“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Until very recently, there was a fair amount of truth in John Wanamaker’s famous quip from the 19th century. Today, thanks in large part to the Internet; we can track many aspects of consumer behavior and the buying process. The marketing world has quickly adapted and CMOs today demand demonstrable ROI. The devil, of course, lies in the details of how return is measured.
For a healthy, accountable relationship, clients and agencies must agree on clear goals, the metrics that matter, and the exact definition of success. The client needs to be transparent enough to share all necessary sales data. And then there’s trust. The agency must be able to trust the client’s reporting and the client must trust the agency’s best judgment on the strategies they execute to achieve the marketing goals. Agencies that truly believe in their abilities will not balk at this new world order. Here at Cyphers, we say bring it on.
