Professional Documents
Culture Documents
STRATEGY
Getting to Best-in-Class
Effectiveness
1
WHAT’S INTRODUCTION
INSIDE & SCOPE
Why Read This Paper This paper has been created by Gain Theory and commissioned by
EffWorks, an initiative organised by the IPA that champions
5 Key Takeouts accountability in marketing and promotes a culture of Marketing
Effectiveness from C-Suite, all the way down through organisations.
Defining Marketing Effectiveness
Fortitude In creating this paper, a cross section of senior marketing and insight
professionals from 40 brands were interviewed, representing a UK
Journey advertising spend of more than £7bn.
Jargon Buster
Gain Theory
The Author
EffWorks
Contributors
Include
Combined £7b
Media Spend
2 3
WHY READ 5 KEY
THIS PAPER? TAKEOUTS
Start as you mean to go on - organisations need to have the
emotional and political fuel to start and stay on course for the
Marketing Effectiveness journey if they want to create a best-
in-class strategy. This includes having the willpower,
If marketing is the engine of business growth, motivation and desire, as well as the ability
the boiler room of decision-making requires a to collaborate.
‘best-in-class’ effectiveness strategy.
Match Metrics To Strategy
Many organisations struggle with Marketing Effectiveness. Indeed,
many are still trying to figure out which adverts are working; and A key element of successful
how marketing in a broader sense, beyond advertising, is helping Marketing Effectiveness is to ensure
generate business growth. that activity is assessed against
Getting The Basics Right
the right KPI. Everyone wants
No single organisation
An organisation’s profitable growth, but different companies
was wholly satisfied with Marketing Effectiveness
marketing strategy can will be taking different routes to get there.
the way that marketing improvements, while significant,
allow it to differentiate The metric should match the brand’s chosen
effectiveness was assessed. can be dwarfed by the benefits from
products and services and roadmap.
simply doing existing marketing
create meaningful brands that support growth in profits, not just better. Late TV bookings in the UK, for
turnover. example, can attract a substantial
additional fee and, even if the fee is
To ensure that marketing is as effective as possible, its impact must avoided, you often end up with poor
be measured. Having the right Marketing Effectiveness strategy will inventory. For white goods retail,
help marketers create the right culture, make the right decisions, similarly basic questions include: Anticipate
avoid wastage and maximise impact. are we advertising products that will
drive footfall, or purchase with a high The metrics that matter will vary.
In speaking to more than 40 brand representatives responsible for attachment rate and high margin? Best-in-class Marketing
more than £7bn advertising spend in the UK, we found that no single Is supplier funding being used in the Effectiveness anticipates and
organisation was wholly satisfied with the way that Marketing best way? predicts these changes.
Effectiveness was assessed.
4 5
DEFINING MARKETING EFFECTIVENESS
DEFINING
MARKETING
Everyone talks about Marketing Effectiveness but it’s not always
clear what it means. And Measurement Strategy cannot be
implemented successfully without an agreed definition.
6 7
FORTITUDE
Shared Purpose
Collaboration
Collaboration is key across several functions and not just Finance. Often
Marketing and Media teams will not have a direct impact on Product,
Pricing or Placement etc but inevitably these will impact success. Being
clear from the outset who you need to bring along on the journey and what
to ask, when to ask and how to ask, will help create better outcomes.
The evidence for the success of Zero Based Budgeting is mixed, and even
where it does meet our definition of success – higher incremental profits –
the work required to deliver genuine Zero Based Budgeting should not be
under-estimated. It’s probably not something that should be done every
12 months. But a mindset of Zero Based Budgeting is very useful – having
an understanding of exactly what the different elements in the marketing
mix are doing to contribute to profits is a fundamental part of assessing
effectiveness. If we don’t know what it’s supposed to be doing, success or
failure is impossible to define.
8 9
FORTITUDE
A CEB study found that 47% of the 18 companies that used Zero Based Budgeting in
2014/2015 saw a significant margin improvement, compared to 45% of 40
THE
JOURNEY
companies that used traditional budgeting methods. That suggests results are not
guaranteed.
Ensuring Business Effectiveness measures have Without the backing of Finance, there is a
credibility beyond Marketing means Finance danger that effectiveness efforts are simply
must be part of the conversation as early as seen as just another token effort to put a
possible. value on marketing.
Triangulation
Humility
Across every business there was a recognition when seeking to locate a single true north
that a tension exists between speed of from multiple sources. Nevertheless, the
response when markets are being disrupted effort was typically seen as worthwhile.
and “analysis paralysis” that can be created
10 11
THE JOURNEY THE JOURNEY
Walk
The journey to embedding Business All respondents, wherever they ranked Analytic programmes are well established in nonetheless, and helped the concept of “test,
Effectiveness in an organisation has three themselves, recognised that they could not key parts of the business and decisions are measure, implement, test again…” to gain
clear stages of development: Crawl, Walk and stand still: lower-ranked companies were being made based on this research. The risk traction.
Run. determined to improve and those towards the for companies at this level is that reporting
top understood that they had to continually becomes routine, slow-moving and Whereas during the ‘Crawl phase’, most
During our interviews, we asked respondents improve to maintain their position. concentrated into big, expensive set-piece activity was around “what” has happened or is
to categorise their company’s efforts in analytics conducted by external agencies. happening now, activity in this phase tends to
Business Effectiveness on a scale of 1 to 10. Often, results are used to post-rationalise be more around diagnosis (why did it happen)
decisions that were made on other criteria. and prediction (what might happen if…).
Companies that were improving were Data governance has been established, and
beginning to implement quick Test and Learn there are no longer multiple sources of the
studies in a range of areas. Often these were same information. Also, there is an increasing
Crawl Walk Run informal and the techniques were relatively emphasis on action: “analytics demonstrated
straightforward, but they had power that, we should do this.”
Change driven by advanced analytics is the can usefully bring additional insights and the
standard approach, with a well developed company has the structure and the culture
Test and Learn process in place. There is a to make effective use of these consultants.
growing acceptance that outside specialists
Crawl
The challenge for organisations at this advanced level was two-fold:
Effectiveness can be overwhelming for those For effectiveness professionals and advocates
at the beginning of the journey. We spoke to in such organisations, the key is to start slow
organisations where large-scale studies had and start small. Relying solely on specialist
been commissioned but the results had not agencies can be tempting but unwise as it will Ensuring that the company moves together
been disseminated, nor had any change do nothing to solve the black box perception.
happened or recommendations been There are often parallel tracks within organisations and these should
implemented. Best practice is to combine an in-house team begin to be smoothed out early in the Run phase. In Financial Services,
with external specialists but ensure that the for example, machine learning may be used to segment loan applicants
in-house team play a stronger role than just on the basis of risk, with the decision to grant a loan becoming gradually
It’s just a black box – acting as gatekeeper or project manager. more automated. In the Run phase, similar algorithms can be applied to
why should I trust it? Results should be shared widely and internal develop insights around propensity of customers to buy additional services
advocates are always required. or to open and act on an email.
12 13
THE JOURNEY
Of the companies that we spoke to, none currently ranked themselves as a 10,
but several thought they were reasonably close. Encouragingly, almost every
respondent interviewed said that each year their efforts within Business
Effectiveness were becoming more sophisticated and having a greater impact
on the business.
14 15
15
THE ECOSYSTEM
To embed successful measurement of marketing It’s also how to build an effectiveness team, and
Hierarchy of
and to genuinely have an impact on the business, how to balance the need for in-house capability
the ecosystem is key to get right. And it’s not with the recognition that best practice and
necessarily about picking a particular methodology, innovation tends to be generated more by
Metrics
it’s far more important to focus on understanding consultancies.
the hierarchy of metrics and how it should be
defined for your business.
Not all metrics are created equal. Nor should we key metric, others are important because they
necessarily measure something just because we ladder into and contribute to this ultimate KPI.
Incremental Like Economic and
can. When speaking to brand representatives they What does this mean? Well, profitable growth is Market Share
for Like Sales Business context
were very clear that there was a hierarchy of key. But this metric itself depends on another set
metrics and that, for most, profitable growth was of metrics, all of which need to be measured.
at the top. Of course, these metrics do not exist in
isolation and while growth in profits might be the For example:
Counter Cyclical
Financial Contribution
Market share might be driven by Made by Marketing
Planning - for
improvements in brand strength Boom and Bust
Marketing
Directors &
Brand strength might be driven Awareness, Managers -
Life Time Value Consideration, Decision Makers
by better marketing
Recommendations
No metric exists on its own. Its place in the hierarchy needs to be known and
1 understood. People have to know why something is being measured; they need to
know where it sits in the overall hierarchy and how it contributes to their company’s
Social Listening Tactic Publisher
overarching strategic objectives.
A clear definition of success is known and shared. We have seen time and time Analytics &
2 again that a poor measure of success hinders both measurement (what, exactly, Insight Teams
are we measuring?).
Saturation Campaign Product /
by Channel Analysis Category Analysis
Appropriately curated communication exists. A planner needs to know which tactic
3 and publisher works best on digital. The CMO, in most cases, doesn’t need to know
and the CFO and CEO certainly don’t. The C-Suite are more likely to be focused on
big-picture decisions that are likely to move the dial in more significant ways – an
example might be moving an element of the budget from a mature but wealthy
market (e.g. North America) to one where the current returns are smaller but
where growth potential is more significant.
16 17
THE ECOSYSTEM THE ECOSYSTEM
METRICS
brand advertising can cause the price Brand Strength as a key indicator of success.
elasticity to fall over time.
This was often tracked closely by our Understanding what this metric is saying
interviewees and their companies but there means not looking at market share in
was frustration that the effort required to isolation, especially in markets that are
increase share by even one point was not well growing or declining, it is quite possible for
understood. For example, a new retail bank share to fall while sales volumes are growing.
with ambitions to gain 5% market share of While this is still poor – competitors are 3% price increase here leads
all personal current accounts would need to growing more strongly – the implications and to profit rising by £1.5m
acquire 70% of all those switching accounts remedies are very different to a situation
over the next five years. where share and sales volumes are both
falling.
weeks
Price Elasticity
% Change
This is a measure of the responsiveness in Sales
Price Elasticity
of sales to a change in price and is
usually defined as: of Demand = % Change
in Price Picture This
Imagine we have a mid-size FMCG with annual sales of
The relationship is nearly always negative £100m and a gross margin (just net of production costs)
because if price increases we expect volume of 40%. The price elasticity has been measured as -2.5.
sold to fall. The metric is unlikely to be a
simple relationship; there may be asymmetry So, a 10% price increase will decrease volume sold by 25%.
between price increases and decreases;
there may be threshold effects. And the
relationship might be non-linear, where Price is changed by a small amount - just a 3% increase.
bigger price changes have a greater relative The impact over the year is for gross profit to fall by £1.1m.
impact on sales than smaller ones. The impact of people swapping for substitutes is greater
This is because the short-term impact of than the impact of remaining customers paying a higher
However, essentially it describes what happens
to demand when the price is changed. advertising affects a relatively small price.
proportion of brand sales but when the
While many Business Effectiveness price changes everyone is affected. But what if the elasticity is -1.5? Now, the same price
measurement programmes focus on the increase boosts profit by over £1.5m or a swing of around
Return On Investment for media spend, the If consumers can be persuaded to accept
a price increase or, more realistically, a £2.6m. And this is not revenue or turnover, but gross profit.
impact of the price elasticity changing over
time on overall profitability can be enormous, constant price while others are cutting theirs, And the effect will persist over time.
often outweighing the impact of advertising profitability will be stronger than the
over the short-term. competition.
18 19
THE ECOSYSTEM THE ECOSYSTEM
These include:
It should include all halo effects, synergies and ideally a view on the long-
term, either through an evolving base or by linking marketing spend to
changes in purchase intent through to sales. If ROI is the objective, then
make sure that, in FMCG, you focus on the big brands. In Retail, focus on
the footfall generators, or those products and categories that drive a high
attachment rate.
Margin Matters
For a retailer, margin varies quite widely between categories. The same is
true within Financial Services. Focusing on high margin products or
services will generate a stronger ROI.
Media Spend
Return On Investment Media Spend is a key component of ROI. To drive the highest ROI ensure
that media channels go beyond those that have a direct impact on sales
response but also include those that act as enablers and make other media
channels work harder. Our analysis says that TV is still key, with VOD and
This White Paper is not just about Return The challenge for Business Effectiveness is to SVOD growing in importance.
On Investment (ROI) – our view is that this understand what drives ROI, and how it can be
is an intermediate KPI. Nevertheless, it is an maximised without damaging the long-term
important metric, and one that virtually all potential of the brand.
our interviewees tracked.
However, do not use the ROI to create your strategy. Define strategy and
then use the ROI as a useful input to allocate the marketing budget between
competing channels to hit pre-determined business targets based on the
Most define it as follows:
strategy.
20 21
THE ECOSYSTEM
22 23
THE ECOSYSTEM
TEAM APPROACHES
BEST
PRACTICE
Approach What This Means Pro Con
In-House Team Data pulled from various Over time, an in-depth Teams are usually small, so
stakeholders (e.g. media knowledge of what works and can be vulnerable to one or
agencies) but all analytics and why can be built up by this two people changing role or
IN KEY AREAS
value-adding interpretation of internal team, and they act as leaving. Also, while they have
this data is done by full time valuable internal consultants. very good experience it’s only
employees. of a single client. This makes
it hard to benchmark
performance and also to
innovate.
Pure Outsource In this context, external Benefit from wide experience Can sometimes seem remote
agencies / consultancies cover not just within a single from the wider business and
all aspects of one or more vertical, but also related the questions that are
effectiveness programmes. industries. Have the currently being asked and it
experience to know what takes time and effort from
questions you should be asking client teams to ensure that
as well as answering the ones they are properly briefed. But
that have already been asked. with all analytics, the maxim
Most innovation happens “garbage in, garbage out”
agency side even if driven by holds true. An important risk
client demands. with outsourcing is the sheer
length of time it takes new
agencies to fully understand
the business. This was felt most
strongly in Financial Services
and Retail but was mentioned
by many respondents. The
danger is that it risks “sticky”
relationships and a lack of
innovation as budgets
remained fixed year on year.
In-Source Partnership, whereby Best of both worlds. The This is often more expensive
agency teams work next to internal team can ‘brief on than other options.
client teams, typically at the go’ and should have great
client office. connections across the
organisation. The agency
team tend to secure access to
a wider group of people on a
more frequent basis, thereby
making the analytics richer,
more detailed and more finely
tuned towards answering the
key questions.
In-House Expertise Client teams don’t necessarily Can be very effective – having Sometimes an element of
“do” the analytics but they internal consultants who un- doubling up of roles, so not
are very closely involved and derstand both how the results necessarily the most efficient
can answer questions about were arrived at and the judge- approach.
results and risks without ments that have been made,
needing to go back to the increasing the likelihood that
agency teams. insights will be deployed and
improvements generated.
24 25
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BEST PRACTICE IN KEY AREAS BEST PRACTICE IN KEY AREAS
Test and Learn is not a new concept but with These results are typically simple to analyse Market Mix Models (MMM) have a long history And markets register this intent. For Nike –
advances in data collection, particularly in the and are straightforward to interpret. Provided and, used well, can make an important despite an initial share price fall of 3% and
online sphere, it’s experiencing something of a that no other factors affect just the test or the contribution to both understanding how numerous videos of customers burning their
renaissance. control, causality is also clear. marketing has worked in the past and how to Nike shoes and clothing – the share price
make it work harder in the future. In a survey actually ended higher than before the spot
The process is both simple and powerful. Take However, there are a number of pitfalls. run by Forrester and Burtch over 2017, 45% of was aired.
an action with one group of customers (the Getting it right means ensuring that: respondents were currently using MMM with a
test sample), generally keep all other factors further 18% either piloting projects or planning An MMM solution would evaluate this spot on
constant for a similar set of customers (the to use in the next 12 months. the basis of its impact on sales while it was
control sample) and then compare results. aired and perhaps up two to three weeks
MMMs do have one major drawback: they are a afterwards.
single KPI model.
Fine, as far as it goes. But in this case, that’s
There is a very clear hypothesis being tested and a very clear definition That is, they focus on the outcome of just one probably not far enough.
of what constitutes success. variable – usually sales, whether it be volume,
units or revenue. A P2P approach would also evaluate this short-
term impact, but it wouldn’t stop there. It
Test and control samples are result-neutral. Marketers need to think Path to Purchase (P2P) approaches differ in would also assess the impact on factors like
about whether membership of a particular sample will affect results. that they explicitly acknowledge that marketing purchase intent among key demographics and
For example, on customer visits to a website, a randomised trial will is more nuanced and is often designed to have would then relate these back to sales and
probably work well. But for a retailer, randomly selecting stores is an impact beyond just the short term and that profits. This more nuanced approach captures
unlikely to be effective. other KPIs are also important. the full range of what marketing is trying to
do.
This is especially important for Auto, Financial
Multiple Test and Learn experiments are not being run with the same Services and White Goods retailing, where the Getting it right means ensuring we understand
group of customers (both test and control groups). Set up different number of people in-market at any point in what each line of activity is trying to achieve
groups for each hypothesis that you want to test. time is limited. and evaluating it accordingly. When marketing
activity is just designed to affect sales then
For example, some marketing activities such MMM is fine.
Decayed or lagged effects are allowed to work through before fully as Nike’s 2018 Kaepernick creative are focused
assessing the results. Also ensure that the impact of one test does not more on either shifting or reinforcing brand For all other investments, it will arguably result
affect the results of the next one. values. in investment return being undervalued and
P2P approach may be more relevant.
It is clear that the goal for this type of
Take into account that online tests can be difficult to manage. For marketing has less of an emphasis on winning
example, a website may be visited many times (and on more than one customers today and more about gaining a
device) so it is sometimes not always clear which version of a website foothold with the customers of the future.
has been seen.
Test and Learn experiments start and end on the same day to avoid
day of week response or purchase patterns impacting results.
26
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27
BEST PRACTICE IN KEY AREAS BEST PRACTICE IN KEY AREAS
Picture This
Cross Channel Attribution
For example, in Retail, an ad focusing on a short-term (also referred to as Multi-Touch Attribution or MTA)
offer may well bring people into store but will it lead to
Includes integration of select offline marketing and sales channels
more prolonged success?
(e.g. Direct Mail or CRM sales).
28 29
BEST PRACTICE IN KEY AREAS BEST PRACTICE IN KEY AREAS
A Unified Measurement Framework brings the such as offline sales are considered in the The complexity of today’s path to purchase Forward-thinking marketers and insights
world of Attribution and MMM together. It same model as digital impressions, clicks and poses a challenge for marketers looking to teams with advanced analytics approaches
enables one analytical framework across all e-commerce sales. acquire, grow and retain customers. have started using Machine Learning to help
marketing channels, causal parameters and them solve this challenge and make faster,
KPIs. This means traditional channels such Joining Attribution and MMM into a Unified smarter decisions. And this is a sector that
as linear TV, traditional causal parameters Measurement Framework can be done using is growing fast – Forrester and Burtch (2017)
such as store promotions, and traditional KPIs a variety of methods. Examples include: estimate that the Machine Learning industry
is growing by around 15% each year.
Two-stage Modeling: MMM is conducted first to identify contribution The reasons are two-fold:
by channel (e.g. TV vs. Digital Display vs. Digital Video…) and then
Attribution is used to further allocate sales by tactic.
Granular MMM: Regression models using daily sales by geography or Marketers have to deliver optimized outcomes to the highest possible
store, married with geo-spatial media / marketing, enables near-term degree with increasing speed in the face of fast-paced consumer needs
and highly granular insight. and shifting media landscapes. Faster decision-making support is
required to optimise marketing in near-real and near-future time.
Best-in-class marketing requires a broad suite Getting it right means ensuring that all results
of tools. MMM and Attribution complement and planning/buying recommendations come
each other well, as the weaknesses of one from the same measurement system. There is
are the strengths of the other. Each method no double counting of results and everything is
works well in isolation, but they work best assessed against a common currency.
when integrated, allowing for an accurate
approach to omni-channel marketing This allows marketers to say explicitly which
measurement. The overarching benefit of activity is acting in an enabling role across
a Unified Measurement Framework is that both on- and off-line media. This type of
the insights generated can inform the entire synergistic behaviour, where one media or
marketing process, from upstream strategic activity works more effectively in the presence
thinking (budgets by geography, brand and of another, is relatively common and is most
channel) through to downstream tactical easily found between paid search and TV, with
optimisation (budgets by campaign, tactic TV making search work significantly more
and creative). effectively.
30 31
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BEST PRACTICE IN KEY AREAS
WHAT SUCCESS
LOOKS LIKE
Speed
1
In the not-too distant past, a lot of analysis would take a number of
days, sometimes longer. Now, it can be done in a matter of hours,
sometimes minutes.
Automated
2
Machine Learning is not concerned with understanding why something
has happened. It is only concerned with accurate prediction, enabling
automation to be done easily.
Real Time
4
Because Machine Learning can automate at scale and with speed, it
enables marketers to take action in real time. In practice that means
brands can know what message/tactic to use to maximise the chance
of conversion in online sales; or in customer service, flagging social
media cases to identify which need to be dealt with urgently.
Getting it right means having quality data. Making sure your algorithm isn’t over fitting
If the data that goes into the model isn’t is also key. The more sophisticated a Machine
accurate or is based on hypotheticals then the Learning algorithm and the better it predicts
predictions and recommendations generated the training data, the more prone it is to
will almost certainly be skewed or wrong. confuse idiosyncrasies in the training data
Garbage In, Garbage Out has been true for with genuine signals.
a long time and the opaque nature of many
Machine Learning solutions makes it even
more important today.
32 33
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE
1 3
QUICK KNOW
WINS
Be open
about what you can do
internally and, where needed,
plan to improve your capabilities.
YOUR
Ensure that all quick wins are achieved
before moving on to more complex tasks.
Your position on ‘Crawl, Walk, Run’
spectrum and the speed with which you need
to move will indicate the balance between
LIMITS
building in-house capability versus working with
Is your media inventory the best that it can
partner agencies. Pick the approach that best
be? In Retail, has supplier funding been
fits your company culture and maximises
maximised and used in the best way?
the chance of success.
In Finance, Auto and Tech, is there a clear
understanding and agreement on life-time
value? In FMCG, is the importance of price
2
elasticity understood and the potential for
marketing to support and reduce price
sensitivity recognised?
DEFINE
SUCCESS Agree on what success looks like up
front, and why. Understand how each
line of activity fits in with the overall
business strategy and match appropriate
metrics to it. Understand the requirements
of stakeholders beyond marketing,
especially when it comes to the three Ts
– Triangulation, Transparency and Trust.
34 35
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE
6
4 Partner and collaborate but
remember to be courageous as
TEST &
well. Focusing only on decisions
LEARN
BE
that will genuinely move the
needle takes focus and courage.
5
the two and whether you are using the latest
Machine Learning algorithms or tried and trusted
Market Mix Modelling, it’s vital that you match your
analytic efforts with the business’ ability to use the
insights generated. Does the effectiveness work need
SELECT
to be real time? If not now, when will you need that
capability? Just as each line of marketing needs to
contribute to overall business success, so must
YOUR
the Business Effectiveness programme.
TOOLS
36
36 37
37
JARGON
BUSTER
JARGON BUSTED ADVICE
JARGON BUSTED ADVICE
Life Time Value (LTV) Refers to the value generated Often difficult to define –
Incremental Like-For-Like The change in sales revenue and A key metric and closely linked to by a typical customer over the narrow measures (by custom-
profitability in one period over a movements in a company’s share price. duration of the relationship. er type) typically don’t match
similar period, often the same period Be aware that adjustments sometimes Should include all relevant with analytics and broad
last year. In Retail may be referred to need to be made – in some years, the details, including cross-sells measures lack meaning. Also
as “Same Store Sales”, like-for-likes first quarter will include Easter, in (e.g. selling a loan to a current in some verticals hard to agree
strip out the effects of store openings others it won’t. account holder) and upsells on a single LTV. Especially true
or acquisitions and may also attempt (e.g. converting a standard in Retail Banking.
to abstract from competitor activity. account to premium).
An attempt to understand and focus Short and Long Term Often some confusion around Perhaps a better phrase than
on organic growth / decline. the short and long term, not a “long-term effect” is a “
Market Share On the face of it, an obvious concept Take care how market share is defined. least because the definition sustained effect”.
and one that should be tracked. Too narrow and it might not include should change by vertical. For
However, the definition could and important developments outside of example, the short term in
should change, depending on what you think are core competitors. Auto is probably not far short
objectives. For example, what is Too broad and it risks becoming a of the long term in soft drinks
the market share for Cola? Just meaningless number. and confectionary.
carbonated drinks? Does it include Return On Investment Often used with advertising Its importance should not be
mineral water, other soft drinks? and very simply defined as the overstated. Whilst the ROI
Actually, does it include tea, coffee incremental (or additional) is useful as a mechanism by
and other hot drinks? benefit from running activity which spend can be allocated
Economic and Business This has a major impact on all key Context is always key and must be divided by its cost. An ROI across media channels, the
Context performance indicators. For example, overlaid on all metrics that matter. above 1 is usually considered success of a campaign should
the payback from advertising in a to pay back on its investment not be defined by its ROI. More
downturn is likely to be very different though Finance teams are important is the change in
to that when the economy is likely to use a more rigorous like-for-like sales.
booming. Some changes may be definition of the cost of funds
permanent – for example, the gig used for advertising.
economy. Saturation & Diminishing The impact of advertising Understanding where dimin-
Brand Strength Is key but typically not a good Carefully consider which areas of brand Returns should increase with the level ishing returns kicks in is useful
predictor of sales next week, or the strength are important. It is seldom of investment, all other things from an efficiency perspective –
week after. It is typically a slow- awareness, whether prompted or being equal. But, at some level addresses the question “should
moving index for mature brands. unprompted. Consideration and intent of spend, increasing weight by we increase weekly weight, or
We often find that it is used to to purchase are typically more useful a further 10% will generate less stretch the campaign out with
explain past events rather than for power brands. than 10% incremental benefit. more weeks of activity”?
helping to predict the future. The effect diminishes.
Counter Cyclical Despite Gordon Brown’s claims to the Even with products that people buy Price Elasticity Describes how responsive A really key KPI and one that
Planning contrary, boom and bust still survives. every day, like breakfast cereal, consumers are to price can be assessed using different
And while it may vary consumer to consumers may switch to private label changes. Typically, brands methodologies. Where price
consumer, at an aggregate level, during periods of austerity. Planning to try to make consumers changes are rare or have not
demand for products and services offset these cyclical movements is key unresponsive to price increases taken place for some time,
vary in line with changes to the to long-term success. (maintain or grow profits) conjoint analysis can provide
economy. Other than staples, demand but responsive to price cuts a useful guide.
will tend to fall in an economic (gain share).
downswing. Value Perception Price elasticity is key but can Often perception is more
Contribution of May be measured in different ways For marketing to be effective, its be difficult to define for a important than reality and
Marketing for different brands, depending on impact must be known. And success retailer where thousands or is something that can be
their objectives. This may range from should not be defined after the event. hundreds of thousands of SKUs reinforced by consistent
test and learn, market mix modelling, may be on sale over a period advertising.
complex Unified Marketing Impact of months. So price or value
Anaytics (UMIA) through to analysis perception, typically using data
of single source data. But placing a from a brand tracker becomes
monetary value on marketing is key. an important KPI.
38 39
ABOUT THE
GAIN THEORY AUTHOR
In his client-side role at National Savings, his remit as Chief Economist saw him play a
pivotal role in bringing together the various data and analytics functions to ensure that
there was a consistent measure of success that was socialised across the business.
At Gain Theory, Jon helps clients understand how to optimise the value of marketing
investments by leveraging market-leading tactics devised through intelligent data,
analytics, insight and consultancy. His work has helped leading brands improve new
launch forecasting, optimize the mix between paid, owned and earned media as well
as improving course correction in-campaign.
As an accomplished author and speaker, Jon is an advocate for the proper treatment
of clients’ marketing spend, seeing it as an investment rather than a cost and has
published a number of papers highlighting the demonstrable impact of advertising on
share price, the ultimate KPI for the C-Suite.
Jon holds a bachelor’s degree from Staffordshire University and an MA from the
University of East Anglia.
40 41
ABOUT TALK
EFFWORKS TO US
The IPA’s new Marketing Effectiveness initiative seeks to create a
global industry movement, to promote a Marketing Effectiveness
culture in client and agency organisations, and improve our day-
to-day working practices in three key areas:
GAIN THEORY
Marketing Marketing
1 Developing the case for marketing and brand investment
For more information contact
in the short, medium and long term, and promoting the
benefits to internal and external stakeholders. Jon Webb
jon.webb@gaintheory.com
Monitoring Marketing
3 Delivering the best models, and guidance on tools and
techniques, to plan, monitor, direct and measure the impact EFFWORKS
of marketing activity, using holistic approaches to return on
investment.
For more information contact
effworks.co.uk
42 43
ABOUT THIS WHITE PAPER
If marketing is the engine of business growth, the boiler room of
decision-making requires a ‘best-in-class’ effectiveness strategy.
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