Whatever happened to great "branding?"
As a long-time advertising and marketing professional, it's been somewhat challenging to see today's marketing strategists avoid the foundation-building elements necessary for the long-term success of a brand. Quarterly reports and monthly sales quotas seem to force marketing strategists into the position of using marketing as a short-term stimulant, rather than a process.
Run an ad...what did we sell? We all know companies that think that way.
Sometime within the last dozen or so years, we've become more obsessed with immediate measurement of ad initiatives than we have about establishing a credible brand, reputation, image...doing those things that aren't easily measured, but establishes loyalty. While the concept of measuring every single ad is certainly a noble goal, it doesn't account for the cumulative effect of a branded effort...it only shows a quick window into a defined period of time and may not show the true picture.
Think about the latest Doritos ad to debut during the Super Bowl. Did you run to the grocery store the next day and tell the cashier "Great ad during the game last night...thought I'd try this new flavor?" I seriously doubt that someone at their ad agency is saying "Oh no, we only sold 3.7 million bags of new bacon ranch...it was not a good spend!"
Yet, Doritos thinks nothing of spending $3 million for that one opportunity, as do many other companies, then spending many more millions reinforcing it after the initial splash.
While analytics are important to gauge interest, they can mislead you if a short-term view of a long-term process is used to make decisions. Analytics can help you take a snapshot view of potential...not a definitive proclamation of an ad's eventual effectiveness. There are way too many other variables in play.
What's your brand? Why are you different? Why would anyone buy from you?
Answer those questions and make sure anyone within your target audience who has the resources to buy knows it well enough that THEY can then convey the brand to others.
That, in turn, will make everything else more effective.