Common Sense Is Your Best Asset for Tackling Emerging Media

Remember when you learned that GRP = Reach x Frequency? Or, how to rerate the CPP within a spot from demo to demo? After years of practice and application, this not only became second nature, but achieving the right results from these equations became the focus.

As we talk to Clients about newer media such as the web, mobile/cell phone, and experiential-based lead generation we always first ask the most obvious and revealing questions - What is your objective and what is a lead or sale worth to you? Because these are 50,000 foot questions and different from the aforementioned daily tasks, you'd be amazed at how stumping these questions can be. In fact, there are very few people who don't at least look refreshed at being asked to think in common sense terms about these crucial questions.

With advertising focused on cost per X for so long, stopping to think about why we want the consumer to click on the banner, or what we want the consumer to do once they get to the web site or retailer has been lost from the process. The responsibility to know the answer to these questions lies with everyone who touches the business.

Advertising is quickly becoming less about points and impressions and more about leads and sales. If you and your client haven't yet taken the time to define the value of an in-market lead or of a sale that can be sourced to advertising, now is the time! Once defined, it is the agency's responsibility to collaborate with their client to define these metrics, track their performance and provide recommendations to improve the next campaign.