Restoring Balance in Performance-Driven Environments
Let's cut to the chase: We've got ourselves a glut of data, and tech's advancing like a dueling banjo at a redneck wedding. The stakes are high for businesses, and our industry's growth agenda's got us sweating bullets. But we can't forget about nurturing a culture of effectiveness. Here's why—and how—we need to shake things up.
Last year at the Campaign Media360 conference, a consultant told us 80% of CEOs don't trust their CMOs. And let's be real—that's not exactly a confidence booster. Worse still, the IPA's Marketing as an Investment report highlights we've got a credibility issue with the CFOs, a problem that's historically been an inconvenient truth.
Now, we're not out here sounding the death knell of our industry. Instead, we're talking about finding a balance between art and science. We're living in a complex ecosystem, and sometimes we can come off as nebulous and abstract. To stay relevant and drive real business growth, we've gotta rebalance the scales. Here's a breakdown of why effectiveness culture matters.
Data, Measurement, and Winning the Client's Trust
Are we using data to learn for the future or justify past actions? It's 2023, and data and information are abundant, but we're lacking the know-how to measure success in a way that truly benefits the client's business.
According to the IPA's 'Defining Marketing Effectiveness' report, the key to success lies in defining the right metrics and approach to assess effectiveness for each company. This means understanding the client's business beyond just the marketing function. Areas like media strategy and commercial implications must be considered for a truly effective marketing campaign.
Stopping the short-termism for a second, effectiveness needs to be about the long-term growth of the client's business. To achieve that, we need to start seeing media as a strategic lever, not just a tactical one. This means engaging with our media owner partners, creating consistent strategy throughout the marketing engine room, and working in tandem with advertisers to speak their language of success, not just platform click-through benchmarks.
Crafting Creative Campaigns and Innovating with Data
We believe that brands can gain a competitive advantage by constructing powerful emotional bonds with consumers. But how can we pull that off in the fast-paced, short-term world? The answer lies in media and creative teams working together to create the best possible consumer experience while producing the right business results.
The art of our business is about tapping into cultural nuances, allowing creative teams to explore innovative ideas, and understanding the consumer journey at a deeper level. With the right dataset, we can distill the moments of impact where media creativity can shine. The key is to harness technology to supercharge human creativity; not the other way around.
Collaboration and Continuous Learning
Effectiveness culture needs to permeate throughout the supply chain, including media owners. By fostering a culture of collaboration and learning at the top of our business, we can create better output, produce more effective work, and attract like-minded clients.
The tension between short-term and long-term results is always going to be there. But it's about demonstrating how effectiveness runs throughout our organizations, from media planning to products, talent, and technology. It's about how and when we engage with our media owner partners and creating measurement frameworks that align with the client's language of success.
Ultimately, an effectiveness culture benefits everyone: agencies, advertisers, media owners, and clients alike. By embracing the art and science of advertising, we can foster a culture of collaboration, continuous learning, and ultimately, deliver world-class campaigns that drive real business results. And that's something we can all get behind.
- In order to foster trust between CEOs and CMOs, we need to find a balance between the art of marketing and the science of effectiveness, as highlighted in the IPA's Marketing as an Investment report.
- To grow businesses sustainably and effectively, we must approach media strategy with a long-term vision, leveraging technology to measure success in a way that benefits the client's business, as suggested by the IPA's 'Defining Marketing Effectiveness' report.
- By collaborating with media owners and innovation with data, we can create powerful emotional bonds with consumers and produce creative campaigns that deliver the right business results, as we believe in the interplay between human creativity and technology.
- To attract like-minded clients and deliver world-class campaigns, we must cultivate a culture of continuous learning and collaboration throughout our organizations, extending to media owners and advertisers, with a focus on aligning measurement frameworks with the client's language of success.
