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Beyond brand touchpoints

MM: Well, Trae — I’d like you to draw a distinction between “Channel…Traditional, segmentation has really driven medium-mix optimization. Online — offline — broadcast — print — in-store — et cetera. Now with the advent of the web, social, e-commerce and things like that — you’ve introduced a new segmentation principle, which you could call “Channel Optimization.”

Right.

MM: That’s not just, “How do we reach out and touch people,” but, “How do we interact and ultimately sell or engage in a buying process with people?”

That’s right. That’s exactly the approach we’ve taken. For example, identifying the best way to reach an individual is one thing. But one of the steps that we typically take it to is tracking it all the way through.

That is of course why mass is going the way of the dodo. As a marketer, it’s very difficult for me to track all the way down to the final impact of every dollar that I spend in mass media. At least in theory, with more direct methods — and that includes certainly online and off — you can do that.

So, a lot of what we do for our clients is around that idea of identifying — Number 1 — “Where are we most likely to reach a particular target from a channel standpoint?” That’s the predictive aspect.

Then, to develop a robust test and control scenario. A test matrix where we can go out and prove it. It’s not just the high-level bucket of online. No, in fact — for this particular target, what if we display media banners out there — versus a sizable presence on FaceBook — versus pushing a mobile application? Which of those drives individuals to actually purchase the product, and then what’s the ROI for that particular micro-channel?

It’s kind of a combination. Because the data sources — at least in my experience — aren’t granular enough… There’s such an explosion online. There are social sites.

Not to get off-topic, but I think that applications or widgets is the real thing to look out for, from a marketer’s perspective, in the future. Because the web is becoming a programmable platform on which individuals can program and dictate what they see or don’t see in a marketer’s message — et cetera — it’s increasingly necessary to have the scientific rigor behind your marketing programs, so you can improve that. “This combination of content and placement and target drives the highest return.”

It’s really taking media-mix optimization many levels deeper. It’s more about the marketing mix optimization all the way down to — like I say — perhaps a very fine grain.

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