Catalyst S+F: CTRS and One Hundred Thousand Count Von Counts - Jim Nichols - MediaBizBloggers

It39s no new observation that digital enables marketers and their agency counterparts to access tons of metrics So many that for many media people two days of the week are devoted to collecting and visualizing bajillions of data points in complex reportsReports that let39s face it are often given no more than cursory examination Why Because most of the numbers are meaningless or at least are meaningless until someone takes the time to really examine them which few actually get around toMost of us digital marketers have spent years channeling Count Von Count the affable vampire from Sesame Street who upon entering any room would begin measuring virtually every object in his line of vision 7 Seven apples 6 Six balls 1 One SnuffalufagusA good way to teach kids numbers but not a great skill for cocktail party success Or for that matter brand marketingOur medium gives us access to data on every aspect of consumer exposure and interaction Impressions clicks interactions Interaction rates Interaction times View through conversions Interaction rates by spot on the ad Video views Video view times Impressions by in market shoppers Impressions by metro Interaction rates by daypart That ability to count has turned us into 100000 Count Von Counts7 million Seven million impressions 6 thousand Six thousand complete video views 74 thousand Seventy four thousand clicks during the period 124 PMTrouble is many of these metrics aren39t in and of themselves terribly relevant at answering crucial marketing questions Sometimes some of them have value but often they don39t mean much at all And the most commonly referenced one of all CTR is about as meaningless as they come for most brandsThe traditional side of media often feels smug about our incessant counting They know that many of our metrics are of little value But at the same time they aren39t offering anything better For a decade they have been doing jazz hands to cover up the fact that they have few reliable metrics to offerThe solution to tiresome and irrelevant counting of everything is NOT counting nothingAs new platforms and technologies raise the value of digital impressions and make TV and Print impressions less passive and transitory our converged industry needs to take a new approach to measurement We need to figure out the data points that matter and only count those With this smaller number of metrics we can devote more of our time to figuring out brand impacts and optimization strategies to improve effectivenessIf clicks don39t matter to your business objectives why count them Having access to them almost inevitably leads to using them as a surrogate measure of brand impact They are after all eminently understandable and can be boiled down into a simple figure This makes them almost magneticWith the myriad opportunities available for data collection we can do a lot better than we are now But doing so requires the time and focus to devise a real measurement strategyJim Nichols is a Partner and Chief Strategist at Catalyst SF He can be reached at jimcatalystsfcomRead all Jim39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at The Marketing Capital Report MediaBizBloggersCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBlogger

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Catalyst S+F: CTRS and One Hundred Thousand Count Von Counts - Jim Nichols - MediaBizBloggers

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