The panel’s background was a great mix representing brand approach (with Tom Cunniff’s solid CPG experience), technical wishlists from vendor Tagman and their customer relationships, as well as pearls of wisdom on a top-down/bottom-up approach to a marketing mix with measurement and attribution at its core from Jim Sterne.

Among the subjects discussed at length within the 50 min conversation, which you can watch here:

  • The fundamental capabilities that every marketing department should set out to track when it comes to multichannel.
  • Attribution and the last click (PPC) — it’s a useful tool, but not the only one. Don’t get stuck using just one model.
  • New tools bridging the gap between offline/online.
  • Matching up customer mobile behavior with online behavior and in-store behavior.
  • Where to look for measurement and analytics tools that aren’t provided by a company selling media (i.e., Google, Facebook)
  • Mobile providers and the current state of connecting non-personally identifying geolocation data with other data sources. 

Here are choice tidbits in a Q&A format for blog readers short on time!

Moderator: Where do marketers currently stand when it comes to measurement and attribution? Are we at a plateau of consolidation, where instead of adding more and more tools, we’re regrouping? 

Jim Sterne:

It’s top down and bottom up right now. Top down meaning marketing mix modelling and econometrics. This says for per quarter, or even per year, we are looking at all of our spend buckets, measuring results, and adjusting. Bottom up is full on digital attribution. How much do you give to the last click, how much do you give to the middle click…what is an assist?

The people who are really getting it right in both cases are agreeing with the old George Fox quote: “All models are wrong. Some models are useful” because we have a lot of data that is directionally useful. It is probabilities and statistics, rather than accounting.

Jon Baron:

The good news is that companies are being funded to address the issues at every end of the spectrum. What we are seeing now is an established category of attribution technology players. People like VisualIQ, Marketshare, and Adometry who are all doing some interesting things

Tom Cunniff:

I think that the bad news is that we are in a bit of a train wreck moment for brands, but the good news is that we realize we are there. The idea of a canonical type of metric is a myth. There is a type of metric that matters for my business, and one that doesn’t and it’s that simple.

Is last click more useful at least as a place to start, given that an argument can be made, data suggesting that 75% of purchases, you only see one click?

Jon Baron:

Last click is a bit antiquated, but it spawned an industry. How many of us have clicked on ads? I haven’t in months. But marketers do want more to play with, and especially in the context of data between the store, the website, and then the mobile app.

Jim Sterne:

As a place to start, sure, but it’s important to remember it’s not the final statement and final result. Marketers are frustrated that it’s the only thing we have to play with, and that is why we are spreading out to different models. So we are now opening up to “I have more than just last click…how do I use it?”

Moderator: What technologies are currently bridging offline/online?

Jon Baron:

ResponseTap gives an individual phone number, which goes to a call center. That is tracked through the website so the website and the call center can connect data. Liveramp takes CRM data and connects it with digital data. There is enough data out there to make hypothesis like, if something is advertised online, does purchase of the product go up in store?

What are the first steps for setting up measurement in a multichannel marketing campaign?

Jim Sterne:

If you are a bank, you have everyone identifying themselves across channels by default. Retailers have to get people to opt-in. So loyalty cards at the store. Logging in with a social id in the app. To login to the website to be recognized individually.

Jon Baron:

Start by getting a unified view across digital. Try to lay down a master first-party cookie, and that will be a good place to start. Make sense of your Facebook report, your Omniture report, your Adwords report…etc. Lay down technology that can be ever present in the ad call and also on the site and, ideally, in the app, although that is quite a tall order.

Tom Cunniff:

In a CPG world, we are mostly talking about shopper marketing, and mobile will become the killer app for that. CPG has ethnography, which helps keep from getting too distant from the consumer.

Editor’s note: In partnership with the DMA, Econsultancy is hosting Integrated Marketing Week from June 11-13 in New York. Speakers include Seth Godin, Brian Solis, and representatives from Macy’s, American Airlines, Mastercard, Google, and much more. Register today at imweek.org.