: USING BIG DATA TO POWER MARKETING PERFORMANCE 2013 EMARKETER INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 5
For more about the DMPs place within the digital
advertising ecosystem, please see our October 2012 report,
eMarketers Guide to the Digital Advertising Ecosystem:
Mapping the Display Advertising Purchase Paths and
Ad-Serving Process.
Its important to note that though DMPs in a general
sense can have both capabilities, not all have the same
set of functions. Many of the DMPs used to power
programmatic ad buying and selling platforms like DSPs
and SSPs, for example, are primarily used for display
ad targeting. Today, the majority of marketers are likely
accessing a DMP through these inventory sources.
Not many publishers or advertisers are using standalone
DMPs, said Grether. I think that will shift as brands and
publishers become more familiar with the space and
understand those DSPs and SSPs only offer some of the
functionality that a full DMP can.
Standalone DMP providers, or those that build their own
DMPs to power an agency trading desk, would likely build
in additional functions beyond targeting. For example,
many incorporate attribution capabilities to tie in data from
other ad formats and channels.
Because of this, Laurent Colard, global managing partner
at GroupM, sees DMP functionality as more of a T-shape
vs. two distinct branches.
The base of the T pertains to the digital function of
the DMP. Here lies the ability to track and analyze
that cookie-level data within digital for the purpose of
identifying individual audience insights. Thats where
the traditional definition of the DMP falls, Colard said.
Its very, very narrow but goes extremely deep and
is extremely actionable because you can tie it back to
trading decisions and targeting decisions, as well as
individual cookies.
On top of that sits a broader function of the DMP, the
ability to provide what Colard calls a 360-degree view
of all communication channels and all measures of
success, with or without an individual user-level view.
Such a function is used for cross-platform analysis and
attribution modeling.
If you think about the 360-degree broad view of our
clients business, the primary use cases around [the
DMP] are the ability to do cross-channel attribution, he
explained. After that, its the ability to do fact-based
budget setting and fact-based allocation of media across
those channels. When youre talking about channels for
which there are highly trackable, digital data, the use
case for the DMP then turns more into digital attribution
and segmentation.
Findings from a Radar Research survey further supported
the concept of using a DMP for both targeting and
larger campaign analytics. The research firm found that
beyond the obvious expectation of increased return on
investment for DMP use, 55% of marketers worldwide
used a DMP to better target using online and offline data;
46% used it to drive audience analytics.
Lloyd also cited targeting and analytics or attribution as
the two main use cases of the DMP. He bucketed them
into what he referred to as forward- and rearward-facing
use cases.
Targeting and audience segmentation falls into the
forward-facing bucket. The rearward-facing bucket
contains analytics and attribution, used to understand
why consumers took a certain customer journey and
how the advertising and marketing they were exposed
to influenced that journey. This particular use case is less
common and a bit more difficult to execute, particularly
when looking to uncover cross-platform effects.

Reasons for Using a Data Management Platform

(DMP) According to Marketers Worldwide, Nov 2012
% of respondents
To drive higher ROI
64%
To more effectively centralize, organize and leverage own (or
client's) first-party online and offline audience data for targeting
60%
To create a targeting profile of audience
55%
To drive audience analytics
46%
To house all audience data in a centralized location where
multiple partners can log on
28%
To automate more of the ad planning and buying process
25%
To extend audience
24%
To increase campaign scale
21%
To optimize ad creative
19%
To control ad costs
18%
To ensure compliance with data collection and privacy
regulations
15%
To keep up with competitors now using a DMP
3%
Other
2%

Note: n=67
Source: Radar Research, "Data Management Platforms" commissioned by
BlueKai, Dec 4, 2012
148580 www.eMarketer.com

DATA MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS: USING BIG DATA TO POWER MARKETING PERFORMANCE 2013 EMARKETER INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 6
 TARGETING
Xaxis Lloyd considers targeting a forward-facing
function given its active, direct use of audience data.
What were trying to do is use the data within the
DMP to predict future consumer behavior by putting
them into some kind of demographic or interest
category, he said. That kind of segmentation and
targeting use case is pretty well established.
Data from eXelate supports that statement. According to
the firms April 2013 study, nearly 94% of agencies and
83% of advertisers in the US used audience targeting.
US Ad Agencies, Advertisers and Ad Platforms that
Use Audience Targeting in Their Digital Display Ads,
April 2013
% of respondents
Agencies
Ad platforms (networks/exchanges/DSPs)
Advertisers
Source: eXelate, "State of the Industry," April 22, 2013
156461 www.eMarketer.com
The DMPs ability to take all of that Big Data from
first-, second- and third-party sources and organize it into
meaningful audience segments makes it an ideal tool for
audience targeting. This function, particularly for first- and
third-party data, was also the top reported competency
of DMPs by US marketing professionals surveyed by
Winterberry Group.
DATA MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS: USING BIG DATA TO POWER MARKETING PERFORMANCE 2013 EMARKETER INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 7
Current Core Competencies of Data Management
Platforms (DMPs) According to US Marketing
Professionals, Sep 2012
% of respondents
Integration of first- and third-party data
85%
Segmentation
79%
Digital data aggregation
77%
Audience analytics
73%
Digital data warehousing
68%
Data transfer/export to channels
60%
Modeling
57%
Integration of digital and traditional data
52%
Note: respondents include advertisers, marketers, publishers, technology
93.7% developers and marketing service providers
Source: Winterberry Group and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), "The
90.7% Data Management Platform: Foundation for Right-Time Customer
Engagement," Nov 12, 2012
82.5% 147347 www.eMarketer.com
Not only can marketers use DMPs to identify and craft
specific audience segments, for example, sports fans
or senior-level business executives, the platforms can
often identify members of these segments down to the
individual level, which is what more and more advertisers
are after.
One of the biggest discoveries we had last year as
we got more involved in the programmatic side of our
business was the realization that its not about marketers
looking to target audiences; its really about targeting
individuals at scale, said Mark Howard, senior vice
president of digital advertising strategy at Forbes.
First-party data provides the foundation for most
companies audience segmentation, given that it already
pertains to individual customers, users or prospects.
Marketers can use it to extend their reach via lookalike
targeting or to enhance their retargeting efforts.
Nearly every DMP uses first-party data. Winterberry
Group found 96% of marketers in North America polled
managed first-party behavioral data in their DMPs. An
additional 92% managed third-party behavioral data,
which is commonly used alongside first-party data
to identify similar audience segments, or lookalike
segments, across the web.
The most valuable data is your own first-party data,
said Adobes Waddell. Everything else is a way to extend
BEHAVIORAL TARGETING
your reach or refine what youve already got with your Behavioral targeting is one method used to deliver ads
first-party data, and theres real value in being able to pull to intended audience segments based on site-specific
that all together. actions or behaviors. For example, if a shoe retailer
advertising on Yahoo! recognizes one of its top-spending
There are multiple types of first-party data marketers customers for Nike running shoes reading an article on
might use to build a more holistic view of their audience. a Yahoo! sports page, the retailer can opt to show that
Research from CMO Council and SAS found several consumer ads for the latest Nike running shoe model.
common data assets marketers worldwide hoped
to incorporate as of Q1 2013. Many of the data sets Here, the DMPs ability to integrate with a dynamic
focused on sales, customer service and other first-party content system is particularly useful in that it allows
data sources. marketers to customize their ad creative based on
known audience attributes or prior user behaviors. This
lets marketers create a more relevant, personalized
Types of Data that Marketers Worldwide Would Like
experience. In the case of retargeting, it can even be
to Add to Their Customer Data Profile, Q1 2013
% of respondents used to further point an audience toward an intended
conversion action by either inserting a recently viewed
Predictive analytics around lifetime value
71%
product or an offer into the display ad creative.
Online customer profile/use profile
53%
Customer service and support feedback
45%
RETARGETING
Social media data Retargeting is another common audience targeting
42% method the DMP supports. It enables companies to
User survey and preference data recognize that a specific individual has already seen one
42% of its ads and allows them to either show the same ad to
Third-party demographic and profile data the user or a different ad based on past actions.
35%
Sales executive insights
Building on the example above, if the top-spending,
24%
Nike-buying customer does not show interest in the latest
Order history
Nike running shoe model ad, or clicks on the ad and looks
20%
at the shoe but does not buy it, the retailer can elect to
Finance/customer payment data
19% show that consumer a slightly different ad the next time
Anything is better than what we have now he or she visits a Yahoo! web property.
14%
In-store/agent exchanges For example, if the user clicked on the former Nike ad but
12% did not buy, the shoe retailer might show that consumer
a second ad with a 15% discount. Or, if he or she failed
Note: respondents who feel they are missing important datapoints to
provide a more comprehensive view of their customer to interact with the ad on the first exposure, the marketer
Source: CMO Council and SAS, "Aligning the CMO & CIO," March 28, 2013
might redisplay that ad.
154782 www.eMarketer.com

Once marketers have incorporated first-party data into
their DMPs, they have multiple targeting methods to
consider: behavioral, retargeting and lookalike.
Findings from a Radar Research study showed how
important it is for marketers to collect and use website
information for retargeting purposes. Website retargeting
data was deemed a critical data asset for marketing
efforts by 54% of marketers worldwide.

DATA MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS: USING BIG DATA TO POWER MARKETING PERFORMANCE 2013 EMARKETER INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 8

Data Assets that Are Critical to Their Marketing
Efforts According to Marketers Worldwide, Nov 2012
% of respondents
Email data
Media campaign data
Website retargeting data
Offline data 34%
Third-party audience data 34%
Mobile data 32%
22% Third-party mailing lists
Note: n=95
Source: Radar Research, "Data Management Platforms" commissioned by
BlueKai, Dec 4, 2012
148584 www.eMarketer.com
But marketers arent just interested in the actions and
activities of their known audience base. They also want
to identify new audiences in order to grow their business
and increase their brand footprint. DMPs also enable
them to do this via another form of targeting known as
lookalike targeting.
LOOKALIKE TARGETING
Lookalike targeting allows marketers to identify additional
audience members based on traits or characteristics
shared with their present audience.
To create this new audience base, marketers typically
purchase cookie data from third-party data providers
or resellers. They can then add those cookies to the
DMP so that when a user appears, the platform knows
to treat that consumer a specific way based on its
audience characteristics.
For instance, the shoe retailer above might opt to
purchase third-party data from a customer loyalty
company that has identified users who have purchased
Nike-brand products within the past six months. The
retailer can then overlay this data with additional
third-party segments that include sports fans to build
a new audience segment that mirrors the one already
present in its DMP.
DATA MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS: USING BIG DATA TO POWER MARKETING PERFORMANCE 2013 EMARKETER INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 9
Grether was quick to note that though third-party data
can provide value for tactics such as lookalike targeting,
marketers should look to validate that audience data using
ad verification tools or analytics tools. Theres this big
62%
debate about data accuracy, he said. If a data source
57%
tells you a cookie is a male, is it indeed a male? You need
54% to be able to confirm whether or not you reached your
intended audience.
PUBLISHER USE OF DMPS FOR
AUDIENCE TARGETING
Brands and agencies arent the only ones using DMPs
for greater audience intelligence. As more and more
publishers offer audience targeting and programmatic
buying options to their advertisers, they too are doing so
through DMPs.
Forbes, for instance, is using a DMP to divide its
site into distinct, trackable audience segments to
provide companies actual audience data when selling
ad inventory.
The old way of responding to RFPs was to do a
syndicated research run via comScore or any other
service that shows a general audience composition and
projected potential reach of that audience on a site, said
Forbes Howard. Advertisers dont want that anymore.
They want to know exactly who you have on your site.
Once it segmented the site, Forbes was able to track
first-party behavioral data on users activities on Forbes
properties. It then layered this data with third-party
behavioral data from sources such as Bizo and eXelate
to get an even greater sense of its audience makeup.
We can now look at each channel or section [of the site]
and say, Hey, in the last 30 or 60 days, this is the exact
composition of the audience in that area, and this was the
reach, said Howard.
He also noted that one of the biggest benefits of using
a DMP for this purpose is the ability to mix and match
attributes from multiple third-party sources to build an
even larger and more precise target audience.
A lot of people come to us looking for senior-level
decision-makers, and in the past wed use just one data
provider to target that segment across our site, he said.
By stringing together different cookies from multiple
sources, we are now much more effective at finding
the people our advertisers want and can offer them that
audience with much greater scale within Forbes.
And, because the DMP is able to analyze and process
ad performance resulting from such targeting and
placements, Forbes can now offer advertisers
midcampaign analytics. We do a midway and then
post-campaign analysis of the data overlays to be able to
tell our clients things like 57% of the people exposed to
their advertising in our CIO section actually carried an IT
job function, he said.
One of the additional benefits to Forbes of using a DMP
for both creating audiences and analyzing them against ad
performance is its ability to identify new target audiences
that could be of value to advertisers. Howard offered
one example in which the DMP revealed that an auto
advertisers campaign was seeing a high response rate
among what he labeled luxury travel contenders. Forbes
was then able to go back to the auto advertiser and share
this insight.
Advertisers are very happy to be having those
conversations, he said. And they like the fact that we
can proactively bring them information like that and leave
it up to them to make the decisions on what they want
to do.
DATA MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS: USING BIG DATA TO POWER MARKETING PERFORMANCE 2013 EMARKETER INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 10
DIGITAL AND
CROSS-PLATFORM ATTRIBUTION
The fragmented, frenetic nature of todays media
consumption has complicated the measurement of
both digital and traditional marketing channels.
For the past several years, the advertising industry
has been working to address this issue through
attribution, a measurement approach that considers the
influence of each advertising channel or touchpoint on a
specific outcome.
The end goal is to get that campaign-level view of
optimization across channels for each customer. Its about
building a more complete view of the customer, said
Neo@Ogilvys Muzzy.
Because DMPs are already audience-centric, they
are a prime tool for gauging campaign influence and
performance both within digital and across platforms.
Theres real value in being able to address the audience
first to determine what to buy, said eXelates Zagorski.
By looking at your audience and how theyre interacting
with a particular ad or promotion, you can take those
learnings and feed them into your current efforts and your
next campaign.
Xaxis Grether shared one example of how Godiva used
attribution to justify its digital efforts and increase future
investment. He said the agency ran a digital campaign
of video and display for the chocolatier aimed at driving
sales. By combining the ad performance with third-party
data detailing offline purchase information in the DMP,
Xaxis was then able to segment those who purchased
chocolate into ad-exposed vs. nonexposed audiences. In
doing so, the agency expected to inform future targeting
decisions and justify Godivas digital investment.
According to Grether, Xaxis was able to determine
Godiva earned $2 in sales for every $1 invested in digital.
As a result, the brand ended up spending even more
money online.
But digital attribution is only one piece of the larger
attribution function the DMP can provide. Marketers are
also using it to understand broader channel relationships
across platforms.
We know the idea of doing just digital attribution
modeling on the directly observable events you see at the
cookie level is flawed, because it fails to take into account
all of that rich exposure and interaction thats happening
outside of the digital domain, said Xaxis Lloyd.
Lloyds colleague, Colard, cited another example for a
technology client taking a much more cross-platform
approach to attribution. During a new product launch, the
agency monitored all of the clients paid communication
channels in both traditional and digital, in addition to its
website and call center. By inputting all of these channels
into the DMP, Colard said it was easy to identify that, early
on, TV was driving a significant number of searches, 90%
of which was coming from Google.
In addition, Colard noted that the client used this
information to make sure its paid search investment
was optimized to drive all of the interest generated from
TV ads to its web properties where the users could
eventually purchase that product.
Because we had this integrated view of our
communication investment and performance, we
knew very rapidly that the reason why consumers
were searching is because we were doing all of the
mass media advertising in the first place, he explained.
Without that integrated view, someone looking at
the website analytics might have just seen the bulk of
the traffic coming from search and assumed that we
shouldnt bother doing cable advertising.
And as more brand dollars move to digital and
programmatic buying, cross-platform attribution is crucial.
Grether noted hes seen a shift in DMP use from pure
direct response to more branding-focused campaigns. As
a result, it is becoming increasingly important for brands
to understand the performance of their digital advertising
efforts in conjunction with their traditional programs.
Its important to be able to get data from TV
consumption into the DMP, he said. The more branding
campaigns that are being run, the more important it
becomes to bridge online and connect it with TV.
Grether went on to say the value in being able to do so
doesnt just feed back into media planning and ad spend
justification for TV or digital. It also affects the audience
targeting function of the DMP.
DATA MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS: USING BIG DATA TO POWER MARKETING PERFORMANCE 2013 EMARKETER INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 11
On a user level, I need to know who was actually
exposed to an ad on TV, he said. Once I know that, I can
then determine whether or not I want to show him an ad
hes already seen. This can help me to maximize the net
reach between both channels, or if the frequency was not
yet reached in TV, I can show him the ad online as well to
get optimum frequency.
However, such intelligence remains difficult to gain,
considering most traditional media channels dont track
ad performance down to the user level. Xaxis technology
client mentioned earlier was able to do so by driving
traditional media to digital, a trackable medium, but most
traditional ad exposures and in-store purchases cannot be
tracked. Though cross-platform attribution is possible even
in these circumstances, it is more aimed at justification of
media spend and less at real-time campaign optimization.
[Cross-channel attribution] is a very powerful approach,
and its fantastic when you can get it right, said
Lloyd. The flip side is that its much more complex to
implement, and the output tends to be less actionable.
Data from the CMO Council and SAS showed how
difficult it is to implement cross-platform analytical
capabilities. Just 3% of marketers worldwide said their
online and offline analytic capabilities were completely
integrated across all functions as of Q1 2013. The majority
(46%) said they were getting better at this but still had
room for improvement, and 43% were either struggling to
integrate or failing to integrate at any level.
DMP infrastructure also lacks this capability. Just 40%
of US marketing professionals surveyed by Winterberry
Group said existing DMP technology supported
multichannel integration and optimization, though 84%
said it was a future priority.
According to a fall 2012 study by Ziff Davis, another
priority for companies worldwide was to obtain the
real-time data analysis and reporting from data
management that cross-platform attribution
currently lacks.
Leading Priorities for Their Data Management EMARKETER INTERVIEWS
Strategies According to Companies Worldwide,
Fall 2012
% of respondents How Urban Outfitters Uses Data to Segment and
Serve Furniture Customers
Real-time data analysis and reporting
27% Jim Davis
App and technology consolidation Director, Web and Customer Analytics
26% Urban Outfitters
Storage and hardware optimization Interview conducted on April 26, 2013
19%
Platform integration Dissecting Data Management Platforms
16%
Mobile apps and accessibility
Dr. Mark Grether
12% COO
Xaxis
Source: Ziff Davis, "Strategic IT Survey Results: Data Management," Nov 5,
Interview conducted on April 11, 2013
2012
154789 www.eMarketer.com
Understanding Big Data and Data
Though the end goal for marketers is real-time Management Platforms
analytics and insight, for now, most attribution modeling
is done post-campaign, or as Lloyd aptly describes Troy Lerner
President
it, rearward-facing. Most agencies would say that
Booyah Advertising
attribution modeling is more used for post-rationalization
Interview conducted on April 9, 2013
and proving that the decisions made were the right ones,
rather than trying to identify learnings to use on future
Laurent Colard
campaigns, he said. I think thats changing, but theres
Global Managing Partner
still a fairly big gulf between the insight thats generated
GroupM
and the ability to translate that insight into some kind of
Interview conducted on April 24, 2013
meaningful change in your media planning process.

Mark Howard
Still, Lloyd sees hope for DMPs to be able to make this
Senior Vice President of Digital
real-time action a reality. Advertising Strategy
Forbes
Again, one of the benefits of DMPs having both
Interview conducted on April 18, 2013
rearward- and forward-facing capabilities is its ability to
close that loop, he said. You can take the insights you
generate from an attribution modeling perspective and Pete Kluge
Product Marketing Manager,
immediately apply them to new forms of targeting or
Adobe AudienceManager
refinements in your existing advertising strategies to get
Adobe
the maximum value out of those attribution models.
Interview conducted on April 10, 2013

For more on cross-platform ad measurement, please Richard Lloyd

see eMarketers December 2012 report, The State of Director, Data Management Platform
Cross-Platform Ad Measurement: Industry Trends and Xaxis
Current Practices. Interview conducted on April 24, 2013

Sean Muzzy
CEO
Neo@Ogilvy
Interview conducted on April 18, 2013

DATA MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS: USING BIG DATA TO POWER MARKETING PERFORMANCE 2013 EMARKETER INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 12
 Ben Plomion EDITORIAL AND
Vice President of Marketing and Partnerships
Chango
PRODUCTION CONTRIBUTORS
Interview conducted on April 4, 2013
Cliff Annicelli Senior Editor
Kaitlin Carlin Copy Editor
Tim Waddell
Director of Product Marketing,
Joanne DiCamillo Senior Production Artist
Adobe AudienceManager Stephanie Gehrsitz Senior Production Artist
Adobe Dana Hill Director of Production
Interview conducted on April 10, 2013
Heather Price Copy Editor
Nicole Perrin Associate Editorial Director
Allie Smith Director of Charts
Mark Zagorski
CEO
eXelate
Interview conducted on April 4, 2013

RELATED EMARKETER REPORTS

eMarketers Guide to the Digital Advertising
Ecosystem: Mapping the Display Advertising Purchase
Paths and Ad-Serving Process
How Retailers Are Leveraging Big Data to
Personalize Ecommerce
The State of Cross-Platform Ad Measurement:
Industry Trends and Current Practices

RELATED LINKS
Adobe
Booyah Advertising
Chango
eXelate
Forbes
GroupM
MEC Global
Neo@Ogilvy
Urban Outfitters
Xaxis

DATA MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS: USING BIG DATA TO POWER MARKETING PERFORMANCE 2013 EMARKETER INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 13