Event Recap: Three Key Themes from AdClub’s Measurement: Now

On Thursday, the Lab attended the New York Ad Club’s Measurement: Now, a half-day event dedicated to data tracking and responding to the consumer journey. Three key themes emerged from the panels and keynote speeches:

Content and Context: Though the idea of a “consumer journey” isn’t new, brands are now acquiring the ability to target individuals in a specific context—time, physical location, device, point in the sales funnel, and so on—with an appropriate message. What this means is that marketers can develop more nuanced segmentation based on behavior and flesh out personas into real humans. This will increase brands’  relevancy, since as Audrey Hendley, Senior VP and GM, Acquisition & Prospect Engagement of American Express OPEN, noted, data must ultimately answer the question “what does our prospect want?”

Privacy and the Value Exchange: Ad technology is rapidly approaching the point where data from multiple devices (phones, television, and more) will be able to be tied to a unique, comprehensive consumer profile. While this has great potential for brands, “what thrills me as a marketer terrifies me as a citizen,” said Deborah Marquardt, SVP, Managing Director at MediaVest. In order to avoid what Kosta Skoulikaris, VP, Advertiser Solutions, Nielsen called the “icky factor,” brands must safeguard consumer data and provide value in return. 

Redefining ROI: As Aaron Fetters, Director of Insights and Analytics Solutions Center of the Kellogg Company, pointed out, marketers are increasingly accountable for budgets, making it imperative to get the “most of out of the money we spend.” But that doesn’t necessarily mean that brands should focus entirely on ROI—in fact, Shelley Zallis, CEO of Ipsos Open Thinking Exchange, suggested that ROE, or “return on engagement” may be a better metric.

Accessing The ROI Of Content Marketing

Brands as publishers is the latest marketing movement as we see more and more brands creating original content on owned channels. Much like the beginnings of social, clients are grappling with measurement. Should success be accessed from a marketing perspective or a publisher? The answer lies somewhere in between.

Take a look at content marketing network, Contently’s latest findings above. The thoughtful piece outlines 4 keys to calculating the ROI like considering engaged time and repeat visitors which is something our friends over at Chartbeat have put into action.

JiWire’s Mobile Drive-to-Retail ROI Metric

Media measurement is undergoing tremendous change as marketers are privy to more data than ever.  Increasingly, we are tying ad exposure to sales figures. It is no longer an awareness model of clicks and impressions but an action-driven one of visits and purchases. JiWire is the latest to jump onboard, releasing their Location Conversion Index which ties mobile ad impressions to in-store visits. The mobile ad network which targets audience segments based on historical location (not just where you are at this second) now measures foot traffic based on the following factors listed on their website:

  • Real ROI: measures actual increase in foot traffic as a result of your mobile campaign
  • Seasonality: adjusts for fluctuations in store visits that occur naturally (such as increased traffic over the holiday shopping season)
  • Most Accurate Audience Matching: We build a control group out of millions of look-alike profiles based on matching demographics and location pattern attributions
  • Big Data Scale: A rich history of location patterns built from 700M devices & billions of location tags makes LCI the most accurate mobile ROI metric

Adobe Tools Predict Social Media Impact

According to TechCrunch, Adobe is getting ready to announce new predictive tools for Adobe Social that will allow brands to optimize and predict engagement for posts on Facebook before they go live.  While we’ve seen similar products in the space that analyze text and content type, Adobe’s access to unique user data and performance stats for a wide range of brands may give it an edge over competitors.  The Facebook program should launch this summer, with predictive tools for other social media outlets getting added to the mix later this year.