Data-Driven Thinking

Having one model for assigning credit to outside marketing partners and a separate model for earning credit within your organization is a no-win for marketers and their enterprises – you need a single attribution and measurement strategy. The key is to deploy a unified strategy that works both within your organization and across your mix of media partners, says Rudy Grahn, attribution and measurement global strategy lead at Prohaska Consulting.

Many businesses seek to use trends as springboards to meaningful connections with consumers. This sounds logical in our trend-driven world, but the danger of chasing a fad by mistake looms large. And it threatens to reduce a brand’s hard work to rubble, says Paige Leidig, CMO, NetBase Quid.

In today’s world, it’s almost impossible for global brands to craft an effective development strategy without China. The Chinese digital advertising market is undoubtedly different and perhaps daunting to those unfamiliar with it, but the opportunity is unprecedented, writes Alex Deats, EVP for China at MiQ.

TikTok doesn’t compete with Facebook or Instagram. Neither does Twitter, Pinterest or LinkedIn. Really. At least not according to the Federal Trade Commission in its antitrust complaint against Meta. But excluding TikTok is like a gift for Meta’s lawyers.

Knowing which partners and platforms have access to your data – and how they’re using it – isn’t always obvious. But understanding what makes you vulnerable is half the battle. David Blaszkowsky, head of strategy and development at Helios Data, details three hidden data risks every marketer needs to know – and what you can do about them.

Digital media buyers and planners don’t always understand why an ad works. The key to this critical missing information lies in the simplest of places: naming conventions and tagging, says Jackie Saplicki, global senior director of tech consulting and architecture at Media.Monks.

Thanks to the internet and its resulting innovations, international markets are within reach for most businesses.  However, with easy access comes great responsibility. Before you advertise on a global scale, here are some hard-earned lessons for avoiding common pitfalls from Jason Johnson, CMO of Cupid Media.

When it comes to privacy legislation, denial often comes before compliance. When GDPR went into effect back in 2018, some companies in the US simply ignored it, opting to shut down or limit operations in the EU instead of adjusting their data privacy practices. But with privacy legislation in California (CPRA), Colorado (CPA) and Virginia (VCDPA) set to go into effect 2023, American businesses will have no choice but to accept and act, says Ines Henrich, VP of sales planning and media strategy at Aki Technologies.

Machine learning and statistical models have evolved to provide an extremely sophisticated understanding of the contribution of each marketing investment and the interactions between them. But models can leave marketers vulnerable to misguided decisions and the underutilization of data and analytics, which inhibits them from realizing the full value of the insights the model can provide, says Alice K. Sylvester, Partner at Sequent Partners. 

Moments of connection that provide holistic experiences are on a journey to replace data-based advertising. And with the rise of technologies like blockchain and the metaverse that make consumers more connected than ever, it’s time for brands to accelerate that journey, says Azlan Raj, chief marketing officer of Merkle EMEA.