Measurement innovation and the application of sustainable best practice required for business growth is thriving across our industry, as evidenced by the body of new research, evolving approaches and first-time seen outcomes presented at IAB Australia’s annual MeasureUp conference held on 11th September.
A huge thanks to our sponsors Google, Integral Ad Science, Meta and Samba TV and our 26 amazing speakers who treated the audience to a day filled with networking and advertising effectiveness insights. It was the place to be for brand new insights from Gain Theory and Mutinex, breaking news and with the announcement of OzTAM streaming release dates, new case studies from Optus, University of Tasmania and BYD and new outcomes data from Spotlight Retail Group and P&O Cruises. Here is an overview of our jam-packed day.
Justin Nel from Gain Theory opened MeasureUp presenting new research that has found that Australian companies with advanced marketing effectiveness capabilities also record strong revenue growth. But if you believe marketing effectiveness is only about investing in a marketing mix model, Gain Theory’s research proves it’s time for a rethink. Justin demonstrated Gain Theory’s framework for best-in-class marketing effectiveness that includes four key building blocks (defining success, data excellence, advanced measurement and foresight), underpinned by the accelerant ingredient of creating a strong effectiveness culture in which data-driven decision-making thrives.
Justin said “Best-in-class marketing effectiveness requires a cultural shift. It’s about weaving data into the very fabric of your organisation. A culture that values data empowers everyone. Democratising access and providing training unlocks the potential of every team member.”
Will Marks from Mutinex presented the latest Q3 read on Mutinex’s Marketing ROI Index Report. Acknowledging that marketing budget growth has completely stalled, and ROI is flat, Will had some constructive advice for marketers. Marketing budgets are skewing heavily towards the lower funnel to quickly lock in short-term revenue. But competition is fierce in this red-hot lower funnel. Marketers may be trying to “wait out” tough environments by competing for existing demand, risking brand, however current conditions are here for the foreseeable future and marketers must be bold to break the deadlock and thrive.
Will said “There is an opportunity for marketers willing to turn the current narrative on its head and rebalance budget across the funnel. Consider overall ROI (not just channel performance) to find under invested channels like online video or social to deliver growth.”
To delve further into the key drivers of marketing effectiveness that deliver on business outcomes, IAB CEO Gai Le Roy discussed measurement journeys with Rebecca Darley, Chief Marketing Officer at Domain and Clare Tsubono Head of Media ANZ at Lion Beverages. Speaking about the importance of culture, Rebecca said “At Domain marketing is a strategic business partner. So don’t come to us with the solution of what you want. Actually come and talk to us about your business problem and let’s start there. What we’ve done as a marketing team is really start to align ourselves behaviourally, our values, our mindset to really drive towards that. So we’re challenging the status quo and those old school beliefs of what marketing is.”
As IAB Australia, along with AANA and the MFA, is gearing up for the October launch for a local Ad Net Zero initiative, it was important for MeasureUp to demonstrate how marketers are making the strategic shift to measure and reduce emissions. After some fun (and perhaps guilty) self-reflection with the audience on their usage of ‘clicks’, Courtney Geritz from the University of Tasmania and Joanna Georges from Scope3 demonstrated that by eliminating waste from your advertising you can improve marketing outcomes and be prepared for regulatory reporting requirements.
Courtney reported that “the University of Tasmania achieved 264% increase in conversions while achieving a predicted target of 30% lower total emissions, and more significantly, a 76% lower gCO2pm within an optimisation period”.
As modern measurement is evolving, Amir Jangodaz and Laura Shakespeare from Google proposed putting some ‘moonshot thinking’ into your measurement practice to ensure you can aim high enough to manage today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape and measure what truly matters.
Amir said, “If there is only one piece of advice that Laura and I can leave you with is the fact that the right moonshot thinking in your measurement journey isn’t just about collecting data, it’s about using that data to drive growth. And to achieve that growth, you need to start collecting the right granular data, the right variety at the right velocity with the right context for your business.”
The MeasureUp audience certainly agreed on the importance of data quality when evaluating advertising effectiveness. In an audience poll data quality came out as the most important area requiring greater priority.
The MeasureUp audience were the first to see a new cross-screen audience reach and frequency case study from Optus. Lauren Dawber from Optus and Yasmin Sanders from SambaTV showed how their partnership to enrich Optus’ media plan with first-party ACR TV data, analysed at a granular postcode level, delivered understanding on the deduplicated campaign reach across linear TV, CTV and digital and enabled the maximization of reach and optimisation of frequency to drive campaign efficiency.
On the challenge of approaching cross screen measurement and gaining incremental reach on BVOD, Lauren said “with Samba, we really wanted to look at cost per incremental household that we’re getting through BVOD. And for this campaign it was under $1.80 to acquire those additional BVOD households for us. That number is really important because those underexposed households represented 300,000 potential new customers in areas where we have great network and great customer experience”.
In another exciting case study, Kate Hornstein Head of Marketing at BYD along with Shruneek Prasad from Audience360, Dylan Sargant and Luke Creeley from Yango demonstrated how BYD took on the big auto players using data to drive marketing outcomes through traditional and emerging channels, including CTV and pDOOH. The partnership resulted in a spectacular 118% increase in traffic, 109% increase in test drives year on year and net orders up 98% between January and July.
The powerful role of experimentation in the measurement framework was highlighted by Andrew Eckford from Meta, Bryan Richardson from Spotlight Retail Group and Joe Robinson from P&O Cruises. Andrew demonstrated how experimental lift testing can provide the rigor for calibrating MMM and attribution metrics and the evaluation of tactics and platform performance.
Spotlight has used experiments to review credit being allocated to media channels in attribution models, find a 2.3x online conversions shown by lift versus attribution (on same ads). P&O has used experiments to understand the interaction between social and search finding 11% of paid search sales were influenced by exposure to Meta ads.
Retail media advertising is on the rise, and agencies and marketers are looking for guidance on measurement and effectiveness. Colin Barnard from Criteo cautioned not falling into the ROAS trap, that retail media influences customer acquisition, loyalty and lifetime value and should not be viewed only as a lower-funnel tactic. Leaders in retail media, Andy Ford from Coles360, Hope Williams from KINESSO & IPG Mediabrands and Roger Dunn from Diageo, discussed the ways Retail Media activities are being assessed.
Andy said “We have 2000 different suppliers, possibly more. So, we have a variety of needs. What people measure is very much dependent on a number of factors: who they are, the sophistication, the level of need for data, and the types of data. We are trying to address all of the metrics we possibly can with the majority focused on ROI, reframing ROI around the various ways you can get value for your investment.”
According to a MeasureUp audience poll, audience data for media planning is one area with the most potential for industry standardisation. Ian Garland from Milton Data explained how synthetic data with its privacy preserving approach has been the key to large cross-media measurement projects around the world including Australia’s Ipsos iris and OzTam’s Voz, Dovetail in the UK and the WFA Halo/“North Star” in US and UK.
Dorus van den Biezenbos from OzTAM took to the stage to announce the launch of OzTAM’s Voz Streaming, a cross-broadcaster programmatic BVOD trading system based on a consistent BVOD ID and currency data set. This industry-wide data enablement service for managing deduplicated R&F for programmatic BVOD solves planning BVOD reach and frequency and the ability to cap campaign frequency.
MeasureUp finished off with a very important last session on brand building with Hannah Murphy from Tracksuit and Matt Kowal a CMO with experience across brands such as Naked Spirits, Monster and Red Bull. The audience heard results from Tracksuit research on the power getting a place in consumers limited brand consideration sets.
Hannah said “Being consistently in market with brand marketing builds familiarity and familiarity drives consideration. Distinctiveness makes consumer decision making simpler by making your brand more familiar and recognisable and can be achieved by making space for creativity and emotive entertainment in advertising versus features and benefits”.
As MeasureUp wraps up for the year, it’s clear that measurement keeps evolving. An audience poll highlighted challenges in staying updated on models and methodologies, as well as data and privacy regulations. While these areas require ongoing agility, it’s evident that the industry has moved beyond the search for a silver bullet and now focuses on continually refining measurement to drive optimal advertising effectiveness.
Videos from the day can be view here and presentations can be downloaded here.
See you at MeasureUp 2025 on September 10.