Measure More than Just Media

It’s reassuring isn’t it? Having just the right metrics when leadership asks those tough questions. How are we really doing? What’s actually working? Is this even the right plan? Marketers can turn to their performance data and show which channels are up or down and which specific ad units are drawing more numbers. Or they can slice and dice those outputs to pinpoint everything from incremental upticks to big wins with any yardstick you care to try. That’s great. But lately, I’ve been thinking, has this singular focus on media performance metrics gone a little too far? It seems like, in attempting to scientifically prove success, we’re sidelining both the artistry of the marketing message and the understanding of what makes great creative work.

The rapid rise of performance marketing over the past few years has backed us into a corner where many brands now prioritize the levers to pull that make the slots spin and the coins fall. That’s only going to get more intense as AI-enabled buying and testing speeds every message to consumers, as well as the sheer volume of them, faster than marketers can perfect what they want to say. As all of this happens, I’m asking all of our agency teams – is it time to think differently about the balance of creative ideas and results? Can we better apply the science of performance metrics to the art of creative in order not to just deliver a message, but make sure it lands every time? If you agree, read on.

Creative? expression can outmatch performance

A 2017 Nielsen study points to a truth some marketers have lost sight of: creative delivers. At 47% the creative execution and artistic expression of an ad outperforms reach (22%) and targeting (15%) to create the biggest sales lifts for a brand. History is chock full of examples that remind us of the intangible power of artistry over performative excellence. Think about boxing legend Muhammad Ali. Yes there were real technicians like Sugar Ray Robinson or Joe Louis but Ali’s mix of skill, attitude and unmatched charisma made him arguably the most memorable boxer in history. Or in the 1998 winter Olympics when Michelle Kwan gave a near perfect technical performance but Tara Lapinski’s youthful exuberance and interpretive artistry brought home gold in the women’s singles. In other words, yes, we can and must measure technical performance in how and why ads work but it’s creativity that makes consumers notice and applaud.

Don’t think creative can’t be measured

As marketers let’s rethink the balance between creative and performance analytics – and remember these aren’t mutually exclusive. Creative can and should be measured. That starts with assessing and testing headlines, fonts, colors, campaign concepts, and the many other creative variables and elements across? varying ad units to determine which resonate and engage with consumers best - as well as why. And as AI accelerates the near real-time ability to craft hundreds of versions of brand and ad creative for rapid deployment into the market, it’s going to be crucial for marketers to aggressively monitor and measure which variables and versions land best and trigger consumers into action alongside media performance.

To help with all of this and more, the? better analytics agency partners can build sophisticated, custom scorecards that visualize data about your brand and creative campaigns. Easily accessible dashboards can include key metrics that provide insights into consumer sentiment, degree of engagement, quality of brand creative across campaigns, and brand health. Overall, they’re a vital tool for marketers aiming to understand ideas and executions to maintain and enhance a strong, successful brand.

What to look for in a brand scorecard

There are eight essential elements that help marketers benchmark consumer perceptions and performance of their brands to shape future creative and marketing efforts:

1. Customer Insights and Feedback

The foundational indicator of creative executions that deliver: what do consumers think and feel? Are they motivated to try, purchase and repeat?

2. Consumer Sentiment

Collated data from your Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores, as well as sentiment analysis from social media and review platforms, helps you gauge the overall perception of the brand. Positive sentiment can track satisfaction and loyalty, and negative spotlight issues and areas for improvement.

3. Consumer Engagement

Website traffic and stickiness, email open and click-through rates as well as social media engagement from likes, comments and shares are all visualized in the scorecard to assess how consumers are interacting with the brand as well as possibilities for improvement.

4. Brand Awareness

Does your brand stand out in the competition, and can consumers instantly recall it? What’s your share of voice in terms of both market penetration and search volume data? Tracking this defines reach and helps adjust both creative strategy and media execution.

5. Quality of Brand Creative

KPIs that look like performance metrics when visualized and reported correctly can become guidelines for creative direction. How are consumers recalling brand creative? Use consumer feedback to assign a creative quality score and then marry that with campaign engagement and conversion rates to pinpoint creative directions that deliver.

6. Brand Equity

Bring together a brand equity index score with brand valuation, market share and consumer preference metrics to benchmark your brand’s value and strength in the market.

7. Customer Retention and Loyalty

If creative is landing as it should, and activating consumers, customer retention, churn, loyalty program participation and repeat purchase rates should all validate that. When retention and repeat purchase rates drop, however, creative must be adjusted to newly engage consumers.

8. Marketing ROI

Lastly, does your brand creative deliver against budget? Is the investment of resources into creative brand and campaign work translating to a rise in awareness, sales and action?

A lot of brand marketers, when asked to measure success, hear prove it and think? performance is the only answer. But by using the same analytics tools that assess reach, retention and all of the other factors of success, as a lens to view creative processes and products,? we can all do two very powerful things. Inspire consumers to dream and want. And deliver sales dollars against every ad that they see.

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