Commentary

The Key To Transparency Is Technology, Not Just Terms And Conditions

Marketers have been clamoring for more transparency and accountability, a movement underscored by the ANA’s recent transparency recommendations and earlier K2/ANA report . While these reports may seem to take aim at agencies and vendors, they actually present a unique opportunity to transform the dynamic among agencies, vendors and clients to be more open and, ultimately, more productive. To get the most out of a closer, more strategic partnership with agencies and vendors, however, marketers must first take the following steps: 

Take control of—and unify—your data. This is important for all forms of data, but especially when it comes to a marketer’s first-party data. The good news is that the shift is already underway: Between CRM and DMP oversight, the proliferating volume of online data, and the establishment of data science and analytics roles within many marketing teams, the marketing department is fast becoming the “data czar” within many major brands. 

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But although data may be centralized, it must also be unified across vendors and services to be truly useful. Unifying your data is the foundational step to establishing a more productive relationship with your agency and media partners. Without unified data, it’s impossible to measure success, compare performance accurately, and keep everyone involved in supporting your business accountable. 

Be a more active participant in technology choices. As data ownership centralizes under marketing, so does technology ownership. A Gartner survey predicted that by 2017, CMOs will spend more on technology than CIOs will. Marketers need not be expert in all technologies, but they must know enough (e.g., what each offering provides and what alternatives exist) to be an active participant in the decision-making process. A seat at the table for media technology decisions is a prerequisite for having a strategic and cooperative relationship with your partners. 

Do an everyday audit. Typically, campaign performance and delivery are measured and reported after the fact. To ensure transparency and accountability, marketers must move to a cadence where performance can be monitored daily or even intra day. Only by looking at campaign performance in real time can marketers assign scores to various partners—and ensure changes are made to improve performance while they can still have an impact. 

Adopting this “everyday audit” mindset also lets marketers benefit from the increased attention paid by agency and vendor partners to your campaigns. We saw this firsthand at Collective: if a campaign is underperforming, as seen in the daily reports we send to clients or in our 24/7 dashboard, we can quickly work together with the client to assess what is impacting performance and modify strategy, increasing accountability and improving performance. 

Make sure you’re looking at the same data. As the old saying goes, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” Part of the industry’s push for transparency is to make sure everyone is looking at the same data. Simply put, it’s impossible to optimize performance if you’re comparing apples and oranges. 

For years, we have seen double-digit percentage discrepancies between figures that ad servers, exchanges and attribution partners report. We’ve also seen marketers have varying levels of visibility into the cost structures involved when working with technology and service providers. Pulling back the curtain on hidden “ad taxes” helps marketers and their partners make the most informed choices about where to spend their dollars. 

Rethink your relationship. The agency model has long been under attack. As inventory and access have become commoditized, the industry has been forced to squeeze value out of existing resources, cut media costs and do more with less. Negotiations are increasingly about cutting costs from the bottom line, rather than creating increased value. 

With more transparency, however, agencies and vendors can be freed up to focus on strategy. And though every marketer of course wants a better price, most would pay a premium for better service and superior campaign performance. In other words, transparency creates a sustainable path to growth for agencies and vendors, while delivering better results for clients. 

At the heart of each step above is the unification of data and a team-oriented approach to campaign management and optimization. These may sound like daunting tasks, but with new technologies—including unified workflow and execution, partner agnostic campaign management, marketing analytics, and attribution modeling—it’s possible for brands of all sizes to achieve these results.

By unifying your data and ensuring it is analyzed through a common lens with your partners, brands can gain control of their business, while the agencies and vendors they work with can assume the mantle of strategic partners, leveraging shared insights from this data to drive stronger results for everyone.

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