With budgets under pressure, ‘effectiveness’ and return on marketing investment are more pressing issues than ever. What are media owners and media agencies doing to help clients assess the impact of their communications?
1 The client wish to understand the impact of individual marketing elements on their growth rates has not changed; but according to Audrey Kuah, MediaCom’s Asia-Pacific business development director, it is only over the past two years that agencies have applied themselves to isolating the role of communications in overall ROI, and assessing which media work together to drive results. This continues to present a considerable challenge: “Marketing is not a straight-line equation. It’s not just single elements that contribute, but an interplay between many factors,” she notes.
Peter Steidl, parner of business planning at Mindshare, agrees, claiming that his agency is working towards understanding “the effectiveness of bundles”. He adds: “The leading media agencies have a variety of quantitative methodologies, including econometric modelling, that allows them not only to measure the effectiveness of communications campaigns, but also to model the impact of media combinations on the basis of past performance.”
2 However, media agencies could be doing more. Eric Mallia, MD of consultancy Brand Tectonics Asia and former marketing director of SmarTone-Vodafone, says agencies sometimes create problems by being reluctant to use their “incredibly powerful and insightful” measurement tools. He says these should be proactively offered as part of standard client service, rather than “as an after-thought”.
3 When it comes to media owners, one key client need is data. Traditional media channels have clear metrics, such as reach and frequency to help advertisers measure bang for their buck, though these are not necessarily able to measure factors such as engagement. Steidl cautions that a common mistake is to concentrate on recall levels. He cites “undeniable proof that messages that are not recalled can nevertheless have a significant impact on the consumer’s brand perceptions and purchase decisions.”
4 In theory, online media own- ers should be far more transparent, able to provide far more measures of effectiveness than traditional media because of their interactive nature. The majority of international online media owners are open to third-party monitoring. “The challenge is that lots of leading sites in the region are not international,” says Kuah. “A lot of online media is quite monopolistic. It’s a constant education process.”
Noting that most multinational clients have sophisticated analytics tools in place, Ken Mandel, VP and MD of Yahoo Southeast Asia, says that a major opportunity lies in helping smaller enterprises assess the path of consumers ‘post-click’. He adds that, while most online media owners recognise the value of transparency in attracting clients, there is still a gap between readily understandable offline statistics and “significantly more complex” online language, which can deter potential advertisers.
5 Malcolm Hanlon, Zenith Media’s China CEO, argues that broader analysis - in the spirit of TV metering - is needed online in addition to click-through monitoring. “Online has benefits as brand-building media and doesn’t always have to be considered transactional. It also has some shortcomings versus TV, OOH and print, but we still don’t know enough about this phenomenon.”
Guy Hearn, regional head of communications insights at Omnciom Media Group, compares online to OOH in that the absence of an agreed measurement system means it is difficult to monitor the effects of a campaign outside of direct action. “Clients and media owners would all appreciate an agreed currency.”
6 Ultimately, the real issue facing marketers is not necessarily a lack of data, but an understanding of what to do with it. “Senior marketers want to know what it all means,” says Hearn. “Rather than drown them in metrics, we need to work out how to tie it together and present a coherent picture.”
What it means for…
Media owners
- The ability to provide robust data to clients is clearly key if they are to show the impact of their media spend.
-Traditional channels have agreed metrics, though increasingly their usefulness for proving effectiveness is being called into question.
- While digital channels are in theory far more accountable, the sector has suffered due to a lack of agreed metrics and an abundance of technical jargon.
Media agencies
- Agencies have recognised that being able to analyse and interpret the different data from all media channels is now a key client demand. They have developed a number of planning tools accordingly.
- However, the way these tools are applied remains inconsistent. They should not be treated as an ‘after-thought’.
- A planning tool needs to be about more than just data; it needs to tie it all together to deliver real advice for future campaigns.
1 The client wish to understand the impact of individual marketing elements on their growth rates has not changed; but according to Audrey Kuah, MediaCom’s Asia-Pacific business development director, it is only over the past two years that agencies have applied themselves to isolating the role of communications in overall ROI, and assessing which media work together to drive results. This continues to present a considerable challenge: “Marketing is not a straight-line equation. It’s not just single elements that contribute, but an interplay between many factors,” she notes.
Peter Steidl, parner of business planning at Mindshare, agrees, claiming that his agency is working towards understanding “the effectiveness of bundles”. He adds: “The leading media agencies have a variety of quantitative methodologies, including econometric modelling, that allows them not only to measure the effectiveness of communications campaigns, but also to model the impact of media combinations on the basis of past performance.”
2 However, media agencies could be doing more. Eric Mallia, MD of consultancy Brand Tectonics Asia and former marketing director of SmarTone-Vodafone, says agencies sometimes create problems by being reluctant to use their “incredibly powerful and insightful” measurement tools. He says these should be proactively offered as part of standard client service, rather than “as an after-thought”.
3 When it comes to media owners, one key client need is data. Traditional media channels have clear metrics, such as reach and frequency to help advertisers measure bang for their buck, though these are not necessarily able to measure factors such as engagement. Steidl cautions that a common mistake is to concentrate on recall levels. He cites “undeniable proof that messages that are not recalled can nevertheless have a significant impact on the consumer’s brand perceptions and purchase decisions.”
4 In theory, online media own- ers should be far more transparent, able to provide far more measures of effectiveness than traditional media because of their interactive nature. The majority of international online media owners are open to third-party monitoring. “The challenge is that lots of leading sites in the region are not international,” says Kuah. “A lot of online media is quite monopolistic. It’s a constant education process.”
Noting that most multinational clients have sophisticated analytics tools in place, Ken Mandel, VP and MD of Yahoo Southeast Asia, says that a major opportunity lies in helping smaller enterprises assess the path of consumers ‘post-click’. He adds that, while most online media owners recognise the value of transparency in attracting clients, there is still a gap between readily understandable offline statistics and “significantly more complex” online language, which can deter potential advertisers.
5 Malcolm Hanlon, Zenith Media’s China CEO, argues that broader analysis - in the spirit of TV metering - is needed online in addition to click-through monitoring. “Online has benefits as brand-building media and doesn’t always have to be considered transactional. It also has some shortcomings versus TV, OOH and print, but we still don’t know enough about this phenomenon.”
Guy Hearn, regional head of communications insights at Omnciom Media Group, compares online to OOH in that the absence of an agreed measurement system means it is difficult to monitor the effects of a campaign outside of direct action. “Clients and media owners would all appreciate an agreed currency.”
6 Ultimately, the real issue facing marketers is not necessarily a lack of data, but an understanding of what to do with it. “Senior marketers want to know what it all means,” says Hearn. “Rather than drown them in metrics, we need to work out how to tie it together and present a coherent picture.”
What it means for…
Media owners
- The ability to provide robust data to clients is clearly key if they are to show the impact of their media spend.
-Traditional channels have agreed metrics, though increasingly their usefulness for proving effectiveness is being called into question.
- While digital channels are in theory far more accountable, the sector has suffered due to a lack of agreed metrics and an abundance of technical jargon.
Media agencies
- Agencies have recognised that being able to analyse and interpret the different data from all media channels is now a key client demand. They have developed a number of planning tools accordingly.
- However, the way these tools are applied remains inconsistent. They should not be treated as an ‘after-thought’.
- A planning tool needs to be about more than just data; it needs to tie it all together to deliver real advice for future campaigns.
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