In this article, written for the mSix’s website, I highlight how digital media has passed the tipping point and why marketers must evolve beyond the simplistic ‘long and short duopoly’ and use digital media to build brand fame as well as driving performance. The time is right to challenge and develop the original works of … Read More
Maximising Media Effectiveness and Efficiency
This is a piece I wrote for an m/SIX newsletter in January 2022. Effectiveness and efficiency are not the same but they are both critical in media strategy, planning and activation Intro Marketing effectiveness and campaign efficiency are intertwined terms across the open plan workspaces of both advertisers and agencies. But they mean very different … Read More
Six pioneers of marketing effectiveness past and present
I recently wrote this piece for an m/SIX newsletter – it summarises the contribution of six people to the development of marketing effectiveness. SIX pioneers of marketing effectiveness past and present 1. Claude Hopkins, the copywriter who earned $2.7m per year selling Bissell vacuum cleaners We all talk about market effectiveness and marketing science, but … Read More
What is Marketing Mix Modelling?
Marketing Mix Modelling or MMM is a regression-based approach to identifying the drivers of sales for a business or brand – making it a form of attribution. For many advertisers it is used to understand and optimise the effects of paid media in generating sales outcomes. Unlike many other forms of attribution, MMM aims to … Read More
Does excess share of voice (eSOV) guarantee brand sales growth?
Excess share of voice (eSOV) is an important concept in marketing and media investment planning. The “excess” represents the degree to which your brand’s share of voice exceeds its share of market. Numerous studies have examined this relationship and consistently found that an excess share of voice over share of market is likely to result … Read More
Adstock and Diminishing Returns: non-linear advertising effects
Adstock is an important concept in marketing effectiveness. It was first quantified by Simon Broadbent in the 1970s. Its value lies in helping make marketing and media mix models more accurate by recognising that advertising and media investments have non-linear “carryover” response effects. These non-linear effects are normally grouped into two areas: the delayed effect … Read More
Coronavirus: why measurement is the key to ending the lockdown
Bill Gates once said “I have been struck again and again by how important measurement is to improving the human condition.” On April 7th, Mark Woolhouse Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh said ‘As things stand we could be out by a factor or 10 or even 100‘ [1]. Testing only … Read More
Unilever points the way by maintaining adspend in Coronavirus crisis
What is full funnel attribution in marketing?
Imagine this situation. You work in a large organisation as a digital marketing manager. You observe a sharp increase in GA direct, organic and brand generic web traffic. You want to explain the uptick but there’s nothing in your digital data that can explain it. However, you do know that your brand launched a TV/AV … Read More
What is the craft of media planning?
Over the last year people have been increasingly talking about the “craft” of media planning. Back in February 2019, Gideon Spanier the media editor of Campaign wrote, “the craft of media planing needs to make a comeback” and he further opined that “media planning has declined in importance in recent years – with serious consequences”. … Read More