Kantar has established a new marketing effectiveness practice to help brands determine their marketing strategy and measure the return on their investment.
Based in the UK, the new unit will be led by Dom Boyd, Managing Director UK&I for Kantar Insights, and Richard McLeod, who has become Head of Marketing Effectiveness. McLeod was previously Head of Media in the UK.
Using expertise, data and insight from Kantar’s analytics, media, creative, brand and consulting activities, the team will aim to help organisations better assess and deliver marketing impact across a wide range of metrics and disciplines.
The practice will work with marketers to identify the right balance of long-term brand-building investment and performance marketing spend for their business. This includes advising brands at the planning stage and then supporting their ongoing monitoring and measurement, incorporating creative quality and channel impact.
In particular, the unit will emphasise how digital channels can be better used to enhance brand equity and price power, not just deliver short-term sales targets. Kantar will use new AI-driven econometrics and campaign performance tools to predict the brand and sales impact of different marketing activities in the context of macroeconomic conditions and previous revenue data. It will also aim to help clients embed effectiveness inside their organisations.
The new practice will work with clients across a range of consumer sectors, including FMCG, retail, financial services, healthcare, and travel and tourism.
Boyd said: “The conversation around marketing effectiveness has been evolving for some time, but the broad 60:40 split between long-term brand building and short-term activation remains generally accepted. The challenge for brands now is how to apply this rule of thumb in practice in the cookieless, connected on and offline world they’re in, and drive additional value in an inflationary environment. As teams come under extra pressure to justify their decisions commercially in the boardroom, it’s vital they maximise every pound of investment. By taking an end-to-end objective view grounded in leading technology, data and expertise, we’ll help marketers strengthen outcomes for their business.”
McLeod added: “Marketing effectiveness is top of the agenda as CMOs battle to defend budgets during the current economic climate. Many teams will be tempted to switch spend to short-termist tactics in the coming months as stakeholders ask for immediate sales impact from activity, but we know this is the wrong way to go, slowing down brands’ recovery in the long run. By bringing together the full strength of the Kantar toolkit, our new practice will help guide teams through this storm – shaping marketing strategies rooted in data and insight that can deliver sustained growth.”
NAM Implications:
- Given the growing importance of RM in the marketing mix.
- Combined with the proliferation of Retail Media Networks…
- …of varying effectiveness.
- In the context of traditional media wanting to preserve the status quo…
- …the need for aids like the Kantar Toolkit will become more vital.
