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21 CENTURY
ST
MARKETING
MANIFESTO
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Introduction
Marketers have long been challenged to prove how their actions, The old marketing order believes that it’s too di cult to understand or
campaigns, and initiatives are responsible for generating business measure the in uences holistically during the customer journey.
results.
The customer journey seems like a black box – the prospect enters it
This isn’t a new challenge – late 19th century retailer John Wanamaker, and immediately disappears from sight. We toss content, digital experi-
a marketing pioneer considered by many as the father of modern adver- ences, and every creative tactic we can into that black box, hoping the
tising, once said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the prospect stumbles across them.
trouble is I don’t know which half.”
Sometimes the prospect exits the black box and becomes a customer,
Intuitively, marketers understand that their e orts in uence business but other times not.
results, but marketers have not endeavored to learn the degree to
It seems there’s no way of knowing which content, through which
which they do so for a variety of reasons. Some haven’t had to because
channel, in uenced the prospect while inside the black box, so marketers
strong business results let them o the hook.
must use instincts and what little intelligence we can glean to tweak what
More than a few fear knowing the truth. Others don’t feel they have we throw into the black box.
the resources to pursue an answer, and still others believe that under-
At best, we see some incremental improvements, and there’s tremen-
standing the relationship between marketing e orts and business results
dous uncertainty about connecting activities to results.
is unknowable with any degree of precision.
Whatever the reasons, the myth that marketing cannot truly under-
stand the impact of what it does perpetuates.
Imagine the power of connecting these dots, of knowing the causes and
effects of marketing’s work. The purpose of this manifesto is to express the vision for
this new marketing order and call marketers to it. In this
How much more intelligently could we optimize the multi-channel mix
data-driven, multi-channel marketing world in which we now
most of us use?
operate, marketers can eliminate the guesswork about how
How much farther could we stretch our marketing budgets by knowing
their activities are creating results.
what exactly is and isn’t working?
How easy would justifying the marketing spend be when we’re not
guessing which efforts produced results, and to what degree?
How would it feel to be right at home in an ROI discussion about our
work?
When someone asks, “what have you done for us lately?” to have an
authoritative answer that puts to rest any doubt?
This is the new marketing order, and it’s not futuristic science fiction, but
something marketers can embrace here and now.
Multi-channel Marketing
There was a time when marketers would direct mail a
“More than ever before, Marketing has direct control over
piece to a list of prospects, and then wait for responses.
the sales/buying process and with it the customer journey.
Marketers could easily do the analytics and tracking to
That change has given Marketing more opportunity to
match responses to the mailing, determine the conversion
prove its value to the company, while at the same time
rate, cost to acquire a customer, and the ROI. It was easy
increasing pressure to deliver results with measureable
to understand what produced the conversion because,
advances in performance and productivity.”
not only was it the last thing the consumer saw, it was the
Clare Price
only thing the consumer saw.
VP of Research at Demand Metric
When the internet evolved into a marketing platform, the
old metrics were used, with help from cookies and tags
to track everything and detect conversions. Initially, this
The set of things about which the modern marketer is concerned with
approach worked, but as the number of online channels
simply continues to expand. Consider just the tools and technologies
continues to proliferate, the challenge for the marketer
marketers have at their disposal, as illustrated in the Marketing Technology
is to get clarity of insight into what’s happening because
LUMAscape (Figure 1, Page 6) published by Luma Partners in 2014.
of this media stream.
MODERN MARKETING DILEMMA 21ST CENTURY MARKETING MANIFESTO BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 6
Which elements best create awareness, promote, and produce FIGURE 2: THE NEW MULTI-SCREEN WORLD; Published by Google
conversions?
The influence of the old way of assigning credit for conversion persisted:
last click attribution. This form of attribution assigned full credit for
conversion to the last piece of media in the stream, regardless of how
diverse the media stream was.
The silos of marketing data are reflected in the way many modern 12
Conversions
marketing organizations are structured. Today we see separate functions
for analytics, offline, digital, and others. 10
These are essentially silos that reinforce how reporting is done. The 8
result is that there is no single source of data or system of record for
marketing leaders to use to understand how the marketing function is
6
performing.
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Weeks
CURRENT MARKETING CHALLENGES 21ST CENTURY MARKETING MANIFESTO BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 11
In a single media element (channel) marketing campaign, a response In this scenario, a number of media elements entered the stream and
curve is a useful tool for predicting performance. had various levels of influence.
Most modern campaigns, however, are not one-dimensional but However, the response curve is deaf, dumb, and blind to their existence.
multi-channel. Using the response curve to optimize a campaign is analogous to diag-
nosing a car’s mechanical problems by looking only at the tires.
Marketers that use a response curve can unwittingly become hostage to
it, attempting intra-channel tweaking and modification that at best yields Sometimes it works, but usually it doesn’t. Better solutions are needed
basis point-sized improvements. for true multi-channel marketing.
Bringing True Marketing Strategy to the Table How do tactics, devices, and audiences perform across channels and
what is the interplay? Customers experience the media stream across
Marketers desire to be part of the strategic planning and decision-making a variety of devices, platforms, and through various channels. How is
processes in the organizations they serve. Indeed, marketers can bring this interaction occurring, and which types of interaction produce the
brilliant insights and a unique, needed perspective to the “big decisions most conversions? Having this knowledge is essential to optimizing the
table” within their companies. mix of marketing tactics, channels, and devices, but since the data is
The risk for marketers, however, is that the inability to answer some often in silos, it’s hard for marketers to understand the relationships, let
questions about their work with conviction and authority can jeop- alone make decisions to leverage them more effectively.
ardize their leadership role. Ironically, many of these questions seem What is the optimal marketing spending mix within each channel
very operational, but the inability to answer them precisely creates doubt based on a desired business outcome? Most marketers have experi-
about marketing’s ability to contribute insights in other areas. Examples ence to tell them that the relationship between spending and results
of these “tripwire” questions include: is not linear, nor is it exponential. But what is it exactly? Largely
What is the incremental contribution of each marketing channel, above unknown, when there is no precise attribution data. When the organi-
“business as usual?” In the multi-channel world that marketers exploit, zation comes knocking, asking how much marketing needs to spend
rarely do they all influence equally and outside the influence of other to produce an additional $25 million in revenue, it expects an answer
channels. Yet, it’s important to know the degree to which each channel in from marketing that is more than just an educated guess.
the media stream contributes to conversion. Most marketers don’t have
Each of these questions is a legitimate, fair question for marketing. It is
this data for each channel; just for the media stream as a whole.
important for marketing to have the acumen and ability to answer ques-
If it becomes necessary to increase or decrease marketing, which tions like these if they want to retain their seat at the big decisions table.
channels are candidates and what is the expected outcome? Few
When the media world was much simpler, marketing could answer them
marketers have the luxury of never needing to worry about changing
pretty well. In the 21st century, the complex media and device landscape
budgets. Where would cuts hurt the least, or conversely, where would
has made the answers to these questions more elusive, at least when
some additional funding help the most? For most marketers, fluctuating
20th century approaches are used to find them.
funding is essentially a controlled experiment where changes are made,
one channel at a time if possible, to see what happens. It’s far more ideal In fairness, answering any of these questions with precision was once
to have precise marketing performance data about each channel in the out of reach, but the environment has changed. The answers are avail-
media stream to know in advance what impact changes will have. able, if marketers are willing to seek them.
MODERN MARKETING PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT 21ST CENTURY MARKETING MANIFESTO BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 13
What has changed is this process now occurs in a more complex envi-
ronment, across multiple channels, devices, and at greater velocity.
The internet has changed almost every aspect of the marketer’s work-
bench; things like speed, reach, targeting, and complexity.
The sands of the marketing landscape are shifting under the marketer’s
feet, requiring tremendous agility.
Data from the bottom of the funnel has always been easier to get. Making
campaign decisions on this data leads to heavier and heavier investment
in demand harvesting.
MODERN MARKETING PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT 21ST CENTURY MARKETING MANIFESTO BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 15
Even when a marketer gets the balance right, it’s always temporary
because the optimal media mix is a moving target, and the old ways of
managing campaigns is analogous to driving forward by looking in the
rear-view mirror.
Simultaneously, one of the CFO’s objectives was greater efficiency Data-driven attribution was not difficult to justify at Bluestem.
in media spending, so the company had pursued figuring out the Holthaus explains:
ideal media weight as a top priority over the previous 18 months.
“Our CFO is very involved in understanding the major
The last click attribution model made it difficult to determine the
industry trends. When I arrived, he was already aware of
ideal media weight with any precision.
data-driven attribution and had inquired about it. Bluestem
Holthaus brought to Bluestem his experience using data-driven is very focused on results and understanding data,
attribution from a previous employer. He understood the impor- therefore, it was not a hard sell.”
tance of knowing the fractional attribution rate of the full media
stream, so he knew that to fully leverage its media spending Blue- Implementation is also going smoothly.
stem needed data-driven attribution to optimize the marketing
spend. Holthaus states: “The technology side isn’t that bad. I expected it to be
harder, but most of the work is pixel implementation or
“As a digital marketer, this was one of the most important tagging. Implementing tags across channels hasn’t been as
things for us to look at. It’s exciting as a marketer to understand difficult as it might sound. The process has gone smoothly,
what’s driving the incremental impact. Without a data- better than I expected.”
driven attribution model, Bluestem could not get to a level of
granularity of how media is working together in real time.”
Because data-driven attribution is an emerging solution, Holthaus
Holthaus has several industry peers as acquaintances, many in expects most marketers to question the metrics and attribution
prominent retail organizations. When he asks them about attribu- methodology, to have some skepticism. Holthaus concludes:
tion, he’s learned that many of these companies aren’t there yet and “I have seen the data-driven attribution methodology and
are using last click/last touch models, if they’re doing anything at all. I believe in it. It is the right way to look at attribution. It
The experience that Holthaus has with data-driven attribution shouldn’t be too difficult for people to get it.”
has helped him position Bluestem ahead of its peers in under-
standing how each element in the media stream is performing
and what is the ideal media weight.
SUCCESSFUL MARKETING LEADERSHIP 21ST CENTURY MARKETING MANIFESTO BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 18
Marketing Checklist
Get a holistic view. When media performance data does exist, it’s Operationalize the results. Data-driven attribution will provide a
often in silos. Getting a complete view of this data is the first step to new view of marketing performance. This view should influence how
understanding media performance and optimizing it. not just marketing, but also how the entire organization, functions.
Integrate the results into the budgeting and forecasting processes, as
Define the metrics. Marketing must have a set of unified metrics to
well as the marketing technology stack.
evaluate its performance on a fully attributed, contributed value basis
– a true apples-to-apples comparison. Address the elephant in the room. Data-driven attribution can
help you know what to do about the mobile channel, the marketing
Think beyond digital. It’s easy to think of data-driven attribution as just
juggernaut about which many marketing organizations have their
a digital marketing measurement solution. In the real world, campaigns
heads buried in the sand. Organizations that don’t yet have a plan for
often blend offline media with digital to produce conversions. The
the mobile channel – and any other channel they don’t know what
capabilities and benefits of data-driven attribution are not limited to
to do with – can use attribution insights to develop a sound strategy.
just digital media.
Invest to win. Use the insights gained from the implementation of
data-driven attribution to optimize channels in the media stream, as Marketers in any size company are realizing that data-driven
well as tactical optimization within each channel. attribution provides a powerful mechanism to understand
incremental sales lift from each channel, optimize the media
mix, and turn marketing into a true revenue-generating center.
ABOUT DEMAND METRIC 21ST CENTURY MARKETING MANIFESTO BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 20
www.demandmetric.com
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