The 4 biggest changes in marketing through a measurement lens

There has been no shortage of shifts in the marketing industry in recent history. Over the past decade alone, those shifts have accelerated. But with so many changes, how can business leaders better understand how to plan for success?

To answer that question, we at Analytic Partners have asked team members from around the world to share the four biggest changes they’ve seen in marketing through a measurement lens: from increased complexity in the industry, to broader reach leading to less understanding of impact, to too much focus on the short-term and more noise making it harder for brands to break through. We took a closer look at how brands can adapt and evolve to future-proof against whatever changes come next. Watch the full video on our website and read on for a snapshot of their thoughts.
 

More noise across channels makes break-through difficult

We live in the information age. The improvements in technology and sheer amount of information available to us as consumers has created changes in behavior. On the one hand, consumers have the availability of everything. However, that has created a tension point, because consumers have had to make trade-offs along the way. This paradox of choice does create opportunity for marketers. From an advertising standpoint, there is an opening to focus on authentic, clear messaging that breaks through the noise and strikes consumers as genuine.
 

Broader reach, less understanding of impact

There has been both an impressive diversification, but also fragmentation, of the media ecosystem over the last decade. Marketers have never had a broader reach, but it has also never been more challenging to accurately measure the impact of advertising. The ecosystem’s targeting capabilities and content varieties, particularly in terms of social media, are providing infinite options for marketers. But understanding the true incremental impact of those options is critical.
 

Greater complexity in understanding business drivers

One major change in the marketing landscape over the past decade is the growth of digital advertising and the explosion of ad tech in general. Despite the assumption that this growth would lead to greater transparency in advertising, it has actually led to less. In fact, measurement and understanding what’s driving business performance has become significantly more complicated, not less complicated, with the advent of ad tech. This is exacerbated by a focus on vanity metrics that fail to demonstrate the true value of an ad or campaign.
 

Too much focus on the short-term

There has been a growing trend of allowing short-term metrics determine overarching business decisions, and that trend is leaving leaders at a disadvantage. In fact, the Analytic Partners ROI Genome found that 2/3 of the impact of an advertisement happens in the weeks after it airs – not immediately. The temptation to base decisions on real-time, short-term ROI metrics has increased, but the easy answer is not always the right one.