• by Doug Brooks , December 18, 2006

In 2006, you couldn't attend an industry event or read a marketing publication without coming across buzzwords like digital, rich media, product placement, podcasts and other terms for non-traditional marketing tactics. But like any buzzwords, these reflect an underlying reality: marketers need to find new and measurable ways to reach consumers as market and media fragmentation erodes the effectiveness of traditional approaches.

There's just one catch. How do marketers know how much money to invest in these new tactics and what results to expect? And, assuming a company's marketing budget remains the same, how does it reallocate marketing dollars to digital and non-traditional marketing without harming its business?

Enter a standard set of metrics. As companies continue to increase their investments in emerging media, they can no longer manage these activities in silos like many do now with separate metrics for different marketing tactics.

The only way a company can have a true "apples-to-apples" comparison of new media with traditional media is to develop one standard set of metrics for all media. That ensures that senior management will have fact-based, comparable information to support decisions on where the next incremental dollar should go to produce the highest return on investment.

Don't let the myth that non-traditional media are hard to measure impede establishing metrics standards. In fact, non-traditional media are as measurable as TV, print and direct mail as long as a few best practices are followed:

Plan to measure
Upfront planning makes measurement easier. Define how a tactic will be measured, when it will be measured and what data will be collected to support measurement.

Spend enough to be heard
There must be a meaningful investment to have a meaningful measurement. If budget is an issue, then concentrate the activity in a narrow time period or in selected markets.

Apply the correct analytic approach
There are many analytic approached to choose from. Where there is sufficient data, many companies use marketing mix models. If data is a challenge, a test and control methodology might be the best approach. Each approach has its benefits; the key here is to focus on consistent measurement across the entire marketing mix.

Manage expectations
Not all non-traditional and digital vehicles are right for all companies. That's why it is important to set management expectations early, make assumptions clear, and establish criteria for continued investment or graceful exit.

Douglas Brooks is vice president, product marketing, Marketing Management Analytics. He joined MMA in 2004 as part of its initiative in continuous marketing planning. MMA works with clients to develop fact-driven marketing strategies, comprehensive brand plans, on-demand marketing effectiveness, and comprehensive analysis of brand plan execution results. Doug can be reached at douglas.brooks@mma.com, or visit the company's Web site at www.mma.com.