Every organization that has installed a marketing mix modeling solution today wants to be more data-driven.
Modern CMOs, marketing analytics leaders and media leaders know marketing is an investment, which must have demonstrable ROI. And they know using data to figure out what’s working and what isn’t is crucial to ensuring waste is controlled.
Yet, according to PwC’s recent ‘Pulse Survey,’ 75% of CMOs still report managing data as a significant challenge, while 87% say teaming up with other departments is a top priority.
Becoming data-driven and collaborating through data is clearly still a work in progress. A live poll we ran at the recent ANA Media Conference confirms this. When the audience was asked about their current measurement solutions, only 3% of respondents said, “It does everything I need it to do and more.” This is a massive problem and a missed opportunity.
Marketers lack answers to tough questions
Over the past five years, we’ve seen a resurgence of interest in analytics tools and a proliferation of new offerings. While “market mix modeling” barely registers a search trend, “media mix modeling” has seen an explosion of growth in the US market – doubling in volume over six months. So why aren’t we (the measurement crowd) solving marketers’ problems with our new tools?
Most marketers don’t buy MMM as a product; they buy it to solve a problem. The problem unfolds in meeting rooms at all levels. From the quarterly board meeting to the weekly sales call, inevitably marketing will be asked, “What would happen if we cut our marketing budget by 10% next quarter?” Or “Gee, that TV campaign seemed effective. What would happen if we increased investment there?” Or even (topically), “How would our marketing investment need to change if we had to raise our prices by 10%?”
There are six fatal words that typically follow:
“Let me get back to you.”
In that moment, MMM, attribution or whatever measurement solution is in place has failed to provide good, trusted answers quickly. And what that means is that we’ve failed to unlock the one thing that matters for marketers: business confidence.
If you look at the wider measurement industry, this tension exists everywhere. Traditional MMM? It’s good but far too slow to get a good answer. Multi-touch attribution? Fast but lacks the trust to stand up to CFO scrutiny.
Solution providers need to focus on elevating the product vision of the overall marketing mix modeling industry. The next round of MMM vendors needs to solve the big, hairy problem of delivering answers to complex questions quickly.
Three ways to transform measurement
First, we need to enable faster data provision. Practically, that means a world-class data platform that can ingest marketing data “as is,” with no need for data engineers to get involved.
We also need a super-fast and accurate measurement model. Marketing mix models should refresh every few days, not weeks. And they should be accurate to the extent that customers receiving regular hold out testing results that demonstrate model stability and clear confidence intervals so that they can have robust conversations with their finance teams.
Finally, we need an interface that truly unlocks speed at the user level. That means lightning-fast answers to questions that marketers can truly use without bugging data science.
For too long, MMM has been too slow, too dependent on consultants and not practical enough to deliver clear answers to basic measurement questions. At Mutinex, we’re working to change that with a self-serve platform that automates data ingestion and uses advanced AI modeling to deliver fast, actionable insights at scale.
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