The marketing world is changing. It used to be that accountability was a little known concept and the big ad agencies got fat on their 15% agency discounts.
That is and has been changing to such a degree that Al Ries, one of the greatest marketing minds of the modern era, is pushing back. His latest article in Ad Age complains that marketers are putting too much emphasis on the numbers.
I take his point. There will always be a large element of creativity and artistic sense to marketing.
That doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing that the trend continues towards metrics (statistics) as a measure of marketing effectiveness.
For too long, marketing companies and ad agencies could get away with smoke and mirrors and claims that their results CAN’T be measured.
One way or another, a marketing company should be able to demonstrate that what they are doing is effective and worthwhile.