Entropy

Increase your media effectiveness by up to 15% with our cross-channel measurement solution: Dynamic Marketing Mix Modelling. Get in touch to find out more.

"I’ve spoken to half a dozen digital attribution providers and they all claim to have the 'secret sauce'. Most seem to accuse their competitors of being black boxes. At the same time significantly over 100% of my revenue is attributed to our ad platforms and Google Analytics is telling me to pause everything that isn’t Google. Who do I trust?" This was the sentiment shared by a Head of Marketing I spoke to recently about the challenges of measuring the impact of their media investments. Spurred on by the degradation of online tracking and developments in AI it seems to me that the rise of new tech providers has pushed many digitally-focused brands into an era of less clarity, not more. I’ve been on the front lines of digital attribution and marketing measurement for over two decades now and have worked for and with many digital-first and omnichannel brands. My career in fact developed initially up the digital marketing side of the industry. I can confidently say this: There is no silver bullet for marketing measurement. Anyone who claims otherwise is either uninformed or misleading you. The truth is you need a combination of approaches, tailored to what you specifically want to measure. We’ve been giving a recommendation for several years now of using an in-platform solution for ongoing optimisation alongside periodic MMM for a more holistic view and a structured testing programme.  If your media is primarily digital and relies heavily on paid social and display a premium digital attribution solution that can account for view-through conversions could be right for you for ongoing optimisation. That is something free products don’t offer. However, looking back many years ago to the digital marketer that I once was there is a big education job the industry should do on the benefits of MMM, and its accessibility. In reality what marketer and / or finance team wouldn’t want an accurate and holistic view of what is driving their business? If your role or business is digitally focussed and you aren’t familiar with MMM I’d make this brief case. Ok it isn’t a high bar … but answering the Head of Marketing’s point the breakdown will equal 100% of your revenue. But then by its nature it will show quite a different view to last touch and a multi attribution view. That is because included in that breakdown will be your “base” - simplistically what would happen if you switched your promotional activity off. Also, alongside the incremental impact of digital and non-digital media external influences like seasonality or consumer confidence, and commercial factors like pricing and promotions. Perceptions on MMM being slow, expensive and the level of spend required to get an accurate model have prevented many brands from considering it. Entropy has been working specifically to challenge these barriers and it is now accessible to a huge amount of more brands. If you are interested in finding out more dm me. 

I'm quoted in City AM this morning discussing the Musk lawsuits to the WFA, Unilever and Mars amongst others. Subsequently the move seems to have presumably achieved one of his goals in that the WFA is reported as having shut down the Global Alliance of Responsible Media (GARM). However, I'll make the prediction various others are making this week it seems likely these moves are going to further hit their ad revenues (and maybe significantly). Having been involved in the development of brand safety initiatives with various trade bodies some years ago it is at odds with Musks's US-centric concept of the 'town square' based on the First Amendment for many brands across the markets they operate in. 👇 https://lnkd.in/eYvDYxJD

Our Founder Alex Tait is quoted in The Drum today commenting on Elon Musk's lawsuit against Unilever, Mars and the WFA over what he is describing as a 'boycott' of X / Twitter over the last few years. https://lnkd.in/eHZXgq9c

Along with the return of the sunshine this weekend, it's good to see some indications of things looking up. GFK have reported a consumer confidence increase in the UK for the 4th month in a row. Not to get ahead of ourselves, but as all things are relative, could this steady upward march bring more optimism to retail for the rest of H2? Particularly interesting is the 7 point increase in the Major Purchase Index, indicating higher ticket items might be back in consumers' baskets sooner rather than later - which is a trend we've been seeing across clients. If you're looking to capitalise on changing consumer behaviour like this through marketing and / or commerce to drive a step change in H2 (but are too stacked trying to drive the car let alone to change the wheels too so to speak) get in touch via the link in the comments.

Adobe Analytics has reported that Amazon Prime Day last week drove record ecommerce sales, at least in the US. If you saw a significant increase in Amazon revenue for the 2 day sale, do you know what drove that? After all, it could be due to ad spend, promotional pricing, or seasonality. Are you any more well informed on how much media budget to allocate to big discounting periods on the platform? For the last few years at Entropy we've been developing our Amazon Marketing Mix Modelling proposition. Using data sources including Amazon's MMM feed we run a MMMM analysis on Amazon to quantify the revenue driven by: 🖼 Media 💸 Discounting 🌤 sun Seasonality 📈 and more. Get in touch via the link in the comments to find out more.

Weather, weather, weather... As Brits, we do like to chat about the weather – and understandably with the hottest day of the year recorded last Wednesday after one of the wettest spring / summers in history so far this year. But hope springs eternal that we’ll see a better July / August. And when it comes to understanding the impact of the weather on your business, this can also be tough to do. At Entropy, our team has a unique mix of client-side expertise (who know what it’s like to have the company CEO saying “and don’t mention the weather” when confronted by challenging sales performance) and data science experts, highly experienced in econometrics and marketing mix modelling (MMM). And MMM really comes into its own when looking at external drivers such as the weather and overall economic headwinds, in a way that standard tracking or attribution modelling won’t. MMM also considers trade factors such as pricing, promotions and stock to give you a really holistic view of the impact of all your marketing activities, as shown here too. Sound interesting? You can find out more about MMM and how Entropy can help via the link in the comments.

We recently got feedback on the legacy (so far…) from the project Entropy MMM led evolving how the industry measures Out-of-Home (OOH) media which we thought we'd share. We led the project with the OOH trade body Outsmart and the UK advertiser trade body ISBA. You can hear Outsmart OOH’s Director, Tim Lumb, speaking about his experience of working with us below. Thanks Tim!

Retail media is a very hot topic right now in the worlds of ecommerce and marketing, with various headline stats paying testament to its recent significant – and future predicted – growth, in a generally challenging advertising market. But retail media can be a confusing area, seen as a pretty new channel by some (“digital advertising’s third wave”) while also in parts being much older than the internet itself, as retailers have sold shelf space and other promotional opportunities for decades. Our latest blog seeks to demystify the quickly developing world of retail media, define its disparate strands and also provide some pointers as to how brands can maximise the opportunity. https://lnkd.in/e2h9tFgd

We’re right into the heart of another new financial year for many businesses. And although there are green shoots of a retail recovery plus inflation continuing to cool down, it’s likely to be a challenging 2024/25 for most of us.   At Entropy, we’re set up to constantly focus on the final P&L impact of all marketing and associated activity that we carry out, often looking to the classic mantra that “revenue is for vanity, profit is for sanity”, backed up by our MMM (marketing mix modelling) and measurement offering. And talking of measurement, we’re also a big fan of the phrase “what gets measured, gets done”.   So, as another unpredictable year starts, we’ve picked out 3 ways to help with measurability and driving effectiveness for any ecommerce focused business.   Jim Clear's latest blog covers: 🎯 Mastering Your Overall Ecommerce P&L 📊 Marketing Measurement and MMM 💡 Dynamic MMM Read more 👉 https://lnkd.in/gxvndw4z