Who owns effectiveness culture: brands or agencies?

I was fortunate recently to be involved in a broad discussion that included brands and agencies about who should own the effectiveness agenda, courtesy of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA).

It is perhaps more the case today that agencies, or rather a handful of certain agencies, are known for their dedication to understanding the positive impact of marketing campaigns on delivering brand goals. Demonstrating results through data is critical to build confidence that marketing works.

This has many benefits for those agencies, of course, as well as being able to demonstrate the impact of their work to their clients, they can share learning across the industry while building their reputation. Proving results is a powerful way to win new business and retain existing clients.

Brands and agencies should work together to build a true culture of effectivenessI don’t believe, however, that the answer to the question should be agencies, or at least not agencies on their own. There are many agencies that show limited interest in the potential to learn and improve through measurement, just as many brands do not have a strong effectiveness mindset or culture. The connection between marketing activities and commercial outcomes is still opaque in many organisations.

Though it is often agencies who provoke brands to consider effectiveness, I believe it does need to be owned by the brand, albeit with strong partnerships. Ultimately the brand owns its performance, and the drivers of that performance cover the whole consumer experience.

Effectiveness is more than measurement

Marketing effectiveness starts with product or service delivery and incorporates all the levers at a brand’s disposal, including but not limited to pricing, promotion, innovation and the drivers of physical availability such as distribution, visibility and shopper marketing – being present with the right offer at the right time.

Let’s not forget, for example, that pricing is likely to trump media in creating value, and that well branded promotions can be a great way to recruit light buyers profitably.

Effectiveness uncovers the interplay between these different levers, enabling marketers to make considered and balanced choices about how much to spend and how to spend it in the future.

An effectiveness system is much more than measurement. It’s a virtuous circle of strategy, creativity, planning and execution in service of a brand’s goals and ambition, fuelled by consumer insight. Simply, it’s about focusing on a few things that will really make the biggest difference and doing them brilliantly. Effectiveness culture is about learning and consistent improvement, and it is here that measurement plays a role – it’s not measuring for the sake of it but proving to improve.

Effectiveness uncovers the interplay between different levers, enabling marketers to make considered and balanced choices about how much to spend and how to spend it in the future.

Given the breadth of marketing spend, it makes sense for the brand to place itself at the heart of effectiveness, together with its partners. With the inherent trade-offs between the many levers marketers have at their disposal, the best agency partners think holistically in partnership with brands about managing the mix. Beyond any activities they may have created.

To be in sync, brands and agencies need to work to an agenda which places these goals at the heart of a shared mission. This goes beyond the delivery of specific campaigns into shared ownership of their impact, and proactively managing conversations about investment levels.

To do this well means creating a strong relationship, going beyond a purely commercial contract. What are the collective objectives and goals of brand and agency? How will they work together? What roles will different people play and how will underperformance and differences be managed? How will successes on the journey be celebrated? What are the conditions on both sides which partners agree to?

‘Science has caught up with creative’: Exploring the state of creative effectivenessIn the commercial agreement, it can be normal for the agency to put fees at risk, but are brands willing to consider enhanced remuneration when work outperforms expectations? This latter notion is challenging for brands less from an ideological perspective than from an accounting one (achieving profit is, of course, a balance of revenue relative to costs), an area unsurprisingly where predictability is valued.

With a deliberate partnership in place – even a written charter that can be referred to and used to hold each other to account- effectiveness becomes easier to navigate.

Agencies feel more comfortable seeing their work in the context of a whole system, are more commercially minded, and are likely to lobby the brand to make bolder choices in investment and execution. A brand will benefit from the transparency that comes from conversation around results, and the relationship is more like to be resilient under the inevitable pressure all brands face from time to time.