Measurement of results is essential for accountability, and for generating insight and learning to inform future activities. However, we find that because there are so many different kinds of experiential activities, and so many different expectations people can have of it, it is best to use metrics tailored to the environment in which the marketing activity has to perform. It’s about how you measure it, as much as what you measure.
Broadly speaking, the metrics we use fall into three broad types: perceptions, mechanics (number and type of people involved, column inches attained, and so on), and bottom-line (sales, uplift in spend or market share). Areas best measured qualitatively (awareness or brand attributes, for example) are generally researched, while “harder” measures (impact on sales, behaviour) are collected through legacy systems. As many projects are undertaken to change consumer perception, we usually measure ‘before and after’ perceptions. These assessments can also be used to tease out more meaning from the mechanistic measures.
Finally, we believe it important to distinguish between results and impact – results being changes in outputs and outcomes in the short term, and impact being the enduring changes effected by the campaign, best measured after a cooling off period once all the major elements of a campaign have been implemented.