DMA – Digital Measurement Event

Precisely why marketers have turned to digital channels was laid painfully bare for traditional marketers at a DMA event earlier this month – and their reaction was shocking.

At an event labelled ‘digital measurement’, the always excellent Omaid Hiwaizi of Chemistry unveiled a piece of research that should have prompted constructive soul-searching for the many traditional marketers in the room, but which actually turned them into traditional apologists as they debated how marketers can’t measure digital nearly as well as they think they can.

Marketing spend follows measurement confidence

The research demonstrated a precise link between how well marketers feel they can measure something and how much money they are prepared to put into it. It did so by first asking a mix of integrated and digital DM marketers where they had increased budget last year and where they would do the same next year. The answer in both cases was digital, particularly email, natural search and websites.

Then respondents were asked how good they felt their approach to the measurement of an entire mix of on- and off-line disciplines to be. Answer: digital channels very high, traditional channels stunningly low.

In other words, the channels where marketers felt most confident in their ability to measure their success almost precisely mapped against those that have been growing and will continue to do so. And yet, discussion skipped this clear message entirely to focus on digital’s failings.

So, give them confidence

Like most, I understand fully that a customer’s ‘journey’ to a brand and product is a very long and complex one. I have indeed argued that marketers’ devotion to paid-search advertising, for example, does little justice to this fact. But, I also understand why marketers do it – because you can watch paid search working just as surely as you can follow a link to Amazon, buy the product and track the package to your door without leaving your web browser.

But, what was missed in the discussion was that it’s irrelevant how ‘truthful’ it is to trust digital measurement. The fact is marketers do have confidence in it and – as this research showed – they are spending on digital channels as a result.

The onus is thus on bodies just like the DMA to better prove the effectiveness of their members’ work or at least make a stronger argument that, just can’t because you can’t measure something, doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

Traditional channels should be losing market share because of the fragmentation of the media landscape and the increasing amount of time consumers spend online, but not because the sector has failed to give marketers confidence in their ability to measure their success.