Rubinson Partners can help your marketing and research efforts lead to brand success and media efficiency

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
December 2019

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). 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.

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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
•DISO
•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
 The systems we create and the problems we
solve

5. Confidential property of Rubinson Partners, Inc. Not to be re-shared without prior permission
Rubinson as an agent of change
 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.

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
AccelerationTools
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

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Case Study: Identifying and correcting a paradox
in attribution approaches for a publisher
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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3
Background
Client 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.

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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.

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White paper evidence of huge payoff to
selecting the right users
 Across 3 CPG campaigns, targeting of
segments proven to improve ROAS by 2-
16X
 ROAS of $2 is actually an average of ROAS
under $1 “wasted” to 70+% of consumers,
and ROAS of $4+ to better prospects
 Re-weight via programmatic to improve
ROAS
 BUT, segment creation is key…if not
properly constructed, you are targeting to
those who are not more attractive
 Our evidence suggests that Marc
Prichard’s call for quadrupling ROI IS
possible!

10. Confidential property of Rubinson Partners, Inc. Not to be re-shared without prior permission
Case Study: Evaluating segment validity
and ROAS potential
Client wanted to determine which of 5 segments available via the LiveRamp store for
the same consumer segment would be best to use
Via Jolt! Partnership I am in, evaluated each segment for validity and ROAS potential
Segments varied from 2.5X gen pop levels of consumer profiling attribute (good) to .75
gen pop (really bad.) Some segments were modeled as providing a 40% lift in ROAS
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Background
Working with Jolt!, client has 5
segments they were evaluating in
the LIveRamp store that they could
license access to, for programmatic
targetingb
Findings
Segment validity varied greatly even
though the data aggregators were all
really well known. Some segments were
also likely to produce considerably higher
ROAS for the marketer based on brand
buying and category frequency of
purchase characteristics.
Impact
Client was directed as to
which segment was clearly
superior for their purposes.

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: Targeting likely triers
Background
RPI believes that in an era of
low trial levels for new brands,
mass market media plans are
extremely wasteful and
underachieve by failing to
deploy sufficient media weight
against a segment of consumers
who are “High Propensity Triers.
New product media plan launches are too mass market oriented and fail to deploy
sufficient media weight against “High Propensity Triers” (HPTs)
MoreCastR was created to identify HPTs and proved that they generated 2-3X the trial
levels of non-HPTs
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2
Findings
Partnering with Marketing Evolution,
we have created a new offering called
MoreCastR that identifies High
Propensity Triers and then uses
lookalike modeling to identify HPTs at
scale. The first application proved
that HPTs could be identified prior to
launch, guiding launch plan creation,
where this segment exhibited 2-3X
the trial levels of non-HPTs.
Impact
RPI currently
commercializing this
service.

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