The Inherent Flaw of Digital Analytics?

Recently I read a rather interesting blog on the flaws of digital analytics written by Dave Chaffey  recommended to me by my Digital Business & communications professor.

In this particular blog, the writer starts of by my mentioning, “In theory, analytics can tell you anything you want to know about your last digital promotion- expect whether or not it was successful”. From what i can gather he is merely trying to present to the reader that analytics is not the be all and end all in terms of your digital promotion, because all they can give you are your numbers, which Mr Chaffey describes as saying “which are meaningless unless you have something to compare them to.

Mr Chaffey also speaks briefly about the importance of benchmarking in order the fill the digital marketing gap. Now, you may be wondering exactly what benchmarking is, to put it simply, benchmarking is the process of comparing one’s business processes and performance metrics to industry bests or best practices from other industries with dimensions typically measuring quality, time & cost.

In the process of best practice benchmarking, management identifies the best firms in their industry, or in another industry where similar processes exist, and compares the results and processes of those studied (the "targets") to one's own results and processes. In this way, they learn how well the targets perform and, more importantly, the business processes that explain why these firms are successful.

Basically, according to my understanding, he is attempting to manifest that numbers alone do not suffice unless you have something to compare them to. For me as a Sports Management student, I always attempt to relate what I discover from these topics to relevant examples in the real life sports world. For example if we look at the figures from the current FIFA World Cup currently staged in Brazil, we can see that Nike’s latest advert featuring superstar footballer Cristiano Ronaldo was shared with his 26 million twitter followers. In a matter of days, the advert had been seen by millions, commented on and promoted across the web.

It seems like big brands like Nike are starting to lower their TV marketing budget for the World Cup as they make greater use of social media to reach massive, engaged audiences online.  Their competitor Adidas however, is actually spending more on online marketing efforts than on TV broadcasting surrounding the tournament, and according Adidas CEO, Herbert Hainer, about half of Adidas’ media expenditure around the event will go online, versus the fifth which was spent during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

If you compare these two brands and their marketing strategies, in my opinion, Nike wins, they have flooded the market with their products and superstars during this period of mass attention whilst Adidas have kept quite a low profile in terms of their digital marketing, no ads, no cool gimmicks and definitely no David Beckham playing football on the Copacabana.

This to me symbolizes a shift in the digital media landscape as it has changed dramatically since 2010. Sneaky Nike, always trying to ambush market Adidas at every major tournament, you can almost get the feeling that when every single major tournament rolls around, people assume Nike are the major sponsors since they are the ones that people see on their respective social media feeds and realms.  I guess you really have to “risk everything” in order to survive in this cut throat digital world.

Moving further on, the writer notes how more and more brand managers and agencies are starting to see value in the context brought to their entire digital marketing strategy beyond promotions. He goes on to mention that “some customers use benchmarks in the planning stages of a campaign to set challenging yet realistic expectations”.

For me, this demonstrates that a certain cutting edge is needed in order to differentiate yourself from the rest of the competition as more and more customers are expecting a better and more engaging customer experience online. The writer finishes off with a quote from Facebook extraordinaire Mark Zuckerberg “we all want to know what our friends are up to”; implying the transparency that is desired from the respective competitions in this fickle market.

As I read deeper into this article I am overwhelmed with fascination and interest as the writer gives an alluring insight into developing a formal rating system based on competitive benchmarks.

He annotates that “indexing is the easiest and most objective way of measuring success”, now for those of you that are reading who are still unclear on what indexing entails, it is basically a method of collecting and storing data to facilitate fast and accurate information retrieval.  It is indeed quite a handy tool to disclose vital information that all digital marketing aficionados will use in their digital campaigns, and according to my understanding you must be able to maintain a better understanding of how your competition is performing in order to define your own success.

Overall from gathering my own beliefs on this topic, the writer gives quite a discernment advisory comprehension on digital marketing strategy. For a novice digital marketing enthusiast like myself, it has given me a much clearer insight into the certain strategies and methods that more and more brand managers and agencies are utilising in real world scenarios.

Dave Chaffey is editor of many of the 7 Step to Success Guides on Smart Insights, He is a bestselling author, consultant and speaker who enjoys sharing tips, tools and techniques on all things digital. You can receive his latest insights or simply ask a question on his LinkedIn or on Google+.

References

1. https://www.benchmarking.com.au/news/
2. http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/news/hot-topics/world-cup-brazil-2014
3. http://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/flaw-digital-analytics/
4. http://www.htmlbasictutor.ca/search-engine-indexing.htm