Nestlé’s hybrid approach to in-housing

What is more effective: external agencies or an in-house team? It seems Nestlé found a perfect compromise in the heated debate: they gathered a team of external specialists supervised by internal executives to achieve more effective marketing management. Here you can find what functions they decided to handle themselves and what goals they were pursuing with the move. In attempt to increase marketing effectiveness and transparency the world's largest food company pulled experts in media and tech from partner agencies and appointed internal executives to lead them. Today many large advertisers are thinking about moving at least some capabilities in-house, even though the process is not very simple, and there are a few concerns and problems related to it. Partially it was triggered by the FBI investigation into non-transparent practices in the industry. But it’s worth mentioning that in-housing is not just a temporary trend, it’s becoming a reality, especially hybrid approach to it. According to a recent ANA (Association of National Advertisers) study, 78% of their members have an IHA. If Nestlé’s internal team proves a success, it can become a model case for other companies. And it seems to be a good strategy, because they can choose the… Read more »

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Nestlé, hybrid approach to in-housing, effective marketing

How to deal with in-housing problems

According to a joint research by In-House Agency Forum and Forrester, 64% of American corporations had an in-house agency in 2018 compared to 42% in 2008. The trend is becoming a reality even though it’s costly and challenging. In this article we investigate the benefits of building internal capabilities, functions better managed internally and ways to deal with widespread concerns and obstacles. It is quite obvious that large brands like Procter & Gamble, Ally Financial and Clorox wouldn’t set up internal marketing teams if it was useless. For example, P&G established its own agency in 2018 as a part of their new marketing strategy saving $750 mln. Apart from cost efficiency in-housing is also driven by the opportunity to gain greater brand insights, increase transparency and control over the creative. Another advantage of IHAs is they have the same goal with the brand and are more invested in successful outcome, which is not always the case with outside agencies. Sometimes they have conflicting interests and focus not on promoting the advertiser but on promoting themselves. It’s definitely not always the case, but happens occasionally. In-house teams better understand the business, know more about your products or services. They are insiders… Read more »

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in-house agency, IHAF and Forrester research, advantages and disadvantages of in-housing, marketing effectiveness, marketing transparency, marketing accountability, CheckMedia Solution, AdoptoMedia

How to change marketing strategy during the coronavirus outbreak?

The coronavirus pandemic is forcing the whole world to face unexpected challenges and adapt to the new conditions. Millions of people working in different industries including marketing are looking for ways to succeed or at least remain stable in such a volatile climate. In a recent interview Kathy Bachmann, General Manager of Americas in a global consultancy company, Analytic Partners Inc., shared her opinion on a few strategic problems that suddenly appeared on marketers’ agenda. The trend of growing online sales and lower offline sales, that had been around before the pandemic, has strengthened even further over the last month. Even though customers will return to regular shops once everything gets back to normal, the increasing shift to e-commerce will not go away, so it makes sense to focus on developing this capability. Taking into account the impact on media consumption, consumer mobility and supply chains, it’s necessary to review and adjust some marketing mixes companies currently use. Marketers need to wisely, but quickly plan every next move to benefit from any arising opportunities or mitigate losses. There is no universal strategy, so changes will vary from business to business: some advertisers need to boost spends while others should keep… Read more »

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Effective marketing strategy, marketing effectiveness, coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19, marketing investments, ROMI increase, crisis marketing strategy, adapt marketing strategy, e-commerce, media budget reallocation, media budget optimization

Marketing spend: to cut or optimize?

Over the last decade marketing effectiveness has been slowly declining and the industry has gone through a lot of changes. In attempt to save budgets many companies decided to reduce this expenditure area, but how wise was this move, given that marketing drives growth and enterprise value? This article covers an approach everyone should take when it comes to allocating budget. Marketers all over the world are under pressure to justify their huge spend, which amounts to 10% of revenue on average. In 2017 Binet & Field published a book called Marketing Effectiveness in the Digital Era, where they wrote that marketing effectiveness is currently declining. There are a few possible reasons behind such a trend: media fragmentation / complexity; too many metrics: address this issue by identifying key metrics for your organization; marketing effectiveness culture is still developing; lack of collaboration within a company: marketing and finance alone have four obstacles complicating their cooperation; narrow focus on some attribution models; focus on short-term results: the pie chart below demonstrates when campaign performance is measured. More than half of all respondents focused on immediate outputs, while only a third took into account longer time periods. But ads’ potential to drive… Read more »

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media budgeting, high ROMI, ROMI increase, marketing spend optimization, real-time marketing accountability, marketing transparency, marketing effectiveness, digital transformation, AdoptoMedia, CheckMedia Solution, best media measurement tools, marketing technology, martech

12 competencies marketers develop to achieve best-in-class marketing accountability

Today, around 10% of revenue is allocated to marketing, and in 2018 these spends amounted approximately to a trillion dollars worldwide. All marketers are under pressure to justify such huge investments, but top professionals know how to cope with it. In this article you will find out how to become a high-performing marketer as well as increase accountability and transparency in your company. Despite all technological advancements in the industry, accurate quantification of marketing contribution remains a serious challenge, mainly because there are no universal standards in this area. Forbes addressed the problem by establishing an initiative together with the Marketing Accountability Standards Board aimed at helping businesses better measure, optimize and understand the contribution of marketing. They also conducted a research involving 800 CMOs to select the most effective tools, strategies and approaches available now. Every detail matters, all promotion channels, traditional and digital must be used in the most effective and efficient way, every investment should be a well-informed decision. Today data is power, so it doesn’t come as a surprise when experts mention it among analytics and martech that improve marketing performance. Here are nine key takeouts from the research, by doing which a company can get… Read more »

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marketing capabilities, top marketer, digital marketing, social media marketing, digital transformation, best media measurement tools, marketing technology, martech, real-time marketing accountability

How marketing increases enterprise value?

There is no doubt marketing contributes a lot to company’s growth, but how to accurately define its contribution is still to be determined. In this article we cover most common challenges marketers face today and provide some valuable advice from a 2018 research by Forbes on how to apply marketing techniques wisely and quickly implement data-driven insights in your decision-making to increase the enterprise value. According to the research where over 800 marketing executives were involved, investments in marketing have become the major contributor to company value in today's digitally driven economy. Market conditions are changing quickly, intangible assets like brand equity, innovations and customer relationships are becoming increasingly important. To monitor complex, fast changing customer journey and address numerous other problems marketers worldwide annually spend about $1 trillion, moreover they are struggling to justify these huge expenses as well as measure their effectiveness. Most CMOs use over twenty tools; with this variety it’s getting more difficult to measure and optimize marketing investments. The need for higher marketing accountability shows that an international measurement standards should be established. Here are three reasons why organizations need to better understand, measure and improve marketing? Investors and owners need to see the impact… Read more »

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marketing effectiveness, enterprise value drivers, marketing investments, real-time marketing accountability, marketing technology, digital transformation, interdepartmental collaboration, marketing strategy, CRM, Customer Relationship Management, brand value, AdoptoMedia, CheckMedia Solution

Marketing technology to maximize your ROMI

According to a recent Gartner research, companies spend 12% of their revenue on marketing, and about a third of this money is allocated to marketing technology. It absolutely makes sense, because simply pouring money in advertising relying only on your experience or gut feeling will not necessarily give the results you expect. But with the right technology you don’t take any risks and find ways to cut spends and drive ROMI. The first step to an effective marketing strategy is high-quality and comprehensive data, because well-informed decisions based on statistics will definitely lead to success. The statistical tool that analyzes different parameters affecting past sales and provides forecasts for upcoming periods is Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM). Some important parameters it tracks are: Media types Effectiveness of online and offline channels Incremental sales MROI of different media types Seasonality Competitors’ marketing activities Implementing MMM is a wise choice not only for Consumer Goods industry, where the competition is high and brand loyalty is low, but for any large company that manages business in more than one region or country and promotes its goods and services through a wide range of media channels. With MMM you will be able to quickly and… Read more »

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Marketing Mix Modelling, Marketing Technology, ROMI optimization, ROMI increase, marketing budget optimization, effective marketing strategy, CheckMedia Solution, AdoptoMedia, forecast sales, measure advertising effectiveness

Improving marketing effectiveness. Part 2: How to measure?

Most companies face the challenge of accurate assessment of their marketing activity results, and with numerous tools and approaches available in the industry it is easy to get confused. Companies should choose wisely and act quickly to keep pace with trends and generate business growth. A white paper on marketing effectiveness by global consultancy Gain Theory helps to do just that, and in this article we cover the most informative and interesting insights, including those from marketing top managers of 40 large UK brands that together spend over £7bn on advertising. After we have agreed on what marketing effectiveness is, understood where we stand in terms of progress and chosen the crucial metrics, it’s time to move on and find the most suitable measurement tools and approaches to building an effectiveness team. Best Available Tools Test & Learn – the idea to compare the results of test and control groups is not new, but advanced online data collection technology really makes a difference. The advantage of this method is that the results can be easily analyzed, but there are some challenges and necessary conditions if you want the results to be accurate: – success is clearly defined the hypothesis you are testing;… Read more »

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marketing effectiveness, business effectiveness, Marketing Mix Model, Attribution, Machine learning, In-house agency, Outsource

Improving marketing effectiveness. Part 1: what to measure?

There is hardly an organization that is completely satisfied with their abilities to assess marketing activity results, and in this age of  technology and changes companies should choose wisely and act quickly to keep pace with trends and generate business growth. A global consultancy Gain Theory published a white paper on marketing effectiveness that provides information on how to measure and maximize the impact of marketing activities. In this article we cover the most informative and interesting parts of their paper, which includes insights from marketing top managers of 40 lage UK brands that together spend over £7bn on advertising. The key to success and business growth is the right marketing strategy, it will help to create the right culture, make better decisions and wisely invest. It requires specific knowledge and resources, and the common challenges include not having the right people for the job or complexity of the subject itself. With the right motivation and collaboration within a company it will be easier to achieve better effectiveness. And here are some advice that the author gives us to improve marketing performance.  Do the basics right: there is no doubt innovation might boost your performance, but simply by improve what… Read more »

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Marketing Effectiveness, Business Effectiveness, key KPIs, key metrics, cooperation

What prevents marketing and finance leaders from effective collaboration?

Digital transformation is under way and it's changing the industry. One of the necessary conditions for successful transition is closer cooperation between marketing and finance leaders. In this article you'll learn what causes most disagreement and where they should find more common ground.  In June 2019, Ernst & Young published a report about potential that cooperation between CMOs and SFOs has. In the age of digital transformation MarTech helps businesses better understand their clients, track activity along the customer journey, stimulate growth, and analyze data to provide insights for marketers. Marketers use everything that new technology and data offer to invest smarter and increase customer loyalty and retention and adopt a customer-focused approach to marketing. And to successfully implement this data-driven approach they need significant investments, which should be approved by CFOs, who want to hear a strong business case and ROI forecast before making any decisions. That’s why collaboration and better dialogue between the two functions is crucial in the age of digital transformation. According to Ernst & Young survey of 304 C-level managers in finance and marketing, 90% think that these departments need to be more involved into one another’s activities, and 83% believe that this cooperation will… Read more »

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