The Media Rating Council, the third-party accreditation organization that checks Nielsen and other measurement firms’ methodology, is likely to reach a decision about the status of Nielsen’s national TV service early next week–and the industry is bracing for Nielsen’s longstanding National TV measurement service to lose its accreditation, opening another major fissure in its longstanding…
After facing intensifying pressure from the industry to shore up its measurement offerings, Nielsen has taken the unprecedented step of halting third-party accreditation of its own national TV ratings service. In a statement released Thursday morning, a Nielsen spokesperson said that it would halt the accreditation that the third-party Media Rating Council normally provides as…
As the eventual end of the third-party cookie continues to loom over the digital media industry, Nielsen is rolling out a new approach to measuring digital traffic in a way that doesn’t rely on the soon-to-be-obsolete digital identifiers. The approach, which Nielsen took the wraps off today, will use two ways to measure digital traffic…
The industry group that represents major television networks is calling on the nonprofit Media Rating Council to strip Nielsen’s accreditation in an unprecedented escalation of a months-long feud centered on the accuracy of Nielsen ratings. On Wednesday morning, the Video Advertising Bureau, which counts A+E Networks, Disney, Fox, NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS (among others) as members,…
TikTok introduced TikTok Brand Life Study, a first-party measurement solution aimed at helping brands measure and optimize their advertising resonance on the video creation platform. TikTok Brand Life Study is an immersive, in-feed polling experience that brings the music and motion graphics TikTok is known for to their feeds or For You pages, prompting users…
As part of the CMO Reboot Playbook: Reallocation of Spend, Petco CMO Tariq Hassan shares why it is crucial to be able to talk about how brand perception impacts actual business outcomes and how to do it. Check out more plays from top CMOs and brand leaders here. This transcript has been edited by Adweek…
Clients. You can’t live with them and you can’t live without them. Increasingly, ad pros are somehow living without them, and in too many cases it’s the agency’s fault. Kristi VandenBosch of VandenBosch Group in NYC asked when did our industry become so dishonest? It started with the financial model: the FTE as a unit […]
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Do you trust your data? Do you trust your data provider? Do you trust that someone on your team will parse the data that you do trust into common sense insights that can be acted upon? People say data is more valuable than gold. People also say all that glitters is not gold. I once […]
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Martin Weigel has been Head of Planning at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam since 2009. He has some strong ideas to share about the business. Like this one: When we succumb to the fantasy that we can professionalise creativity, that we can extract the play, unpredictability, and human element out of the process, that it can be treated […]
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In 1898, Elias St.Elmo Lewis developed a model that mapped the consumers’ journey. Today, we call his framework the sales funnel. Some Marcom philosophers posit that the sales funnel is dead on arrival today. But Beth, an Associate Professor of Advertising at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication says not so fast. What […]
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U.S. agency revenue rose 4.4% to $48.3 billion in 2016, according to Ad Age Datacenter. All major agency disciplines grew last year, led by healthcare, up 7.6%. Promotion gained 5.4%, boosted by experiential marketing. The data-centric field of CRM/direct marketing rose 4.5%. PR increased 3.2%. Also, U.S. ad agency employment in December reached its highest […]
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A decade ago many “digital agencies” were primarily production shops sub-contracting out to the big agencies in big cities. It was a profitable business for several years, but many clients were not fully satisfied. Something was missing. According to Joe Olsen, CEO of Rova, that something was the strategy that would wed digital production to […]
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President Trump has the power to rock markets and drive a company’s stock price up or down. He may not intend to upset a company’s apple cart, but the outcome of his erratic actions is the same. When the man drops a Tweet Bomb from his Samsung, things are bound to explode. Melanie McShane, head […]
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Business results. ROI. Clients love it; ergo, agencies must provide it to remain essential. Enter the Warc 100, an annual ranking of the world’s 100 best campaigns and companies, based on their performance in effectiveness and strategy competitions. The rankings are compiled based on the winners of 87 effectiveness and strategy awards from around the […]
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I have never been a fan of anonymous content. I rarely point to it. But today is a new day. The latest in Digiday’s series of anonymous reports from inside the agency business—Confessions of a social media strategist—is worth a careful read.
The anonymous writer works at one of “the leading digital agencies in New York.” The critic claims that social departments place too much value on engagement, and “the other abhorrent trend has been the pathetic attempt by brands to ‘keep relevant’.”
Here’s a selection of random Tweets that fit the writer’s definition of over-emphasis on the trivial.
Happy National Hamburger Day AKA best holiday ever! Hungry yet? #sullivansisland #chseats pic.twitter.com/vHYOTMkgYj
— Poe’s Tavern (@PoesTavern) May 28, 2014
It’s National Hamburger Day! DYK, the world’s largest burger was 3,591 pounds? @thelatintimes http://t.co/UONbFbWUS0 #nationalburgerday…
— Del Monte Fresh (@DelMonteFresh) May 28, 2014
Retweet if you think Whataburger should be the official burger of #NationalHamburgerDay pic.twitter.com/A1DddfWHOi
— Whataburger® (@Whataburger) May 28, 2014
By the way, today is National Hamburger Day.
I believe there is merit to the complaints above. However, I do know how deafening the silence can be in social channels, and what it feels like to wonder if anyone is out there listening. The answer is yes, someone is out there listening. Maybe a friend, maybe not.
In brand communications terms, the goal is to make genuine connections with real customers and prospects, in person and again via interactive media. When there are no “Likes,” and no comments, it sure seems like there is no interest. That’s the human response, but is it true from a marcom perspective?
You tell me.
The anonymous writer working at “one of the leading digital agencies in New York” wonders if he/she has wasted the last four years of life by working in social media. I’ve been working in #SMM for much longer, so if it is wasted time producing meaningless ephemera, that would truly suck.
My read is engagement is primarily a feel good metric. Naturally, we all enjoy feel good metrics when they work in our favor. That’s why people obsess over follower counts and game the system by purchasing followers. Follower counts are feel good metrics that you can wear as a badge.
In related news, Todd Wasserman of Mashable notes:
These are weird times for the advertising world. TV is still where the money is, but the creative momentum has shifted to digital to the point where no one cares about your $100 million spend anymore, though they’re fascinated about the gratis thing you’re doing on Snapchat.
I am unclear who the people are that don’t care about TV and do care about Snapchat. Is it the clients? I’m pretty sure the clients care about all the money they spend. Is it the creatives? I’m pretty sure they care about making TV. It must be the consumers of branded media that no longer care about TV spots, because they’re busy sending pics that disappear on Snapchat. Maybe no one cares.
Okay, can we reasonably conclude that social media marketing needs to be improved? I think so. Just as all marketing needs to be improved.
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An article in Ad Age this week suggests all is not well at McDonald’s. And the ads are getting the blame for a sales slump.
Certainly, lackluster ads deserve scrutiny, but ad agencies are promising even more in the way of analytics to determine how effective campaigns can be. So if an agency promises results, who’s to blame when the results aren’t there?
In any marketing or ad campaign, you can make a laundry list of factors that could affect the ultimate results: The media mix. The quality of the imagery. Lack of mobile-optimized sites and emails. Or go beyond the actual agency-produced component: What happens when a consumer decides to buy something, or get more information, and that end of the experience falls short? Clearly it affects results, but should an advertising agency be held accountable for it?
While clients sign off on creative briefs, the media mix, and any testing mechanisms, agencies are often the first to get blamed for an effort that falls short of their promises or a client’s expectations. A successful advertising campaign has a thousand parents. A failed campaign is an orphan.
It’s the subject of my new column on Talent Zoo.
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Follower counts in social channels don’t mean much, but no matter how many times a social media expert repeats this fundmental bit of advice, numbers continue to dazzle CMOs and others famished for metrics.
Which explains why Land Rover has made a note of a social media milestone, namely its one millionth “Like” on Facebook.
Even if the occasion isn’t actually all that auspicious, the ad is a nice “Thank You” note to Land Rover fans.
And why not take the opportunity to say thanks for your attention, thanks for buying Land Rover and including the brand in your social updates?
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Fact: When it comes to marketing spending, analog still outstrips digital by a factor of three to one.
Jake Sorofman, an analyst with Gartner, supplied the cold hard fact above in a Harvard Business Review article.
It’s the kind of fact that my friend Bob Hoffman likes, and likes to use to convince CMOs and other innocents, that digital is a good place to experiment but to move metal or sell cheeseburgers, stick to broadcast.
Oddly, TV isn’t all that easy to measure, whereas digital initiatives are all about measurement. From Sorofman’s article:
…with digital techniques, everything is measurable. Feedback loops tighten, segmentation becomes microtargeting, and optimizations can happen on the fly or even in real time. The relationship between investment and impact becomes correlated and causal — and the CMO becomes accountable down to the dime and moment by moment. Light dawns on the marketing spend! This transparency is powerful when quarters are turning into dollars for the business — but potentially perilous when the opposite is the case.
Knowledge is power. Let’s not deny a core principle. But can we entertain that not everything in advertising or the universe is knowable? Can we allow for magic to happen? Is there a line item for magic? There needs to be, because a brand is so much more than a series of A-B tests, performed ad infinitum. A brand is the grand sum of experiences people have with a company. A brand is customer service, product and look and feel.
Sorofman reflects on imagined days gone by. “Like Mad Men’s Don Draper, the CMO became the master of the soft-shoe performance.”
I don’t argue that there are charlatans in every line of work, but I do contest that knowing what works is an act of some kind. Knowing where to put a word, where to place a support beam in a house, or where to make an incision during surgery, are all practical skills that also require intuition and a deft touch.
I have no issue with Quants storming the CMO’s office, or my own office for that matter, but let’s keep some perspective and our eyes on the prize. Brand building is a human enterprise, and humans are observed from every angle, yet continue to surprise.
The post Marketers Are Brand Architects And Building Brands Takes More Than Math appeared first on AdPulp.
The recession has either changed the way advertisers do business or has forced us to reevaluate the ways in which we do business. The focus has shifted to the effectiveness and efficiency of an ad campaign rather than stressing the campaign or ad variables such as reach and effective frequency.
If you work in a media department, then measuring effectiveness and efficiency is something you’ve likely done for years with little to no fanfare from the client side. Well, the climate’s changed, and clients are concerned more than ever — with good reason — that their ads and campaigns meet efficient, effective, and measurable goals. Their priority is to connect with the target audience in a manner that’s more in-tune with a reduced budget. Clients are are requiring or searching for agencies capable of providing campaigns that work harder and smarter.
In addition, advertisers (namely P&G and Coca Cola), have instituted Value Based Compensation (VBC) arrangements made up of a pay-for-performance (P4P) layout that can be attained in addition to a base fee.
The Nielsen Company has just announced that a new software product, Rapid Campaign Evaluation (RCE), a fast and inexpensive means to review ad performance in just over a week. Due to the costs incurred when an ad or campaign is launched, RCE will give agencies information quickly so as to allow them to respond in an appropriate manner.
Richard Reeves, associate director of Consumer Research Services at the Nielsen Company, notes an agency not only will have the ability to evaluate their own endeavors but the ability to evaluate their competitor’s as well.
“Whenever a new commercial is executed,” Reeves says, “there is always that element of anticipation about how it will perform in the ‘real world.’ If it’s a competitor’s ad — you are usually left worrying about the damage it will do to your brand.”
RCE was designed and tested in Australia to measure the strength (or weakness) of TV spots. How many people saw or heard the ads or whether the audience was able to determine the advertiser and the take-away message will provide advertisers with almost “real-time” data they can then use to readjust their tactics such as:
In just over a week, agencies will be able to view data in order to evaluate effectiveness or lack thereof, ensuring clients get the biggest bang for their buck.
While advertising “gurus” have bandied back and forth as to the fairness or plausibility of the VBC model, companies, such as Coca Cola, have already put it into action. In truth, it’s the most equitable payment arrangement; agencies require media vendors to prove their performance. Why shouldn’t clients require the same from their agencies?
Nielsen’s new software is just another step in the ongoing evolution of the industry.
Jeff Louis has over ten years of brand-building, media strategy, and new business experience. His passion is writing, while his strong suit seems to be sarcasm. You can follow Jeff on Twitter or become a fan on Examiner.com.
The Wall Street Journal spoke to some spooked ad execs about Google’s new metrics offering.
“For an advertiser, the last thing you want to do is to have your adviser be the same person you are spending your money with,” says Sarah Fay, chief executive of Aegis North America, the media-buying giant owned by Aegis Group of the U.K.
Billions of marketing dollars a year trade hands based at least in part on Web-audience figures. Google’s new tool could bring more efficiency to the process of buying online ads. And their service–unlike comScore’s and Nielsen’s–is free.
Considering Google’s technical acumen, if such an announcement comes on Tuesday, competitors could be in for an unpleasant time, says David A. Utter of WebProNews.
In other Google news, federal lawmakers are scrutinizing the new Yahoo-Google ad deal, spurred on by marketers upset at the lack of competition in the online advertising marketplace.
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