• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, December 21, 2011

Vizu released a study Wednesday supporting the need for more collaboration throughout the online advertising industry, especially when it comes to metrics. Survey results showed that data overload continues to cause confusion and slow industry growth. Still, despite such confusion, about 60% of the 450 advertising executives surveyed said they plan to increase their spending on brand-related online advertising in the coming year.

Ninety seven percent of brand advertisers want their primary marketing objective well defined in advance of the campaign, and 73% of media sellers said having agreement about "what constitutes success" for the campaign was the No. 1 thing that would help improve results for brand advertisers. Yet only 18% of agencies said they can establish one objective against the measureable return on investment (ROI) with client in advance of a campaign.

Vizu CEO Dan Beltramo said nearly all brand marketers ranked in-market optimization of campaigns against brand metrics as "very important." Agencies, however, said they are primarily optimizing against various measures of engagement 58% of the time, or even click-through rates at 19% of the time, as opposed to the 16% of the time for brand awareness.

Not surprisingly, Beltramo said, the answers media sellers gave mirrored those of agency reps. With real-time "brand lift" metrics now as readily available as ad-server-based metrics, such as engagement and click-through, this also represents a significant opportunity for improving brands comfort with the online medium. 

Thirty-four percent of brands and agencies say they are drowning in data and believe there's a major need for relevant metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of online brand advertising.

Skepticism reigns about claims of media seller that they can reach a niche or target audience. Only 6% of brands and 16% of agencies surveyed said they "strongly believe" claim by media sellers that they can reach the custom or niche audiences that brands seek. Even if that target audience is reached, nearly all respondents want proof that customer opinion has shifted as a result of their advertising. The number of agencies requiring publishers to provide third-party brand ad effectiveness studies in their media buys is projected to double from this year to next.

Still, 57% of brand respondents say it's "very important" they own the data related to their online brand advertising campaigns, indicating that brands should consider directly investing in the technology needed to manage their media supply chain.