I spent a couple of years then experimenting on the ‘client side’ and soon experienced the level of accountability demanded by both by management and Wall Street. The pressure was on to show what the real return on the advertising dollar was. Talking about GRP’s, impressions and bums on seats was no longer enough. The bean counters had taken over! Unfortunately, the advertising industry was so busy talking about Golden Pencils and peer awards that most didn’t notice that clients and consumers had moved on.

After enough meetings about having meetings, I moved back to BLUE and it was refreshing to see how many clients had started to come around to this simple concept: effective measurement leads to better decision making – creating better marketing and better results.

At the end of the day though, metrics are an addictive drug - once you start seeing what can be accomplished you just want more and more. Its starts with a single hit of measurement on an email or search campaign, then progresses to all demand generation activities and soon…. “why can’t I measure that?!”.

This puts pressure on everyone in the entire market-to-sales cycle. You start to look for ways to maximise results by constantly testing and tweaking, and, getting the most from marketing – rather than bragging about historical wins. You start accepting mistakes humbly, learning from them, and using these insights to optimise your communications. It changes the way you plan and execute every campaign.

A couple of years ago I sat in on a joint briefing for one of our major IT clients. In the meeting were the teams from both BLUE (representing the “digital point-of-view”) and the client’s above-the-line agency. The campaign was for the launch of a new server product that was going to revolutionize the way IT Managers planned their infrastructures. My colleagues from BLUE pulled out their spreadsheets and started building a model with the client based on the number of units we needed to sell, the allowable cost per customer acquired and the relative media costs in the market. When we were done with working out the defined metrics and go-to-market plan, the client turned to the ad boys and asked if they had any questions? “Ya, I’m just thinking about how we work out the shoot. Are these servers the same colour as the rest of yours, or are you guys doing something sexy with these?”

With metrics comes transparency and accountability - one of the scariest barriers to making the transition. Nobody likes saying, “We spent a million dollars on this campaign and it didn’t work”. The salvation lies in the realisation that you’ve probably been wasting money on some campaigns that didn’t work and you had no idea. Wouldn’t it be better to KNOW that they’re not working, understand why and be able to fix them before you throw more good money after bad? Wouldn’t it be great to kill or improve that event/newsletter/program, rather than allowing it to continue quarter after quarter, ”because we’ve always done that”…

To succeed in this new environment, you have to be willing to make mistakes, to change, and adapt – to learn and improve. The key deciding factors of a great marketer are often more about humility and a desire to grow, rather than about technology or creativity.

So I encourage you to start thinking about your own company: What are the key drivers of revenue and customer satisfaction? The raw data is all out there. Most clients have a lot more data than they ever realized (or recorded) and sadly used. Constant testing and measurement provides meaningful, actionable data to which decisions can be made.

In this era of diminishing budgets, fragmented media, intense competition and self-empowered consumers – we all have to push to the limits. As marketers, irrespective of Agency, Consultancy, or Client – things change. Your options are increasing and traditional paradigms are breaking. Your customers are demanding it. The successful companies will be those that hear, learn and appreciate the message and have the drive and the ability to adapt quickly.