Online Authority Blog

Distilled learning from eMetrics Toronto 2012

by Kelly Kubrick on April 30, 2012

I had the pleasure of attending eMetrics Toronto 2012 both as a learner and moderator of the “Managing Analytics and Insights” track. For those of you interested in digital measurement who have not yet made it to an eMetrics Summit, you need to add this event to your list.

As always, I learned more than I could capture in a single post, so instead, have distilled my learning to three lessons that stayed with me long after I said farewell.

Digital channel attribution is more accessible than we think.

By attribution, I mean the effort to assigning “credit” for a given lead to a specific marketing channel. Attribution is one of those thorny topics that marketing analysts have contemplated for decades. Knowing that there are multiple points of exposure my prospect may have had to my messaging – online and offline – which one was THE most effective?

Rationally, we know that there is not a simple answer – that it’s the very nature of multi-channel attribution that is the secret sauce, but we can all dream…

Regardless, the keynote “Your Mileage May Vary – Nissan LEAF’s Data-Driven Customer Journey” detailed a possible approach: “because Nissan understood attribution, they eliminated the problem up front with rifle shot activity – isolated channel activity – each week.” I love the bravery of that statement – to “hold the (measurement) line” under extreme pressure is hard to do.

The other concept I took from the session is the idea of a ‘hand-raiser’, which was Nissan’s term for a very early stage prospect i.e. someone who might be interested enough in the new Nissan Leaf to engage with the brand – without the pressure of conversion. Finally, it gave me an excuse to watch the Nissan Leaf ad on YouTube [VIDEO] again…

“Beware of proxies for satisfaction”

As always, the presentation by Foresee Results, Managing Forward: Analytics For Today’s Multi-Channel, Multi-Device Consumer was “note-worthy”. Sadly my scrawled diagrams are not share-worthy, but essentially, Larry Freed presented a model combining voice of customer and behaviour and incorporates measurement, data, observation and feedback.

It’s a great visual for the relationship between customer satisfaction analytics, measuring vs. watching “what happened” and listening. In particular, it was good to be reminded that the customer’s “experience and expectations define satisfaction – what customers do next – which drives forward your success”. I like the simplicity of that – “what customers do next”, reminiscent of the famed financial services disclaimer  “”past performance is not a guarantee of future results”.

“Create (a) Question-Ready Database”

Coined by Scott Jamieson, General Manager, Email Operations from TC Media, the statement “create a question-ready database” caught my attention and imagination during the “Multi-Channel Dashboard to Drive Retail Transactions” session.

The statement was in relation to a dashboard product TC Media developed that “features behavioural data from across multiple digital channels” for its clients. The core asset is a database that contains potential insights for its customers. What I found particularly refreshing was Scott’s reply to questions about what / how much information should be stored: “how much is enough?” and “should we store all variables and / or all variations on variables?”

As the underlying panic in the question increased, Scott calmed the room with a gentle reminder to “solve for information at a point in time – not for all of history – create a question-ready database”. In other words, don’t try to solve for all questions forever. Instead, make sure your (measurement assets) give you the flexibility to answer questions that have not yet been formed.

As always, a great conference. I’m already looking forward to next year!

Kelly Kubrick

Digital Analyst and President of Online Authority; COO of MyLiberty.Life; co-author Six Dimentions of Digital Maturity Model; co-founder Digital Strategy Conference; co-owner 3rd generation family business. Downhill Skier. Foodie. Fan of all things digital.

Kelly KubrickDistilled learning from eMetrics Toronto 2012

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