• by Tom Hespos , March 8, 2005

Given a recent Association of National Advertisers (ANA) survey that indicates accountability is the top consideration among senior marketing professionals at large companies, I have to wonder how certain alternative marketing tactics have gained ground recently.

Online marketing has striven to make itself as accountable as possible with respect to marketer communication goals. We have the ability to measure both brand metrics and direct response metrics better than any other medium. There are online marketing programs blazing a trail into understanding the effect of online advertising on moving product off the shelves in the packaged goods category.

At the same time, new marketing methods have been making waves in the industry, including word-of-mouth marketing and product placement, and one has to wonder how accountability figures in to some of these models.

Word-of-mouth marketing has been taking off as of late. We've seen the introduction of a new industry association (WOMMA) in recent months - one that calls for disclosure of relationships, avoiding fake endorsements and shilling.

But most of the programs I've been pitched or seen details of seem to be working against the new transparency consumers expect from marketing. They tend to involve situations that leave the consumer wondering if the person they just talked to about Product X is on the payroll or not. But the bigger problem seems to be the accountability of such programs. Sure, one can perform a market test and attempt to gauge the effect on sales using variable isolation, but it's very difficult to get a read on what word-of-mouth programs might mean to branding and sales goals unless it's executed in a relative vacuum.

Product placement is another of those marketing tactics that seems to be less accountable than other types of communication. While one can generally agree that it probably has a positive effect on branding and sales to have your designer watch worn by James Bond or to have the uber-cool characters in The Matrix use your cell phones exclusively, how does one gauge the effect?

It seems to me that in employing either of these tactics, the marketer could be turning people off with a lack of transparency or a perception on the part of the consumer that he is being manipulated. How would the marketer ever know? And how would one gauge how these types of marketing efforts function within the overall communications mix?

While these developing media ponder the accountability issue, online continues to find new and sound ways of proving its effectiveness. Online's abilities to field research studies quickly and efficiently, and provide quantitative analysis cheaper, faster, and better, are accountability assets. So why the resurgence of less-accountable tactics in the industry these days? Tell me what you think on the Spin Board.