Too much data and not enough intelligence?

Sam Mikkelsen, business development manager at Adalyser, wonders who will finally ‘nail’ the challenging and complex task that is data…

If it’s not consumer data, its response data, click throughs, PPC, search, mobile, brand and of course research data. With so much data available, media agencies have an even bigger job and greater responsibility to their clients to measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns. Furthermore making sense of all this data and devising effective strategies for clients, is a very challenging and complex task.

This was highlighted at the MAP2011 Conference (Measuring Advertising Performance Conference 2011) in London a couple of months ago. For some advertisers econometric modelling is the answer, for others its better research. Some agencies are looking at unique ways to maximise profits and highlight new and exciting brand opportunities. For most it’s simply about getting faster analysis of their existing data to improve decision-making.

At Adalyser we work with advertisers and media agencies every day looking at cross media advertising data so we’re always keen get insights from other experts in data, analytics and advertising… after attending MAP2011 we came away enlightened but also a bit confused.

The line-up of speakers was impressive, leading lights in the industry including large well-known brands – BMW, McDonalds, Heinz, Barclaycard and Camelot. The research industry was equally well represented with Les Binet of DDB, Dan Hill from Sensory Logic, Nick Southgate of the IPA, and Jennie Beck of Kantar Media. The agencies included BBH, AKQA, AMV BBDO, Initiative, Saatchi & Saatchi and Universal McCann.

So who does what and how do they do it?

Econometrics was talked about extensively by most. McDonalds run analysis each day from store data and look for correlations in TV ad spend. Alastair Fairgrieve, VP and Chief Insight Officer told us how harnessing their data and measuring their various marketing channels (80% on TV) enabled them to optimise future campaigns.

Other companies use data in different ways – Les Binet of DDB Matrix showed us the power of creative advertising. We learned from Les that just measuring click through rate is not good enough in terms of measuring ROI, ignoring spend on offline activity means that the equation is ‘flawed’. He went on to claim that “Brand Response Analysis is massively underestimated” and stressed the need to take a “long term view”. Les insisted that to get even close to measuring ROI properly requires a “mix of methods” including direct response measurement, brand measurement and some econometric modelling.

So if Les is a true ‘data man’ then Jeffrey Graham of advertising agency Initiative might not be. Jeffrey had a very different outlook on data and ROI measurement. He argued that you “can never really measure mixed campaigns because the data isn’t all it’s cracked up to be”. He also questioned the thinking behind analysing historical data and results. “Measuring what you have done just to inform you of what to do, inherently has its own problems”, he added that; “It’s a barrier to innovation”.

Jeffrey went on to say that a new accountability model should look very different. “We should shift focus against selling the brand rather than against the response or analytics”. So the Research guy says one thing and the Ad Man says something quite different.

All fascinating stuff but potentially confusing for the advertiser new to marketing analytics. So what’s the next step? Do they need expensive econometric modelling or clever new research/measurement of ‘buzz’ to expose new markets? Maybe they do, but as David Pandit from BBH said: “You need to find a way of bringing all of your campaign data together in one place, that’s a start”.

The lasting impression from the WARC conference is that nobody (yet) has completely ‘nailed’ the analysis of all marketing but if using systems to measure the effectiveness of advertising is good enough for one of the biggest chains of ‘restaurants’ on the planet then it’s certainly good enough for us.

Sam Mikkelsen is presenting at this year’s Media Playground 2011 event on 9th June. For more information and to buy a discounted ticket, click here.

Adalyser is a web-based system that helps marketers measure response against TV, Press, Radio, Door Drop and Web advertising. Along with in-depth spot matching Adalyser illustrates correlations between offline media spend and online media activity to show how campaigns can be optimised and returns forecast more accurately.