November 2020 – Analyx

Reactions to this topic range from

“OMG, this is the return to Shotgun Marketing” via
“This is fortification to already existing walled gardens” to
“Nevermind, reach & conversion were overstated big time anyway”.

Whatever is yours: With Google’s move, around 90% of global browsers will block 3rd party cookies by end of 2021. This makes targeted digital ads a much more difficult endeavor. Privacy folks cheer, agencies and ad-techies grumble.

True, sudden death has been a long-time coming, with GDPR plus users blocking sweets proactively. And IMHO – despite all privacy concerns – a world with relevant advertising would certainly be more desirable to a world where I am hunted by dog food.

So what can CMOs do?

(1) Without being cynical: Big tech will be happy to continue offering you behavioral advertising. It just has to happen within their respective universe

(2) Invest into your own “1st party cookies”: Client studies at Analyx have shown repeatedly how valuable it is to invest into your own “1^st party cookies”, online and offline (Direct Mail, Loyalty).

(3) Contextual advertising will come and the same is true for machine learning techniques that will offer cross-device tracking without the use of any cookie technology

(4) Consider where you actually NEED individual tracking: For example, global budget allocation in marketing using advanced econometrics works fine with aggregated data and allows for markedly higher MROI without any privacy concerns.

How do you prepare for the looming #cookiepocalypse?
#WednesdayWhizz

Further reading:

Picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/posterboynyc/

Do you remember? A year ago, Simon Peel made headlines – not long after similar statements from Marc S. Pritchard – that a focus on short-term KPIs and the use of digital attribution has led to a single-mindedness on efficiency and the wrong mix.

We were delighted to read that adidas then deployed #econometrics in order to also capture the mid-term effects of their marketing activities. (Something next to impossible for a digital attribution model.)

Further, many articles back then basically said digital = performance. As we know now from our ongoing work on Online Video this is not necessarily the case: Under certain conditions digital advertising can indeed have brand building and reinforcement effects on consumers.

Nonetheless: Especially during the pandemic shifts in budget mix towards digital channels that are easier to ramp up and down has continued and even accelerated in some sectors.

So: Just a storm in a teacup?
Is the “renewed focus on generating brand desire” a myth?

How did the debate affect your #marketingmix?
Which techniques do you use to find the optimum between performance and brand?
Would love to hear from you!

#WednesdayWhizz

The above quote comes from the CMO of a multi-national FMCG.
Naturally (and by recent experience), we wouldn’t agree with it.

As we are seeing lockdowns again in many parts of Europe, CMOs have to plan for 2021. Many are asking us: Are our budget allocation tools still reliable in the #newnormal or is it back to gut feel while steering through the fog?

#MMMs help to quantify the impact of marketing activities on an economic outcome such as sales. In spring, Covid-19 disrupted this equation big time. The impact differs by category – just think gastro beer sales vs. hand sanitizer – and by media channel: #OOH was less effective during lockdowns vs. its long-term average.

After this initial shock however, the focus of many @Analyx clients shifted towards adapting budget allocation tools to new realities:

Incorporate data that helps MMMs separate “Covid impact” from the impact of marketing activities. Examples are data that capture changes in consumer mobility.
Refresh the MMMs more often in order to account for changes in demand and media effectiveness. This can be done semi-automatically and allows marketers to adjust optimal marketing mix faster in a volatile world.

How do you approach marketing planning in volatile times? Please write to us…

PS: On this matter, we also highly recommend the crisp thoughts of Prof. Koen Pauwels, e.g. here: https://youtu.be/LyfU41pTGPY

Image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/never_edit/

This seemingly provocative question has gained increasing traction within the media community and the impact of budget shifts is a very relevant consideration among CMOs.

Those who attended the digital #dmexco2020 may have seen Karen Nelson-Field PhD present about video advertising effectiveness. We learned about differences between TV, YouTube and other video formats in terms of attention, viewability, coverage, etc. And we concluded that TV is still a leading platform based on this ‘per ad’ impact perspective.

Yet, ROI ultimately determines budget shifts. In our models for clients, YouTube is one of the top channels throughout categories and brands.
Only few brands have (so far) shifted major budgets from TV to YouTube – or even suspended TV altogether. At Analyx, we are currently working on investigating these shifts and their impact on short-term ROI and Brand KPIs, which we observe thanks to our data partnership with YouGov.

We will share our findings on these exciting developments, so watch this space for updates!

Month: November 2020

Analyx® Offices