Why the future of campaign effectiveness measurement lies with media agencies.

Point of attention: reporting as an end product

The biggest point of attention in campaign effectiveness research is ultimately not the analysis. That is often excellent. Although the analysis process does regularly lead to unnecessarily long turnaround times. These long turnaround times are the result of limited specialist FTEs who can work with SPSS or R. A subtle increase in the number of cross-media projects quickly leads to congestion and therefore longer lead times. And then you just have to hope that no one goes on holiday, gets sick or leaves for another agency.

But the biggest problem and business mistake lies in the organisation of ‘research as a report’.

Such a report is repeatedly built as a unique and specific end product with a heart and a soul. Something that has to be shaped again each time. It is precisely in this endless repetition that unnecessary time and margin are lost.

Rethinking: reporting as part of a research infrastructure

A better approach is to see reporting as a fixed part of a research infrastructure. Simply as a collection point of validated data and insights.

For example: what if the link between media pressure, brand impact and sales does not have to be made manually each time? What if exposed versus non-exposed is automatically calculated and grouped? What if insights are directly available and queryable? But above all, what if reporting and benchmarking can be built in seconds, including deep, relevant and new analyses?

What if those reports are graphically and content-wise better than traditional PowerPoints? What if the added value of a media agency lies in interpretation and strategy? What if all of this is possible without repetitive and stressful hours? What if fluctuations in research demand have no impact on turnaround time or team size? What if you can evaluate with your client within 24 to 48 hours?

Wouldn’t that be much better? For the client, for the profession, for the research partner, for the agency, and especially for the researchers themselves, who can then focus more on ‘chargeable’ consulting.

Research as a Service (RaaS)

In fact, when building research solutions, we should adopt principles similar to how software services are developed globally. Not building again for every project, but developing one integrated system that continuously runs and delivers clear products. I call this new model ‘RaaS’: Research as a Service.

RaaS means that you no longer sell research as separate deliverables in the form of ‘unique’ PowerPoint reports, but as an ongoing service that is always on. In this model, effectiveness measurement is no longer a reactive exercise after a campaign, but a real-time part of the campaign itself. When you want an output or a report, you simply press the button ‘publish report’. Read that sentence again a few times. This is the future of insights, especially for media agencies.

The choice? The ‘P’ or the ‘L’

The way cross-media effectiveness reports are currently organised costs media agencies a lot of margin. Data scientists, researchers, team leads, PowerPoint specialists and more experienced senior client directors, possibly supplemented with freelancers.

The business question a responsible research director should ask is not so much whether the analysis can be improved, but whether the organisation can be smarter.

Research services, like other solutions, must contribute to the continuity of the organisation. However useful they are, they must generate revenue. Especially in today’s market.

Further pressure on the insights market and pricing

There is currently significant pricing pressure in the research market. Looking at the Dutch marcom research market, you first see more and more research agencies emerging with very low cost structures. This category tries to win client trust in pitches through low pricing. Additional revenue then comes later through ‘strategic’ consultancy, models based on Byron Sharp, or additional tools and extras that were not included in the pitch. All of this often within a long-term exclusive partnership.

A second and growing category consists of parties that equate synthetic AI insights with feedback from real people. These synthetic solutions are often offered at very low prices. Once such a platform is built, it can only be recouped at scale, which drives low pricing.

Media agencies are best positioned

In the field of cross-media effectiveness measurement, media agencies are better positioned than research agencies. The data and expertise are already largely available within the agency. The often-used argument that media agencies are not independent enough is becoming outdated, especially when research and reporting are published through a uniform and independent process.

In a way, it is not very different from education. Teachers assess students based on established rules and standards. All knowledge, experience and guidelines are present there. At certain moments, a standardised measurement is added, such as a national test. But in both cases, around 95% of the final assessment is done by the teachers themselves, because that is where the knowledge and experience sit.

How can media agencies become more successful with insights?

The ideal answer to current market developments is: let’s organise cross-media effectiveness reporting as an integral part of the campaigns themselves.

Let’s define quality standards, for example that only direct or indirect human input is used in effectiveness measurement. And that insights go beyond just ‘the report’. Insights are also formed by the collective intelligence within agencies, strategic expertise, benchmarking, optimisation, a variety of data, strong models and extensive marcom experience.

The foundation of what is ultimately delivered to the client is then a well-functioning RaaS solution. Everything extremely fast, within minutes. And insights can be discussed immediately after a campaign.

NORM AI and the infrastructure approach

From this RaaS philosophy, NORM AI was developed. Not as a tool, but as an insights and intelligence infrastructure. An infrastructure that can strongly support larger media agencies without upfront investments or complex integrations.

Within one minute, the platform generates complete cross-media effectiveness reports, including benchmarking. It automatically connects footfall and dwell time data from more than one hundred retailers in the Netherlands and adds sales attribution and category insights. Everything is uniform. Everything is immediately available.

That is exactly where media agencies make the difference. A uniform and fast stream of insights to optimise campaigns or, even more strategically, to validate whether a brand is still on the right path. That is also why brands choose media agencies or continue to work with them, especially when agencies serve many consumer brands and retailers.

Afterword

The developers of NORM AI have built a strong international track record in developing next-generation measurement platforms. But what makes NORM AI so distinctive?

NORM AI is born from daily practice. It was developed within RetailMedia.One and generates countless reports, insights and trends every week. The platform has become extremely fast, and the dashboards, analyses and reports are visually strong, even for users who are less deeply involved in the subject.

The starting point of NORM AI has always been to answer complex insight questions within one minute, with the best possible validated outcome, without using personal data, across retail footfall, cross-media brand effectiveness, validated sales attribution and category shifts.

Although the NORM AI infrastructure is ideally suited for larger national retailers to support their retail media business, we see media agencies as the most logical and best-positioned partners to work with.

Retailers can also turn to their media agency for footfall analyses, cross-media brand effect reports, sales attribution and category trends. That does not have to happen directly through NORM AI. NORM AI is simply the infrastructure, the RaaS, the highway on which data, insights, analyses and reports are delivered.

The media agency delivers what truly matters: insights, conclusions and growth strategy.