Welcome to the Age of Accountable Advertising
By Ian French, President & Partner
For those of us in the marketing business, these are fantastic times.
Thanks to the internet, mobile devices and the multichannel TV universe, we marketers have literally millions of consumers within our reach. And we can sift and sort through this vast population to deliver customized messages to specific consumers with pinpoint accuracy. And, most importantly, we can track, test and verify the effectiveness of our messages – within seconds.
It's astonishing, really. Despite the decline of direct mail and the rise of do-not-call lists, the digital revolution has given us not only unprecedented access to consumers, but also the technology to track, measure and optimize our advertising in a way our predecessors could only have dreamed of.
And here’s the real magic: because we can measure the results of our creative blood, sweat and tears more accurately than ever before, we can also create advertising campaigns that are more powerful, persuasive and profitable than ever before.
The same holds true for both online and TV media. Because we can also measure media performance with unprecedented accuracy, we can deliver those client campaigns more efficiently than ever before.
Welcome to the Age of Accountable Advertising.
Of course, Accountable Advertising is about more than just measurement. It’s based on the premise that the best advertising is the advertising that works best – not the funniest, most entertaining or most disruptive, but the most effective. In other words, it’s about advertising that builds brand, drives sales and delivers a measurable ROI.
Accountable Advertising combines creative and analytics to develop campaigns based on data – not guesswork or suppositions. Campaigns based not on how we think, hope or suspect consumers will act when they encounter our marketing messages but, rather, how they really, truly act.
Most importantly, Accountable Advertising is based on the premise that all campaigns should become continually more effective and efficient over time, as new learnings are used to continually optimize performance. Think of it! With a robust testing strategy in place, strategic, tactical and creative questions that have bedeviled advertising campaigns for years can be definitively answered:
- Wondering which TV creative will sell the most insurance policies or raise the most money for your international nonprofit organization?
- Confused about which size or colour of your banner ad on which site performs better?
- Curious about which words best describe your product, cause or service?
- Struggling to identify the words consumers are most likely to use when searching online for your product?
- Wrestling with the positioning that will best increase consumer or donor loyalty?
- Debating which microsite headline is more effective, which picture is more convincing or which offer is more compelling?
- Wondering if the order form should be on the first or second page of your microsite?
All of these questions and countless others can now be answered quickly and cost-effectively in the brave new world of accountability.
Many people believe the ability to measure real-world results will sap the creativity out of advertising. We disagree.
Creativity in art, music and literature is highly subjective. It cannot and should not be assessed in terms of sales, popularity or even critical opinion.
Creativity in advertising, on the other hand, is based on results that can and must be measured. In advertising, creative that increases sales is, by definition, good. Creative that suppresses sales, is by definition, not so good. This seems simple enough until you realize how foreign this concept is to many advertising agencies.
Clients, however, are ready and willing to embrace Accountable Advertising. After all, they have an awesome responsibility: to build their business through sales and marketing. They can’t afford not to take advantage of the technologies now available to marketers. Clients know advertising is an investment and they want – no, they demand – a return on that investment. And they want their agency partners to understand this reality. Those who do will secure their client’s respect and loyalty. Those who do not will miss the irreplaceable opportunity to help clients build their businesses in the new world economy.
Welcome to the Age of Accountable Advertising.