The Paine of Measurement, November 2022
Hello Measurement Fans,
Welcome to the November issue of The Measurement Advisor, in which we review the presentations at the recent Summit on the Future of Communications Measurement. As you will see below, to call our 2022 Summit “illuminating” would be an understatement. Our presenters covered a wide range of case studies and techniques. Including everything from how to communicate while the Russians invade your country to how to measure an entirely new way of branding, called “unbranding.” (Yes, really!)
And of course, we did learn several answers to the key questions:
- What’s the future of communications measurement?
- How do we really measure attribution? and
- Where is measurement technology leading us?
Summit day 1: Measuring comms’ impact on the pull on your heartstrings
As I was reviewing this year’s videos I was surprised at how emotional much of the Summit was. Our first two presentations were especially moving.
MacPaw measures during wartime
How could I not get teary-eyed as Eugene Kalnyk, head of PR for MacPaw, vividly described the first few months of the Russian invasion of Ukraine? One day he’s doing PR for a company that makes popular software for Macs and PCs. The next day MacPaw employees are working out of their bathtubs, HR is handing out backpacks and sleeping bags so the employees could escape, and Eugene is issuing statements assuring customers that their data is secure.
For those of us who have never experienced a war zone, the most surreal part is how much of daily life goes on despite the mortar shells and air raid drills. Eugene describes how MacPaw went from the immediate task of keeping their people safe, to keeping customers satisfied and their data safe, to having to update products to ensure that Russian hackers couldn’t get into them. Even more amazing is — good measurement mavens that they are at MacPaw — they even found time to measure their results!
—Read much more about measurement life during wartime in our article Communicating in a War Zone: 8 Lessons from the Front Lines of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.
Brand metrics when there is no branding
And if that story wasn’t gripping enough, Mia Carbonell, vice president of communications for Publicis Sapient, arrived at the Summit fresh from launching a brand new “unbranded” campaign. You’ll have to read the story and watch the very moving film to find out how a campaign with no branding helps achieve communication goals. Don’t forget your tissues.
—Read how to measure an unbranded campaign in our article Unbranding: The Ultimate in Branding Understatement.
AI is (almost) everywhere
Artificial intelligence was woven into much of this year’s Summit. Angela Dwyer, director of insights at FullIntel, described how they regularly use their years of human-coded data to train their machine learning machine, then use AI to discover threats and opportunities for their clients. Rob Key, founder and CEO of Converseon, explained the difference between artificial intelligence and decision intelligence. Mark Stouse of ProofAI uses it to show how different forms of communications are impacting or will impact revenue and show the most return.
—Read more in our article AI is the Future of Communications Measurement.
Panel discussion of attribution for measurement
The stated theme of the Summit was “attribution,” something everyone seems to be searching for, but few people are actually finding. We got much closer to locating it, thanks to our panel discussion on the topic. Rob Key of Converseon, Mark Stouse of ProofAI, Jamin Spitzer of Abacus Insights Partners, and Michael Ziviani of Precise Value covered just about every question a communications professional has ever been asked about attribution and demonstrating value.
—Read a summary of the panel discussion here: 8 Hard Truths about Attribution that We Learned at the Summit.
Summit day 2: more attribution, and dashboards
In Day 2 we revisited attribution and went right on into the next big topic of the hour, dashboards.
Southwest Airlines: a decade of linking press releases to ticket sales
Rachel Forrest, communications lead, measurement and analytics at Southwest Airlines, has a long history with attribution. Southwest has been tagging press releases and recording ticket sales from the source code for over a decade. And while the actual dollar amount might look like a rounding error to the finance folks, it more than pays for the PR department.
—Read more in our article Southwest and Mirati: 10 Lessons on Building an Integrated Measurement Dashboard.
Dashboards
Gaetan Akinrolabu, corporate marketing and digital media strategy at Mirati Therapeutics, talked about his journey into the tech stacking world. He built a dashboard that brings together every data point that matters to his company, including social, traditional, marketing, advertising, search, and whatever else anyone can think of. — into a single source of truth. Nicole Moreo, director of customer insights North America at LinkedIn, gave us a peak at the power of the data their members and advertisers have access to, and the incredible insight you can gather from it.
—Read more in our article Southwest and Mirati: 10 Lessons on Building an Integrated Measurement Dashboard.
As it was in the past, the future is now
As usual we ended by recording attendee’s predictions about the future of measurement — mostly predicting more integration and more AI. How many of our predictions about the future will prevail remains to be seen. But this year’s predictions painted a stark contrast to those we made at the first Summit back in 2003. Then, the future was all about measuring blogs!
Also in this issue, don’t miss:
—Eugene Kalnyk and the PR Team at MacPaw are the Measurement Mavens of the Month
—Onclusive is the Measurement Menace of the Month
—Your Measurement Reading List for November
Happy November everyone, measure on!
