Once in a while, someone will ask “How did we do?” In one of my past lives, one would hear responses like “the media plan delivered X number of GRP’s at Y CPM ” but rarely about how it impacted sales. There seemed to be a disconnect between the spreadsheet on the Media Director’s desk at the agency and the one on the Chief Revenue Officer’s desk at the client. Every so often, a forward-thinking client would try to get everyone in the media and marketing chain to be accountable, but the fact that so much of the media world was estimates – ratings, attention levels, commercial effectiveness – it was almost impossible to say if a pop in sales was due to fabulous creative, brilliant media strategy, or just dumb luck. Continue reading

