We have seen another flurry of research releases, to help guide the
digital community on what online success looks like.

The latest was Nielsen's 3 year study, which thudded on our desks late
last week.

Highlights included:

“One third of consumers (33%) exposed to an online ad are able to
recall it (when prompted), intention to purchase increased by 4.9%
following exposure to an online advertising campaign, with brand
sentiment increasing by 5.3%. Display advertising also correlated with
a rise in awareness, with top-of-mind awareness jumping 3.1%. The
likelihood of a consumer recommending a brand following exposure to an
online advertising campaign also increased by 4.4%”

On first impressions, this paper only seemed to build on already
substantial evidence highlighting online display is a powerful brand
'lever'. Plus, of course, display is more than simply a response
channel.

However, the further into the details I went it was surprising to see
only brand measures were being applied and reported in the research
paper. No sign of dwell ratio/time (sorry eyeblaster - it only tells
half the story!) and thank goodness, no stray CTR graphs!

This is interesting, because many get themselves into a knot over
leveraging their analytics dashboard and lost in online 'buzz' data
when measuring brand, mainly because they feel compelled to use all of
it because they have it. Which, is simply not healthy!

The trick, is clearly articulating what your campaign objectives AND
the right methods to test/measure success will be, up front. And these
shouldn't simply come from your analytics reports. Like the Nielsen
research, the best methods tend to be a careful blend of traditional
brand (pre and post sentiment/NPS) and the right online analytics
(engagement).