Paul Flanigan: A starting point for measurement

Any measurement is better than nothing and we need to start somewhere. But where?

I think I have a starting point, but want to frame it with first understanding some of the factors.

Five years ago, you could put an ad on the big four networks, have your footprint and hit most of your target demographic simply because you were on at the right time. Psychographic targeting has completely changed the landscape of advertising. It’s no longer about what, when and where, it’s now about who, why, and how.

Today, we have multi-channel campaigns, sometimes several channels within a single retail environment. For example, if I have three separate channels in my store (home theater program, computer screens, and a checkout program), I need a variation on a single spot that is bi-lingual, appropriate for the channel, and geographically segmented to each of the top 10 DMAs in the United States due to regional promotion. That’s 60 versions of a spot.

Ugh. No one has time to do that.

Many end-users (venues, network owners and operators) are not broadcast professionals or creative types. They are corporate marketers that view digital signage as a brand engagement point that will excite the customers and generate revenue. If you ask them how long it takes to make a 30-second commercial, some will answer, “30 seconds.”

Because of the agency’s historic position in the creative management of brand and product campaigns, much of the industry assumes the agency is the master of the domain: full knowledge of psychographics, content creation designed for individual targeting, media planning and channel deployment logistics, and metric measurement analysis. And there tends to be an implied assumption that all this is on the agency’s dime.

The reality is that the agency doesn’t know any more about your customer than the man or woman who walks past your storefront on the other side of the street. And none of them have the time or the budget to go and learn everything about your customer.

But you do.

Here’s Where We Start

The end user must own the testing and measurement of the audience. The responsibility of developing a concrete metric on the network’s value to the environment should reside with the end user who made the decision to install the network. The network should be part of the marketing plan.

You need the right content to develop measurement. Where do you get that? You don’t get it from any external agency; you get it from within your own four walls.

You should produce your own content because you know how to impact your audience better than anyone. Historically, I, not any agency, have produced the advertising with the greatest impact on my audience.

The cost to produce content and measure your audience will be lower because you can engage other departments and to spread the costs. For example, if you know your private label that wants to advertise, introduce them to the idea of producing multiple versions of a spot for testing purposes. It costs much less to version creative in production than go back and re-edit mastered content. If you’re large enough, engage your marketing research department to build a test and measurement study to collect sales data on the products or services promoted in the advertising and understand where the greatest impact occurred.

If you are a small venue, think about contracting a third party to do this. If you’re really small, Apple’s iMovie HD works just as well as Avid or Final Cut Pro. (I have personally created my own content with Final Cut Pro.) A $5 gift certificate to answer a couple intercept questions goes a long way for loyalty. You know that customer will come back to spend the five bucks and probably a few dollars more.

And use OVAB’s metric measurement guidelines to build your case.

Then share that information. Most agencies and other end users don’t care to know quantity sold or the cost; they want to know if your content had impact, that your content drove sales. With multiple versions of the same spot, you can help me understand the impact. As Nikki Baird put it, “…the why behind the buy.”

Some companies are already trying this. What I find interesting is these efforts are coming from brands, not agencies. I have worked with brands to create content for specific channels with successful results. I have educated them on why they need to change it for our environment and I have showed them how to do it. The result is stronger consumer engagement, and better sales.

The challenge is to stop one-off efforts and start integrating this process into long-term marketing initiatives.

Agencies do get it, and they do care. What they need is open-source collaboration with retailers and brands to build the expertise to develop multi-channel content so that end users can get back to engaging the customer and making money.

So there’s a starting point. On your marks…