As media, channels and audiences become increasingly fragmented, information and data multiply, which in turn increases the challenges that marketing and advertising professionals face in measuring the effectiveness of their actions. The growing complexity of the panorama shows the need to address multiple approaches and develop a learning culture.

It is the main defense made by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), British body of marketing and advertising professionals, in the report “Making effectiveness work”, prepared together with the group of data science professionals Melt Collective. In it he explains the importance not only of having the resources and capabilities to develop a good measurement approach, but also of wrapping all this in a culture of collaboration and learning.

The objective, as the organization points out, is to ask better questions to obtain better answers. This means promoting the coordination and active learning between channels and departmentsas well as between the three major measurement areas: strategy, campaign and tactics.

In this regard, IPA points out that all learning culture For measurement, it must meet the following characteristics:

• It is deeper than a research and analysis plan or program
• Provides essential information that changes the way you think and make decisions, creating long-term goals and actions that transcend departments
• Recognize that there is key marketing questions that brands cannot answer, as well as others that can only be answered by combining information from multiple sources and experimenting with new approaches
• Understand that the real effectiveness it is not just a collection of reports or measurement models
• It is a commitment to experimentationinnovation and with better understanding and better results.
• Advocates for progressive innovation and the development of innovative approaches

MESI model

In order to make this learning culture tangible, the IPA report proposes the implementation of a model that it calls MESI: Model, Experiment, Simulate and Implement. He describes it as a “ladder” framework, that is, one that aspires to be implemented from the most theoretical aspect to the most practical and functional.
The MESI model consists of four sections:

Start with a model

We must begin to measure the effectiveness of marketing actions with a measurement model, whether marketing mix modeling, data-based attribution or consumer modeling; and so Identify where changes can be implemented to make communications more effective.

Conduct experiments

From IPA they suggest designing tests and experiments to analyze the changes being considered for implementation. This will help you learn what you need to move forward, for example, eliminating promotions in a region, executing more brand actions, increasing prices in a market, etc.
It is also convenient to use the model to know at what scale – for example, reducing paid search spending by 20% – the experiment should be carried out and implemented.

Simulate the impact of change

The report invites us to combine the evidence, both from the measurement model and from the experiments, in a planning or simulation tool. These are usually offered by agencies or companies specialized in analytics, and ideally they can be applied at both a strategic and tactical level.

Implement findings

The organization encourages professionals to use the learning obtained from experiments to adjust and fine-tune attribution and the measurement model; and to validate and demonstrate the findings to stakeholders.

Those responsible for the report recall that there is no magic formula to measure marketing effectiveness, since each approach has its function and limitations. For this reason, they consider that it is more convenient to focus on the process and culture of active learning than on specific techniques. They thus emphasize that it is the mentality and culture of an organization that determine the success of analysis and measurement projects.