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IMC ReportIntegrated Marketing Communications

Objective

Proving effectiveness

Showing what the marketing achieved, for the brand and for sales.

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Proving effectiveness means showing what the marketing caused, for the brand and for sales, that would not have happened otherwise. No discipline leads it: the measurement plan does, set before launch, and every discipline feeds it. Because no single method answers every question, an integrated plan combines mix modelling, experiments, attribution and brand tracking, and lets them check one another.

  • Sales
  • Time
  • Brand building: long, slow growth
  • Activation: short spikes in sales
Brand and activation over time. Brand building: long, slow growth. Activation: short spikes in sales.

Proving effectiveness means reading both curves: the slow growth of the brand and the short spikes of activation.

What matters when choosing

  1. Objectives and KPIs agreed before launch, each with a definition, a data source and a baseline.

  2. Each method used for the question it can answer: modelling for budgets, experiments for cause, attribution for day-to-day optimisation, brand tracking for slow effects.

  3. Every discipline in the data, press relations, sponsorship and CRM included, so that none takes another's credit.

  4. Holdouts or regional tests planned regularly on the biggest open questions.

  5. One review with one owner, where the results of every method are brought together and acted on.

Questions to ask vendors and agencies

  1. What would have happened without this campaign, and how do you know?

  2. Which of your numbers show cause, and which only show sequence or correlation?

  3. How will brand effects that take months to show be measured, and kept in the budget?

Common mistakes

  1. Letting each platform grade its own homework, then adding up the claims.

  2. Using weak proxies as proof: email opens, impressions without a viewability standard, or the advertising value of press coverage.

  3. Measuring only what is quick, so that budgets drift from brand building to activation.

Typical disciplines

Platforms that fit (13)

Sharpen with your details

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  • MatomoServes Proving effectiveness
    Strong match100
  • SurveyMonkeyServes Proving effectiveness
    Strong match100
  • Twilio SegmentServes Proving effectiveness
    Strong match100
  • Google Analytics 4Serves Proving effectiveness
    Strong match100
  • Piwik PROServes Proving effectiveness
    Strong match100
  • QualtricsServes Proving effectiveness
    Strong match100