The survey indicates that marketers face both internal and external inertia, which prevents them from re-evaluating their digital media spend.
Internal pressures can be driven by sunk costs. For instance, if a company has been relying on the same metrics for many years, and its decision-makers feel it will be too difficult to change the way it approaches data analysis, then the company may stick with its current metrics even if a new way would be more profitable long-term.
“Brands can resist changing metrics, but their competitors won’t,” said Danielle Krauter, vice president of media strategy at Goodway Group. “In this new environment, how you leverage your data analytics will define your success.”
External pressures can be created by network effects. If most marketing and media firms adhere to a particular metric, then that metric will become more important to marketers regardless of its intrinsic value.
For instance, Nielsen TV ratings have become so important to marketers partly because the metrics are widely used throughout the industry, according to Mike Kisseberth, chief revenue officer of Future plc. If a marketer that is focused on TV audiences wanted to eschew Nielsen ratings, they may have a difficult time getting the companies they do business with to adopt alternative metrics.
“Moving away from this measurement as a marketer, agency or media company carries significant business risks,” he said. “As a result, most will just pony up and continue doing deals with a less-than-perfect data set.”