Brand New Metrics
By Mary Pocsik, G2

The recession and still-sluggish economy may have decreased total ad dollars, but economic uncertainty doesn’t seem to slow the increasing number of new media-tactics or investments in them.

Which of these emerging media are most effective? In the past, that question could be answered with relative ease: Media choices were limited to print, radio and television. Today, the so-called traditional media triumvirate is quickly being displaced (or at least augmented) by a plethora of digitally-driven options — and yes, that includes the aforementioned media types, which are increasingly “delivered” via digital channels.

Each media tactic performs differently — both on its own and as part of a multimedia plan. The variables are endless: Offer; message; execution; format; size and position — coupled with product demand, competition and the overall economy — are all factors in forecasting performance projections. Certainly, television is not appropriate for many campaigns given its broad reach and propensity toward waste and high costs. Other tactics, such as print and more finely targeted vehicles like direct mail and display, often need to be given further exploration when television is not the solution.

That said, search-engine optimization (SEO) has become — and will continue to be — a musthave for building strong return-on-investment for any media plan and at virtually any budget. Search capitalizes on the power of mass media and is almost a requirement when investing in them.

On the flip side, clients with very small budgets need search to capitalize on consumer demand in the category and to complement a strong SEO approach. Search has taken over media planning by storm because of its ability to drive at the heart of the new world of media planning - customization. There has been an evolution away from mass media where the same package of content is directed toward everyone, and search has established itself as the “pull” media-of-choice in this emerging consumerdriven reality. Here are some guidelines to help navigate these new-media choices.

To read the full article download Brand New Metrics (pdf).

Source: The Hub, September/October 2010