The document discusses adopting a portfolio approach to marketing investments that balances risk and reward. It recommends treating marketing opportunities as investment opportunities by experimenting with a mix of safe, medium-risk, and high-risk initiatives to learn from failures and fund projects that show growth. This balanced portfolio approach helps minimize risk and maximize success through iterative testing of new ideas in a "wind tunnel" before committing large budgets.
Get ready to unlock the power of promotional merchandise with some incredible statistics about the very products which run through Outstanding Branding's veins.
Digital is transforming marketing - but what does that mean for research and testing? In this presentation, BrainJuicer tackles the questions on every marketer's mind: how different is digital, how do you build up a buzz online, what is the role of social, what should your campaign aim for, and more.
Red Goldfish - Motivating Sales and Loyalty Through Shared Passion and PurposeStan Phelps
Red Goldfish is the fifth color in the Goldfish Series of books. It focuses on how purpose is driving loyalty and becoming the ultimate differentiator in business.
Stan Phelps is the founder of PurpleGoldfish.com, a speaking and training consultancy that helps brands obtain customers that are up to four times as valuable as ordinary customers. He’s a contributor to Forbes and the author of Purple Goldfish, Green Goldfish, Golden Goldfish, Blue Goldfish, and Purple Goldfish - Service Edition. He works with senior leaders to focus on meaningful differentiation to win the hearts of both employees and customers. Driven by client objectives and inspired by bold vision, Stan creates custom keynotes, workshops, and programs that are memorable and on brand, inspiring businesses to become REMARK-able by design.
Contact Stan at stan@purplegoldfish.com or call 919.360.4702.
Lottery marketing effectiveness case studyMichael Wolfe
Applications of predictive analytics and econometrics for measuring the effectiveness of Lottery Corp. marketing and media. This study is able to differentiate marketing effectiveness across different types of lottery games, including instant (scratch) games, draw games and high jackpot intererstate games like Powerball and Mega Millions.
Insight from more than 3,500 business Professionals.
The 2014-2015 State of Inbound is Here!
Click here to download.In the sixth annual comprehensive overview of the industry, this report explains how companies around the globe have shifted the way they do marketing and sales. More than 3,500 businesses were surveyed to uncover how they convert strangers visiting their website into leads and then into delighted customers.
Download the Report Now from http://offers.hubspot.com/2014-state-of-inbound
In the report you'll find important takeaways -- for example, companies that blog are 13x more likely to generate a positive marketing ROI. The report also answers questions such as:
What do the highest performing inbound marketers have in common?
What's the relationship between "inbound marketing" and "content marketing"?
What you can do today to generate more budget for next year?
Get ready to unlock the power of promotional merchandise with some incredible statistics about the very products which run through Outstanding Branding's veins.
Digital is transforming marketing - but what does that mean for research and testing? In this presentation, BrainJuicer tackles the questions on every marketer's mind: how different is digital, how do you build up a buzz online, what is the role of social, what should your campaign aim for, and more.
Red Goldfish - Motivating Sales and Loyalty Through Shared Passion and PurposeStan Phelps
Red Goldfish is the fifth color in the Goldfish Series of books. It focuses on how purpose is driving loyalty and becoming the ultimate differentiator in business.
Stan Phelps is the founder of PurpleGoldfish.com, a speaking and training consultancy that helps brands obtain customers that are up to four times as valuable as ordinary customers. He’s a contributor to Forbes and the author of Purple Goldfish, Green Goldfish, Golden Goldfish, Blue Goldfish, and Purple Goldfish - Service Edition. He works with senior leaders to focus on meaningful differentiation to win the hearts of both employees and customers. Driven by client objectives and inspired by bold vision, Stan creates custom keynotes, workshops, and programs that are memorable and on brand, inspiring businesses to become REMARK-able by design.
Contact Stan at stan@purplegoldfish.com or call 919.360.4702.
Lottery marketing effectiveness case studyMichael Wolfe
Applications of predictive analytics and econometrics for measuring the effectiveness of Lottery Corp. marketing and media. This study is able to differentiate marketing effectiveness across different types of lottery games, including instant (scratch) games, draw games and high jackpot intererstate games like Powerball and Mega Millions.
Insight from more than 3,500 business Professionals.
The 2014-2015 State of Inbound is Here!
Click here to download.In the sixth annual comprehensive overview of the industry, this report explains how companies around the globe have shifted the way they do marketing and sales. More than 3,500 businesses were surveyed to uncover how they convert strangers visiting their website into leads and then into delighted customers.
Download the Report Now from http://offers.hubspot.com/2014-state-of-inbound
In the report you'll find important takeaways -- for example, companies that blog are 13x more likely to generate a positive marketing ROI. The report also answers questions such as:
What do the highest performing inbound marketers have in common?
What's the relationship between "inbound marketing" and "content marketing"?
What you can do today to generate more budget for next year?
A sample Digital Strategy Presentation for a hospital. Message me if you want a copy.
The presentation includes:
The Process
The Brief: Recap the discovery
Insights: Cultural, Product and Consumer Truth
The Strategy
Key Idea
Executions
Campaign Architecture
Campaign Elements
KPIs
Budget
Timing / Next Steps
There are two types of companies in the business world: incumbents and insurgents. Find out why insurgent companies are on a mission to redefine their industry with a revenue-centric approach. Discover the five characteristics that insurgent companies share.
Presentation given at Michigan State University Social Media Executive Seminar on the calculating the return on social media based on customer lifetime value.
Understand the metrics and value calculations of social ROI
Learn how to quantify social media contributions to the bottom-line
Determine the impact that social media has on sales and other parts of the business, and their interrelatedness
Your Brand Is Not My Friend: Twin Cities VersionAlan Wolk
The Classic "Your Brand Is Not My Friend" presentation adapted for the students at MCAD and for the Conversations About the Future of Advertising Series
The what, why and how of Social Media ROI: Business definitions, methodologies and situational narrative. This presentation's purpose is to clarify what ROI is and isn't within the context of Social Media and offers a basic explanation of how to tie Social Media activities to real ROI.
Andrew Challier, Director, Client Relations at Ebiquity spoke at Ad:Tech in October 2014. With the evolution in digital marketing very much on the Ad:Tech agenda, here Andrew looks at the current digital landscape and argues that there's still some growing up to do.
Case study of state lottery marketing-mix optimization analysisMichael Wolfe
Lotteries are big businesses and many would quality for F500 base on revenues. This is a landmark study of how marketing econometric modeling was used by a state lottery to maximize its growth and improve its marketing effectiveness.
Advertising Trends in Digital and Traditional Media Channels Can J. Ogan
The customer is getting bombarded with more and more advertisements every day. While the techniques and technology are changing rapidly, it is becoming harder to build brand awareness and engage with potential customers today.
Changes in consumer behavior, fueled by technology, require new marketing capabilities. Each year, $112 billion in advertising is wasted1. A new capability model, to optimize customer value at every interaction, is required. Progressive marketers that embrace this capability model have already realized hundreds of millions annually
for their firms.
This paper explores the fundamental changes in the business of marketing, then introduces a capability model for driving customer engagement in a connected world. This capability model enables robust optimization at “the moment
of truth,” when customers engage directly with brands.
A sample Digital Strategy Presentation for a hospital. Message me if you want a copy.
The presentation includes:
The Process
The Brief: Recap the discovery
Insights: Cultural, Product and Consumer Truth
The Strategy
Key Idea
Executions
Campaign Architecture
Campaign Elements
KPIs
Budget
Timing / Next Steps
There are two types of companies in the business world: incumbents and insurgents. Find out why insurgent companies are on a mission to redefine their industry with a revenue-centric approach. Discover the five characteristics that insurgent companies share.
Presentation given at Michigan State University Social Media Executive Seminar on the calculating the return on social media based on customer lifetime value.
Understand the metrics and value calculations of social ROI
Learn how to quantify social media contributions to the bottom-line
Determine the impact that social media has on sales and other parts of the business, and their interrelatedness
Your Brand Is Not My Friend: Twin Cities VersionAlan Wolk
The Classic "Your Brand Is Not My Friend" presentation adapted for the students at MCAD and for the Conversations About the Future of Advertising Series
The what, why and how of Social Media ROI: Business definitions, methodologies and situational narrative. This presentation's purpose is to clarify what ROI is and isn't within the context of Social Media and offers a basic explanation of how to tie Social Media activities to real ROI.
Andrew Challier, Director, Client Relations at Ebiquity spoke at Ad:Tech in October 2014. With the evolution in digital marketing very much on the Ad:Tech agenda, here Andrew looks at the current digital landscape and argues that there's still some growing up to do.
Case study of state lottery marketing-mix optimization analysisMichael Wolfe
Lotteries are big businesses and many would quality for F500 base on revenues. This is a landmark study of how marketing econometric modeling was used by a state lottery to maximize its growth and improve its marketing effectiveness.
Advertising Trends in Digital and Traditional Media Channels Can J. Ogan
The customer is getting bombarded with more and more advertisements every day. While the techniques and technology are changing rapidly, it is becoming harder to build brand awareness and engage with potential customers today.
Changes in consumer behavior, fueled by technology, require new marketing capabilities. Each year, $112 billion in advertising is wasted1. A new capability model, to optimize customer value at every interaction, is required. Progressive marketers that embrace this capability model have already realized hundreds of millions annually
for their firms.
This paper explores the fundamental changes in the business of marketing, then introduces a capability model for driving customer engagement in a connected world. This capability model enables robust optimization at “the moment
of truth,” when customers engage directly with brands.
Your customer journeys are complex, to say the least. From an array of online and offline channels across multiple devices, it's difficult to understand which initiatives actually move the needle toward conversion and revenue. Luckily today's technology enables marketers to better leverage attribution and demonstrate the impact of their efforts. In this presentation Bram de Jonge, Senior Account Relationship Manager, will walk you through key tactics for better and effective measurement.
Our outlook for 2014 is optimistic. As marketers, it has never been a more exciting time. The following things to watch for range from very strategic to very tactical, but all are related in one big way. For marketers, none of them will matter, and none of them will work at all if not driven by a healthy, big idea.
Are actionable org charts becoming the ultimate tool to combat the new normal Bizkonnect
Ensuring touch base at the right time and in the right way is a pressing priority for businesses across the industry verticals. Org Charts can be your obvious rescue at this point.
Start Me Up - 6 Steps to Launching Your Own Startup CompanyClint Edmonson
Have a great idea for a business but don’t know how to get it off the ground? Join us in this session for a lively discussion on how to launch a new internet based startup business from the ground up.
Building a cross-device audience picture in the travel industry is tougher than it seems. Currently, the ability to create a comprehensive user picture is an uphill technical battle.
As a Marketing Strategist, these days, you cannot afford to lose out on the upcoming trends. To stay ahead of the competition, adopt and integrate influencer marketing in your overall marketing strategy.
For the last eight years brands have invested billions into social media programs and now many are scratching their heads… “What's the ROI of this content?”
In this webinar we break it down for you.
Digital transformation challenges and the marketing audit imperativeSilvia Rak
The digital transformation poses a unique opportunity for marketers: this process that puts a question mark on business models and erases whole industries offers a chance to take the marketing discipline to a more strategic level. Because at top level everything is under scrutiny, it is a springboard for everyone who would like to escape the “we’ve always done it this way” trap. But my prediction is: only few will make it.
A presentation I gave at Digital Summit: Mass publishing is the lowest form of value the internet can provide you. Relying on a content publishing model for lead generation, and relationship building will not give you the sustainable, or scaleable competitive advantage you need to succeed in this new world of infinite noise. Nobody cares about your content because you’ve missed the true reason people consume content, because it fulfills their inner purpose. Learn what the five pillars are and why they must be new foundations for the future marketing organization.
The Ultimate Bare-Knuckle Boxing Match: Attribution vs. MeasurementJim Nichols
With digital marketing, there’s no shortage of data to evaluate. But all of that information brings with it the real challenge of identifying both the metrics we should care about and the best way to measure them. Brands are in the metaphorical seats of a great ROI assessment boxing match: a fight between attribution – focused on assigning credit for sales – and causal measurement – focused on measuring sales actually caused by a program. Sound the same? Nope. They’re as different as Tyson and Ali.
What to Expect From Programmatic in 2015Extreme Reach
"Predictions for programmatic are plentiful. 11 experts forecast which are most likely to come to fruition, and how marketers should prepare."
Our Chief Digital Officer, Avi Brown, weighs in on the future of programmatic advertising and the importance of automating the direct buy.
Core Web Vitals SEO Workshop - improve your performance [pdf]Peter Mead
Core Web Vitals to improve your website performance for better SEO results with CWV.
CWV Topics include:
- Understanding the latest Core Web Vitals including the significance of LCP, INP and CLS + their impact on SEO
- Optimisation techniques from our experts on how to improve your CWV on platforms like WordPress and WP Engine
- The impact of user experience and SEO
Short video marketing has sweeped the nation and is the fastest way to build an online brand on social media in 2024. In this session you will learn:- What is short video marketing- Which platforms work best for your business- Content strategies that are on brand for your business- How to sell organically without paying for ads.
Everyone knows the power of stories, but when asked to come up with them, we struggle. Either we second guess ourselves as to the story's relevance, or we just come up blank and can't think of any. Unlocking Everyday Narratives: The Power of Storytelling in Marketing will teach you how to recognize stories in the moment and to recall forgotten moments that your audience needs to hear.
Key Takeaways:
Understand Why Personal Stories Connect Better
How To Remember Forgotten Stories
How To Use Customer Experiences As Stories For Your Brand
Monthly Social Media News Update May 2024Andy Lambert
TL;DR. These are the three themes that stood out to us over the course of last month.
1️⃣ Social media is becoming increasingly significant for brand discovery. Marketers are now understanding the impact of social and budgets are shifting accordingly.
2️⃣ Instagram’s new algorithm and latest guidance will help us maintain organic growth. Instagram continues to evolve, but Reels remains the most crucial tool for growth.
3️⃣ Collaboration will help us unlock growth. Who we work with will define how fast we grow. Meta continues to evolve their Creator Marketplace and now TikTok are beginning to push ‘collabs’ more too.
Mastering Multi-Touchpoint Content Strategy: Navigate Fragmented User JourneysSearch Engine Journal
Digital platforms are constantly multiplying, and with that, user engagement is becoming more intricate and fragmented.
So how do you effectively navigate distributing and tailoring your content across these various touchpoints?
Watch this webinar as we dive into the evolving landscape of content strategy tailored for today's fragmented user journeys. Understanding how to deliver your content to your users is more crucial than ever, and we’ll provide actionable tips for navigating these intricate challenges.
You’ll learn:
- How today’s users engage with content across various channels and devices.
- The latest methodologies for identifying and addressing content gaps to keep your content strategy proactive and relevant.
- What digital shelf space is and how your content strategy needs to pivot.
With Wayne Cichanski, we’ll explore innovative strategies to map out and meet the diverse needs of your audience, ensuring every piece of content resonates and connects, regardless of where or how it is consumed.
When most people in the industry talk about online or digital reputation management, what they're really saying is Google search and PPC. And it's usually reactive, left dealing with the aftermath of negative information published somewhere online. That's outdated. It leaves executives, organizations and other high-profile individuals at a high risk of a digital reputation attack that spans channels and tactics. But the tools needed to safeguard against an attack are more cybersecurity-oriented than most marketing and communications professionals can manage. Business leaders Leaders grasp the importance; 83% of executives place reputation in their top five areas of risk, yet only 23% are confident in their ability to address it. To succeed in 2024 and beyond, you need to turn online reputation on its axis and think like an attacker.
Key Takeaways:
- New framework for examining and safeguarding an online reputation
- Tools and techniques to keep you a step ahead
- Practical examples that demonstrate when to act, how to act and how to recover
The digital marketing industry is changing faster than ever and those who don’t adapt with the times are losing market share. Where should marketers be focusing their efforts? What strategies are the experts seeing get the best results? Get up-to-speed with the latest industry insights, trends and predictions for the future in this panel discussion with some leading digital marketing experts.
The Secret to Engaging Modern Consumers: Journey Mapping and Personalization
In today's digital landscape, understanding the customer's journey and delivering personalized experiences are paramount. This masterclass delves into the art of consumer journey mapping, a powerful technique that visualizes the entire customer experience across touchpoints. Attendees will learn how to create detailed journey maps, identify pain points, and uncover opportunities for optimization. The presentation also explores personalization strategies that leverage data and technology to tailor content, products, and experiences to individual customers. From real-time personalization to predictive analytics, attendees will gain insights into cutting-edge approaches that drive engagement and loyalty.
Key Takeaways:
Current consumer landscape; Steps to mapping an effective consumer journey; Understanding the value of personalization; Integrating mapping and personalization for success; Brands that are getting It right!; Best Practices; Future Trends
When most people in the industry talk about online or digital reputation management, what they're really saying is Google search and PPC. And it's usually reactive, left dealing with the aftermath of negative information published somewhere online. That's outdated. It leaves executives, organizations and other high-profile individuals at a high risk of a digital reputation attack that spans channels and tactics. But the tools needed to safeguard against an attack are more cybersecurity-oriented than most marketing and communications professionals can manage. Business leaders Leaders grasp the importance; 83% of executives place reputation in their top five areas of risk, yet only 23% are confident in their ability to address it. To succeed in 2024 and beyond, you need to turn online reputation on its axis and think like an attacker.\
Key Takeaways:
- New framework for examining and safeguarding an online reputation
- Tools and techniques to keep you a step ahead
- Practical examples that demonstrate when to act, how to act and how to recover
For too many years marketing and sales have operated in silos...while in some forward thinking companies, the two organizations work together to drive new opportunity development and revenue. This session will explore the lessons learned in that beautiful dance that can occur when marketing and sales work together...to drive new opportunity development, account expansion and customer satisfaction.
No, this is not a conversation about MQLs and SQLs. Instead we will focus on a framework that allows the two organizations to drive company success together.
Financial curveballs sent many American families reeling in 2023. Household budgets were squeezed by rising interest rates, surging prices on everyday goods, and a stagnating housing market. Consumers were feeling strapped. That sentiment, however, appears to be waning. The question is, to what extent?
To take the pulse of consumers’ feelings about their financial well-being ahead of a highly anticipated election, ThinkNow conducted a nationally representative quantitative survey. The survey highlights consumers’ hopes and anxieties as we move into 2024. Let's unpack the key findings to gain insights about where we stand.
Videos are more engaging, more memorable, and more popular than any other type of content out there. That’s why it’s estimated that 82% of consumer traffic will come from videos by 2025.
And with videos evolving from landscape to portrait and experts promoting shorter clips, one thing remains constant – our brains LOVE videos.
So is there science behind what makes people absolutely irresistible on camera?
The answer: definitely yes.
In this jam-packed session with Stephanie Garcia, you’ll get your hands on a steal-worthy guide that uncovers the art and science to being irresistible on camera. From body language to words that convert, she’ll show you how to captivate on command so that viewers are excited and ready to take action.
Is AI-Generated Content the Future of Content Creation?Cut-the-SaaS
Discover the transformative power of AI in content creation with our presentation, "Is AI-Generated Content the Future of Content Creation?" by Puran Parsani, CEO & Editor of Cut-The-SaaS. Learn how AI-generated content is revolutionizing marketing, publishing, education, healthcare, and finance by offering unprecedented efficiency, creativity, and scalability.
Understanding
AI-Generated Content:
AI-generated content includes text, images, videos, and audio produced by AI without direct human involvement. This technology leverages large datasets to create contextually relevant and coherent material, streamlining content production.
Key Benefits:
Content Creation: Rapidly generate high-quality content for blogs, articles, and social media.
Brainstorming: AI simulates conversations to inspire creative ideas.
Research Assistance: Efficiently summarize and research information.
Market Insights:
The content marketing industry is projected to grow to $17.6 billion by 2032, with AI-generated content expected to dominate over 55% of the market.
Case Study: CNET’s AI Content Controversy:
CNET’s use of AI for news articles led to public scrutiny due to factual inaccuracies, highlighting the need for transparency and human oversight.
Benefits Across Industries:
Marketing: Personalize content at scale and optimize engagement with predictive analytics.
Publishing: Automate content creation for faster publication cycles.
Education: Efficiently generate educational materials.
Healthcare: Create accurate content for patients and professionals.
Finance: Produce timely financial content for decision-making.
Challenges and Ethical Considerations:
Transparency: Disclose AI use to maintain trust.
Bias: Address potential AI biases with diverse datasets.
SEO: Ensure AI content meets SEO standards.
Quality: Maintain high standards to prevent misinformation.
Conclusion:
AI-generated content offers significant benefits in efficiency, personalization, and scalability. However, ethical considerations and quality assurance are crucial for responsible use. Explore the future of content creation with us and see how AI is transforming various industries.
Connect with Us:
Follow Cut-The-SaaS on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Medium. Visit cut-the-saas.com for more insights and resources.
Is AI-Generated Content the Future of Content Creation?
The Innovative CMO
1. The Innovative
CMO: A Portfolio
Approach Toward
Marketing
Investments
Simon James
Global Lead – Marketing
Performance Analytics,
SapientNitro London
Simon is a data scientist
and global leader of
SapientNitro’s Performance
Analytics practice.
2. 159
Thirty years ago, there were 4.2 billion people in the
world and zero cellular phones. Now there are seven
billion people and six billion cellular phone contracts.
Seventy percent of smartphone users regularly use
their phone on the toilet. It takes no more than a single
trip on public transportation to know where eyeballs
are looking. No wonder printed media sales are falling!
Three years ago, Pinterest launched as just another
social photo bookmarking site. In January 2013,
Pinterest witnessed 150,000 pins, shares and
comments for Swedish fashion retailer H&M – the
majority of which resulted in dead links and missed
e-commerce opportunities. Not only did H&M miss an
opportunity; H&M never knew the opportunity existed.
The days of producing a television advertising campaign
and measuring market share three months later are
over. Today’s CMO is still expected to provide an ROI
on advertising. And be a mobile expert. And a social
media expert. And a technology expert.
Being a CMO has never been more challenging. The
job is not just about making decisions, but being aware
of the new options that have been created by the
disruptive influence of technology on human behaviour.
How can you possibly keep up when Facebook or
Twitter could be tomorrow’s CompuServe?
The term ROI is often misused by marketers. Marketing
is rarely seen as an investment. We need to see
marketing opportunities as investment opportunities,
the way an investor would. We need to understand that
the future is not certain; that some opportunities have
no historic data. We need a balanced portfolio approach
to the marketing mix, to find the ideal trade-off between
risk and reward that satisfies the needs of each brand.
One hundred and thirty years ago, prominent Philadelphian department store
owner John Wanamaker gave us the immortal “Fifty percent of my advertising
doesn’t work” quote.
It’s now 2014. The world is a different place. And it’s still true.
Something our ancient ancestors probably used. This is
the landing page for CompuServe, the first major online
community. It was launched in 1979 with a second online
community called The Source. It was supplanted by AOL –
and its direct-mail CD campaign – in the 1990s.
3. The New Economics of Marketing
When marketing was synonymous with
communications, the world was a far simpler place.
After spending money on producing advertising,
marketers devoted the bulk of cost on buying media.
This transaction guarantees reach and frequency. The
top end of the funnel is certain. If your advertising
is informative or persuasive, and moves people
emotionally, there is a good chance sales will be driven
as a consequence. If you can afford econometrics, you
can even prove the causal relationship between spend
and sales, and optimise accordingly.
But what if your best opportunities for investment
cannot be modelled?
Any form of regression relies on the past being
predictive of the future. But isn’t the future changing
rapidly? Yes, it is. How do we forecast the likely ROI of
something a brand has never attempted before? How
much should you spend on your mobile strategy? How
much should you spend on your Pinterest strategy?
What is the point of optimising your bought media
spend if you don’t know how to optimise your spend
across bought, owned and earned media activities?
Should I buy another 100 million impressions to drive
more traffic, or should I improve my user experience
to convert more of the traffic I already have? If I move
money from above-the-line advertising into building
social communities, how do I know sales will not
fall? What if we successfully drive more traffic to a
touchpoint that is unsuccessful converting?
You cannot model these questions using regressive
techniques. But, they are not a total leap of faith
either. New opportunities and innovation come with
an inherent risk attached. But in order to capture the
value of those opportunities, you need to embrace an
element of risk.
The Future Is Uncertain
If you are certain of the future ROI of your marketing
plan, it probably means you are missing a number of
opportunities that are currently deemed too risky.
Professional gamblers are among the most accurate
forecasters of the future because they are financially
invested in the predictions that they make. For a
professional poker player, the golden number is 70
percent.
Poker players should win 70 percent of their
showdowns (the act of revealing your cards at the end
of a hand) to maximise their earnings. If you win more
than 70 percent of showdowns, you are playing too
conservatively and you are foregoing opportunities
to make money. If you win less than 70 percent of
showdowns, you are holding on to too many hands and
are chasing too many opportunities.
If a marketing plan had a planned failure rate of 30
percent, would the board approve it? Thirty percent is
The Innovative CMO: A Portfolio Approach Toward Marketing Investments
Professional poker players target a showdown win-ratio of
70 percent. They should win 70 percent of their showdowns
– any more, and they’re not taking enough risk, any less,
they’re holding on to too many hands and are chasing too
many opportunities.
4. 161
an improvement on Wanamaker’s 50 percent! But if
marketing doesn’t have some element of risk, you are
probably foregoing opportunities to generate growth.
Marketers generally believe in certainty. The ROI we
received yesterday will be the same tomorrow. But is
ROI always the goal? As a single metric in isolation,
ROI is merely a measure of efficiency, the return
(almost always measured in the short term) on a scarce
resource. If you blindly follow the sermon of ROI, you
will optimise yourself into a corner, foregoing larger
lower ROI projects for small/high ROI ones. What if
the scarcest resource in marketing is not budget, but
the bandwidth of the marketing department to deliver
marketing activity? ROI is a good metric, but it should
never be quoted in isolation of context. Like all single
metric measurement systems, blind adherence can
lead to poor decision making.
Given the dramatic changes in human behaviour driven
by technology, it’s a smart move to plan for some
uncertainty in the future – because the future will be
fundamentally different from the past. Forecasting of
ROI only works when there is sufficient history. To
evaluate possible future investment opportunities for
the marketing budget, we need to embrace risk and
stop looking in the rearview mirror.
Risk versus Uncertainty
The key to embracing risk is to first understand it, and
then use that understanding to your advantage, going
where competitors do not understand or fear to tread.
In order to embrace risk, we need to differentiate risk
from uncertainty. With risk, the future is unknown, but
the distribution of possible outcomes is known. With
uncertainty, the future is unknown and we don’t have
a clue how it’s going to pan out. Risk can be measured,
accounted for and mitigated against. Uncertainty is
unquantified risk.
A New Approach
A way to mitigate risk is to place a series of bets
or experiments at varying levels of risk to create a
balanced portfolio. This portfolio will include low-risk
items with a proven track record (e.g., TV advertising
or PPC where the cost can be managed); medium-
risk items such as changes in creative execution or
website redesigns; and high-risk items like a mobile
or a social-first strategy. By varying the proportion of
the market budget spent on any one activity, you can
control the overall risk.
Managing risk is a similar concept to Eric Schmidt’s
70/20/10 for managing innovation at Google, where 70
percent of time is spend on core business, 20 percent
on adjacent sectors and 10 percent on the truly new.
We are proposing a balanced portfolio that manages
and mitigates risk.
If your growth targets are extremely aggressive, then
that growth is only going to occur by embracing higher
risk. If growth targets are relatively modest, then a
more conservative approach based on optimising
the current plan should be favored, although this is a
recipe for inviting creative destruction down on your
doorstep. Investing for marketing is starting to imitate
a futures market.
5. Futures markets are bets on the future value of a commodity. In 18th century Japan,
the Dojima Rice Exchange of Osaka merchants would make bets on the future value
of rice based on their observations on the weather and its impact on the quality of
the harvest. We have known for a long time that mobile and social are going to shape
the media landscape for a number of years. Therefore it makes sense to take out
options on markets we know are going to grow more important in the future, now.
This approach is the very definition of investment in marketing – making bets today
that are going to pay off in the future. You choose your acceptable level of risk by
your choice of which projects to back.
Learnings from these bets or experiments are then used to accelerate understanding,
funding projects that show signs of growth to maximise your chances of success
rather than minimise the risk of failure. If the fear of failure is holding back innovation,
you will never achieve your maximum potential.
You need a method to minimise the cost of failure to remove the fear factor.
Reducing the Cost of Failure
The cost of failure for the Wright brothers at the turn of the 20th Century was 12
months of effort. Every year they would build a plane and throw it off a cliff at Kitty
Hawk, North Carolina. If the plane crashed, it would take another year to build the
next version.
However, in late 1901, the Wright brothers built a wind tunnel in their cycling
shop in Dayton, Ohio. The wind tunnel allowed them to test 200 different wing
prototypes before they threw another plane off a cliff. The cost of failure reduced
from catastrophic to practically zero, and within two years they became the first
people to achieve manned flight.
Netflix is a brand that has embraced the wind tunnel mentality (see sidebar on
“Building Your Own Wind Tunnel”) from the outset. Its recent innovative push into
original content with House of Cards, a $100 million bet, was based on Netflix’s
mastery of data. With analytics, Netflix determined that the combination of Kevin
Spacey (actor), David Fincher (director) and BBC Dramas (content) had a very high
likelihood of success. What looked like a risky $100 million gamble on aggressive
growth into a new adjacent sector was nothing of the sort. It had already been tested
in their wind tunnel.
The Innovative CMO: A Portfolio Approach Toward Marketing Investments
6. We All Need a Wind Tunnel
We all need a wind tunnel -- somewhere to test ideas
without gambling with our resources. Somewhere we
can incubate high-risk projects that just might change
the market.
Only by taking a holistic approach to measuring
marketing effectiveness can you begin to test
new and innovative initiatives in your own wind
tunnel. Marketing is shifting from campaigns and
communications to episodic content within persistent
worlds. To understand our world, we first need to map
it. Once we have our map, understanding how all the
individual parts interrelate, we can rapidly accelerate
the process of testing innovation in that wind tunnel.
We are not looking to minimise risk – we are seeking
to maximise success through a balanced portfolio of
riskier and safer bets.
A zero-tolerance attitude to risk is a risky proposition.
We must embrace risk as part of a balanced portfolio
to generate growth in a marketing industry where
disruption is the new norm.
If 50 percent of your advertising is not working, reduce
your investment, seek alternative opportunities and
identify emerging media and technology. And before
you commit, test it in your wind tunnel.
BUILDING YOUR OWN WIND
TUNNEL
Reducing the cost of failure requires that you
embrace data analytics as a core competence. It
is the mastery of analytics that provides the basis
for a competitive advantage in understanding the
future success of initiatives you develop in your
wind tunnel. However, analytics alone is not
enough.
Firstly, you need a culture that embraces and
celebrates the inner geek. Tesco became an
analytics powerhouse based on the leadership
of former CEO Sir Terry Leahy. Without his
patronage, the retailer would have continued to
rely on pure instinct, category norms and copying
competitors. Leadership sets the tone.
Secondly, you require the wind tunnel itself. A place
to iterate. A place to fail without consequence.
A place where every near miss results in a
subsequent success. Digital is data. There is no
excuse for any digitally enabled business not to
be testing. It is this philosophy of testing that will
prevail when individual experiments fail. You only
need to look at eBay, Google or Amazon to witness
companies that are in a constant state of renewal.
Their experiments too numerous to count. Their
failures mere checkpoints on a path to (hopefully)
ever-rising revenue.
Finally, you need the cojones to act when the
numbers add up. All the evidence in the world is
academic unless it compels action. Innovation,
particular sector-redefining creative destruction,
comes from those with the most to gain – never
from those with the most to lose. Blockbuster’s
obsolescence at the hands of Netflix was caused
by its historical success, which blinded it to the
inevitability of disruption in its category. Faint heart
never won fair lady.
The Wright brothers: magnificent men and their barely
flying machine.
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