Big Clients Big On Data To Manage Agencies, Media Metrics Rank Highest

by Joe Mandese , October 31, 2016

Big advertisers are big on data to manage their agency relationships, according to results of a member survey being released this morning by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). More than 80% of respondents to the survey said they currently use “data” to help them manage their agencies and they expect the use of such data to increase, because of the “overwhelmingly positive results they have achieved, especially in the area of managing media budgets.”

Specifically, the study found that 80% of respondents “often or always” use data to manage their agencies and 84% said the use of data is increasing. None of the respondents said it is declining.

The study found the use of data is “most important and most heavily used in managing media and billing/budgets” and that it is currently “less important” in terms of “creative and production.”

Of the 37 “performance metrics” evaluated in this survey, media-related ones accounted for seven of the 10 highest-rated in terms of importance.

Media metrics that rated highest were “efficiency of media buys,” “delivery of total campaign audience goals,” and “media quality assessment.”

Ninety-two ANA members responded to the survey, which was conducted in August 2016 by the ANA in conjunction with consultant Decideware.

6 comments about "Big Clients Big On Data To Manage Agencies, Media Metrics Rank Highest".

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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics, October 31, 2016 at 9:45 a.m.
Strange, since most advertisers do not subcsribe to Nielsen, MRI, etc. but get such audience data from their agencies as part of the planning or buying process. Perhaps the term "manage" refers to periodic "audits", but these rarely find that agencies have dramatically misrepresented their tradional media buys---though digital buys may be another matter. It is also odd that "data" plays so little part in guiding the "creative" aspect. Most agency creative proposals are influenced, in large part, by information about product usage, brand preference or image, consumer mindsets, etc., as well as campaign testing findings. Or, is this a different kind of "data"?.
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Michael Hubbard from Media Two Interactive replied, October 31, 2016 at 11:08 a.m.

Agree on the creative and measurement front Ed... Then again, what marketer says now that they don't look at data? It's kind of like saying you're just spending blindly. We do still see a large disconnect in RFP's we respond to that treat media as a seperate entity from design, and we see an even larger disparity in the amout of RFP's that come in from people using last click data as opposed to a full attribution model that looks at offline to online performance. So although I can appreciate marketers wanting efficient spends, I think we'd all agree it's more important for them to go after better results - so a rising CPM might not look good in efficiency, but if it's a more qualified buy delivering better ROI, it's a whole another story.

Michael McCarthy from Irongrid Data Services, October 31, 2016 at 12:04 p.m.

We have seen more household matched data sets coming to the marketplace. This could be from the brand side when they share their sales data with a 3rd party aggregator or from the TV distributors that are now making privacy compliant viewership data available for matching?
This kind of data that is now available could be used for things like sales attribution in relation to a national or local TV campaign.

mike donahue from connecting the dots, October 31, 2016 at 5:55 p.m.

Ed,
Yes, the data that informs the creation of messaging are different data...
..the user data that marketers have about their power users..These power users have discernible profiles and measurable affinities.
When marketers use these power user data to inform creative briefs, agencies can create brilliant messaging that can result in brand loyaty beyond reason

At last week's ANA Conference, new ANA Chairman Marc Pritchard called for agencies to raise the creative bar ..to'create the most abundant explosion of creativity the world has ever seen.

Then, and only then , can the 'big" data which inform where these brilliant messages run,
work to the advantage of marketers, creative agencies ,media agencies and media owners.

In short..everybody.

Debbie PATTERSON from Independent , November 2, 2016 at 12:14 a.m.

Do these advertising agencies actually believe that viewers sit through 6 min.of ad's .Not one of these companies has figured out how to hold the viewers attention, without them knowing, I know but I'm not free.think out of the Box what used to be tried and true years ago.doesn't work Just because I see a Caddy commercial or Lincoln with a famous actor can't possess me to Run out and get that specific brand.

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, November 2, 2016 at 8:15 a.m.

Debbie, no one in his/her right mind believes that viewers always sit in front of the TV during commercail breaks and watch atentively every single second of the ads. However, advertisers and agencies know from commercial recall studies that enough viewers---say half of them----do watch a given commercial with some degree of attention---not always full attention---and, over time, with exposure to many breaks in many programs, people become aware of a brand's message and those who are so inclined, are motivated by the campaign to buy or restock the product.