New discoveries about the applied science of marketing. The value of targeting, MTA, brand tracking done right, segmentation

1. How Rubinson Partners, Inc. Drives Commercial
Success for Its Clients in a Digital Age
Examples of our work
Joel Rubinson, President
Rubinson Partners, Inc.
joel@rubinsonpartners.com
Blog.joelrubinson.net
Twitter: @joelrubinson
July 2021

2. Confidential property of Rubinson Partners, Inc. Not to be re-shared without prior permission
About Rubinson Partners, Inc.
 Joel Rubinson is President of Rubinson Partners, Inc. marketing and research consulting for a
brave new world, specializing in incorporating the digital marketing ecosystem into research
systems.
 We function as the subject matter expert on attribution methods for the Mobile Marketing
Association, advisors to a number of innovative research and analytics firms, and also serve a
wide variety of marketer and media clients.
 Joel was the Chief Research Officer of the Advertising Research Foundation, based in NY.
 As an adjunct professor at NYU, created their first grad course on social media for business.
 Joel was Senior Vice-President, Head of Advanced Solutions for Synovate North America where
he was also their global thought leader for shopper research. Before that, Joel ran the
advanced research practice for Vivaldi Partners, Inc.
 Joel was at the NPD Group for many years, leading the creation of modeling approaches for
brand equity management (BrandBuilder), new product forecasting (ESP), category
management and designed many of their data collection and sampling methodologies. Joel
started his research career at Unilever.
 Joel is also a published author of numerous papers in professional journals, and frequent
industry speaker (US, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Australia, South Africa). Joel is an influential
blogger (his socially available content…blog, slideshare, etc….have over 200,000 pageviews.)
 Joel holds an MBA in statistics and economics from the University of Chicago.

3. Confidential property of Rubinson Partners, Inc. Not to be re-shared without prior permission
Since 2010, Rubinson Partners has worked with 74
companies representing all parts of the ecosystem
•Moat
•Big data VAR-IIS
•Sharethis
•Catalina
•Resonate Networks
•MMA, ANA, ARF
•DISQO
•Affinity Answers
•LRW
•Marketing Evolution
•The NPD Group
•Converseon
•MESH
•AceMetrix
•Kantar
• AOL
• NBC
• Foursquare
•Coca-Cola
•Unilever
•General Mills
•J&J
•PepsiCo
•Verizon
Advertisers
Media
publishers
Tech and
trade
associations
Insights
providers
Also, I interact with 40-50 leading marketers and
publishers/AdTech companies in my MMA role

4. Confidential property of Rubinson Partners, Inc. Not to be re-shared without prior permission
Rubinson as an agent of change
 For pdfs of my most important published papers, click here.
 Marketing effectiveness systems. Marketing mix modeling gets us part of the way because it is
backward looking, slow, not granular and the consumer is literally not in the equation. You will
need Multi-touch attribution and properly designed experiments to get you the rest of the way.
(Note: I serve as the MMA subject matter expert on MTA).
 Brand tracking. No one wants ¼” drillbits, they want ¼” holes. Marketers don’t need trackers, they
need brand guidance and there are only two metrics that matter: driving up short term
performance and improving brand strength for the long run.
 Targetable segmentation. Nothing is more maddening than segments that marketers cannot act
on. We need to create segments that can be acted on out of your DMP or why bother?
 Concept testing and forecasting. “Our goal is not more accurate forecasts, it is more successful
new offerings and this requires better guidance for launch plans”.
 Reinventing marketing research in a digital age. Research needs to be integrative with digital and
social data sets, and address blind spots in digital data, like what happens inside of walled gardens.
 Executive workshops. Every business segment has its blindspots. Marketing research is behind on
digital understanding, data scientists are short on consumer behavior theory, marketers don’t fully
understand how to create and leverage high performing targetable segments.
 Culture change. Helping marketing and research to embrace the future, and communicate with
partners in the tech stack.

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 The systems we create and the problems we
solve

6. MMA MTA ACCELERATION TOOLS I HAVE CREATED
Four-Part Webinar
Series: Mastering
Multi-Touch Attribution
Marketer Research
Study: Marketing
Productivity
Assessment
Attitudes
Multi-Touch Attribution
Marketer Survey
Multi-Touch Attribution
Assessment &
Landscape Report
Multi-Touch Attribution
Decision Guide
MATT MMA Data Map
MTA Data Strategy
Guide
Multi-Touch Attribution
Marketer Survey
MTA Tactical
Success
Guide
MTA Data
Acquisition RFI
Template
Multi-Touch
Attribution
Marketer
Survey
Acceleration
Tools
Working
Groups
Data Quality &
Accuracy Working
Group
Walled Garden
Working Group
Journey Map
Working Group
Data Sharing
for Attribution
Guide
Publishers Grid
for Data Sharing
Practices
Multi-Touch
Attribution
Marketer Survey
Journey Map &
Guide
Data
map
MTA
journey
map

7. Confidential property of Rubinson Partners, Inc. Not to be re-shared without prior permission
Case Study: Targeting the Movable Middle
Board members at the MMA were debating if targeting existing users from first party data
made sense or if targeting non-buyers via broad reach would be better
RPI, as the analytic lead for the MMA, worked closely with Neustar, fueled by Numerator
data to address this issue
We proved that targeting existing customers produces greater ROAS and more conversion
of non-buyers than the reach based approaches recommended by Byron Sharp.
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2
3
Background
A CMO from a leading retailer
was a devotee of Byron Sharp
and believed that incrementality
comes from advertising to non-
customers.
Findings
Our study proved that non-
customers actually have very
low responsiveness to
advertising, unless they are
lapsed or lookalikes. Ad
responsiveness actually
comes from targeting
audiences rich in the
Movable Middle (mid-range
probability of buying your
brand)
Impact
The board (CVS, Kroger,
Molson-Coors, Western
Union, Bank of America,
plus many others) have
now broadly accepted our
findings and
recommendations.

8. Confidential property of Rubinson Partners, Inc. Not to be re-shared without prior permission
Case Study: Identifying and correcting a paradox in
attribution approaches for an AdTech provider
Client method for attribution was yielding paradoxical results
RPI created a new method that eliminated the problem
A number of RPI recommendations have been implemented and are part of the new
core methodology
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Background
Location based AdTech provider
had a particular approach for
attribution analysis that seemed
perfectly reasonable but was
yielding illogical results, i.e.
each publisher/network could
have negative lift while the
overall campaign had positive
lift.
Findings
Rubinson analyzed and
dissected the problem and
realized that using a Shapley
values approach would avoid
the paradox.
Impact
Client implemented a
number of RPI
recommendations as part
of their revised core
methodology.

9. Confidential property of Rubinson Partners, Inc. Not to be re-shared without prior permission
Case Study: Creating new premium ad
targeting products
New approach leveraging frequent shopper data for targeting via programmatic
created
Proven to create a two to ten fold lift in Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
Client has created a new and highly differentiated commercial offering, resulting in
substantial incremental I/O revenues
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Background
Working with Viant and NCS, RPI
brought a new idea for using
frequent shopper data for targeting
consumers. The new segmentation
approach leveraged Rubinson’s
theories of buyer behavior combined
with Erwin Ephron’s ideas of
Recency-based targeting applied in a
novel way to programmatic
targeting.
Findings
Across 3 CPG campaigns, we identified
that Rubinson’s new targeting schema for
recency generated unheard of ROAS
results. Recency targeting alone led to
doubling ROAS. Furthermore, we
identified a segment of “Persuadables”
that exhibited 16X (over $20 vs. about
$1.50) the ROAS. These findings validated
Rubinson’s theories of targeting which
are in stark contrast to those of Byron
Sharp from the Ehrenberg Bass Institute.
Impact
Findings were documented
in a white paper, presented
as an award winning paper,
and led to the creation of a
new premium ad targeting
offering that has generated
substantial incremental
revenues for both Viant and
NCS.

10. Confidential property of Rubinson Partners, Inc. Not to be re-shared without prior permission
Case Study: Improving segment validity
and ROAS potential
Truthset had developed relationships with 10+ data aggregators who provide
targetable segments
They wanted to sharpen and validate that they are able to use a wisdom of the Crowds
approach to identify which IDs had the highest probability of being accurate
RPI helped sharpen the math, working with their data science team and then wrote a
white paper review
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Background
Truthset wanted to prove that their
Wisdom of Crowds method could
distinguish between IDs that have a
low vs. high probability of possessing
the purported attribute (e.g. age 18-
24 or Hispanic)
Findings
The method produced remarkable
accuracy against a hold out sample. The
“truth rate” for Hashed emails was 10
greater for those modeled to truly
possess the attribute vs. those who were
in the same segment but modeled to not
possess the attribute.
Impact
Marketers now use Truthset
to eliminate low probability
IDs from an aggregator’s
audience, saving 30% or
more by eliminating wasted,
off-target ad serving.
The summary is in a white
paper that recently won a
“best paper” award from the
ARF.

11. Confidential property of Rubinson Partners, Inc. Not to be re-shared without prior permission
Case Study: Brand guidance systems
Coca-Cola and other marketers believed their brand trackers had become bloated and
lost their value
Rubinson created new approaches called “brand guidance systems”, leveraging data
lakes, for each company
New brand guidance systems were deployed globally by each client
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Background
Brand trackers are often bloated,
retrospective, and not very actionable.
Working with Coca-Cola and other marketers,
RPI has created contemporary brand
guidance systems that fully integrate survey,
social, and digital data streams.
Impact
Coca-Cola has launched and publicly announced
their new brand guidance system globally (over
100 countries) built around data lakes. Another
CPG deployed the new system across brands
(and globally) but will not speak about it at
conferences because they believe it has
generated substantial competitive advantage.
Financial services marketer went from no one
looking at the tracker to deploying globally.

12. Confidential property of Rubinson Partners, Inc. Not to be re-shared without prior permission
Case Study: Big data applications for digital data
Client offered large scale tracking of digital behaviors
RPI led a data science team to build a segmentation system that leveraged the same
math as the NetFlix recommender system
Client now offers new land powerful ways of profiling consumers who engage in
certain behaviors or exhibit interest in a particular brand
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Background
Client tracks behavior of hundreds of
thousands of consumers across thousands of
domains. Because consumers are somewhat
habitual, the idea was to group them into
segments based on commonalities in web
visitation patterns.
RPI recommended Singular Value
Decomposition approaches from linear
algebra for this gigantic matrix of behaviors
using fuzzy clustering.
Impact
Segments are added onto consumers on the
client’s tracking platform as a new profiling
variable, which gives additional and valuable
brand and media insights to marketers.

13. Confidential property of Rubinson Partners, Inc. Not to be re-shared without prior permission
What clients say about working with Rubinson Partners, Inc.
 “Joel Rubinson is one of the greatest minds and innovators in the market research industry. He
uniquely combines traditional experience and in-depth analytic skills with fresh thinking and
creativity. He is a real problem solver and a pleasure to work with”
 Donna Goldfarb, Vice-President, Consumer and Market Insights, Unilever Americas
 “Of all the partners with who I regularly work, Joel brings a unique clarity…this is what makes him a
rare breed of collaborator—in every interaction, I can count on Joel offering an honest and thoughtful
assessment and a suggestion for a path forward”
 Christian Kugel, VP, Consumer Analytics and Research AOL
 "Joel is a visionary researcher, creative problem solver, and strategist. I've hired Joel as a consultant
and would recommend him to others because he is a pleasure to work with and a strong resource to
help teams evolve with the fast changing digital marketing landscape. “
 John Walthour, Vice President, Strategic Insights, General Mills, Inc.
 “I got to know Joel during our work together at the ARF and I have been very impressed with his
leadership, creativity and technical expertise”
 Susan L. Wagner, Vice President, Global Strategy Insights, John & Johnson
 In my capacity as a global shopper insights manager I am always on the lookout for supplier partners
who can add value to the debate…Joel was one of those…
 Cliff McGregor, Global Shopper Insights Manager at Nestle
 Joel is one of the top analytical minds in marketing today. He brings decades of experience, creative
insights and exceptionally strong quantitative analysis to bear on any marketing problem. If you're
struggling to solve a marketing or marketing research challenge, Joel is your go-to-guy.
 Gian Fulgoni

14. Confidential property of Rubinson Partners, Inc. Not to be re-shared without prior permission
How may I help you?
 joel@rubinsonpartners.com
 Blog.joelrubinson.net