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In an era defined by data-driven decision-making, marketing intelligence is the cornerstone of strategic success. Discover insights from our team.

<p>At Brunner, marketing intelligence is the foundation of data-driven decision-making. Explore our insights to learn how to leverage data effectively, target your audience, and stay ahead in a competitive landscape.</p>

Our Thoughts on Marketing Intelligence Solutions | Brunner

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Gain valuable viewpoints and expert advice from Dan Kuzio, Associate Director of Programmatic, paid social and OTT.

Perspectives from Dan Kuzio | Brunner

Associate Director, Programmatic, Paid Social and OTT

Dan Kuzio

Explore strategic insights from Kevin Amos, Brunner Partner, Chief Media and Data Officer.

Perspectives from Kevin Amos | Brunner

Partner, Chief Media and Data Officer

Kevin Amos

Unlock the potential of programmatic display advertising with our collection of resources and expert insights.

<p>Dive into our expert insights on programmatic display advertising and discover how to reach your audience with precision. From best practices to innovative strategies, we’ll guide you in maximizing your brand’s visibility and impact.</p>

Programmatic Display Content: Industry Trends and POVs | Brunner

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<p>Earlier this year, an <a href="https://www.ana.net/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Association of National Advertisers</a> report set the digital marketing industry abuzz with a finding that billions of dollars are wasted in programmatic ad buying.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>Globally, advertisers spend about $88 billion per year on programmatic ad buys. The <a href="https://www.ana.net/miccontent/show/id/rr-2023-06-ana-programmatic-transparency-first-look" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ANA study</a> found that of the total, about $13 billion — and possibly as much as $20 billion — is wasted on poor ad placements, including “made for advertising” websites (MFAs).&nbsp;</p><p>Those kinds of numbers got plenty of media coverage (<a href="https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/386433/ana-finds-as-much-as-20b-wasted-on-programmatic-a.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Media Post</a>, <a href="https://adage.com/article/special-report-cannes-lions/advertisers-waste-23-programmatic-ad-dollars-ana-study-finds/2500276#:~:text=The%20report%20found%20that%2023,ad%20placements%20on%20bad%20websites." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AdAge</a>, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/marketer-trade-group-report-shows-ad-spending-rife-with-waste-4a1498d4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Wall Street Journal</a>). And those findings understandably raised big concerns with advertisers.&nbsp;</p><p>At Brunner, the ANA’s report prompted us to revisit our practices and double down on our strict processes to ensure every dollar of each client’s media budget is getting the best possible return.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>By finding ways to actively combat waste and fraud in the platforms we manage for our clients, we can get <a href="https://www.brunnerworks.com/perspectives/programmatic-buying-the-high-tech-data-driven-way-to-manage-ad-buys-in-real-time-and-drive-business-results" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the great benefits of programmatic buying</a> — increased transparency, control, flexibility, and scalability — while managing those spends safely and responsibly.&nbsp;</p><p>Here’s how we do it.&nbsp;</p><h2><strong>Build Strong Partnerships with Responsible Marketers&nbsp;</strong></h2><p>To be sure, there is a varying level of waste any time advertisers buy ads programmatically, or even directly. The level of risk can be different depending on your industry and go-to-market strategy.</p><p>For the Brunner team, building strong relationships is key on both the selling and buying sides of programmatic advertising.</p>

Concerned about wasted budget in programmatic ad buying? Discover how Brunner combats waste and fraud to optimize your ad spend and maximize campaign effectiveness.

How We Combat Waste and Fraud in Programmatic Ad Buying

Worried about Wasted Budget in Programmatic Ad Buying? Here’s How We Combat Waste and Fraud

Discover valuable web and digital perspectives from Rick Gardinier, Partner and Chief Digital Officer, with over 30 years of experience.

Perspectives from Rick Gardinier | Brunner

Partner, Chief Digital Officer

Rick Gardinier

Explore key strategy insights from our team.

<p>Discover valuable insights from our strategy experts as we explore essential marketing principles. From defining your brand position to understanding your audience, our insights will help you create effective strategies that drive results and growth for your business.</p>

Our Perspectives on Strategy: Industry Trends and POVs | Brunner

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Stay informed with the latest updates from Brunner.

<p>Stay informed with our latest updates, where our commitment to being good people drives everything we do. Explore insights that highlight how our collaborative approach and rich experience empower us to deliver innovative marketing solutions while nurturing lasting client relationships.&nbsp;</p>

Agency Updates | Brunner

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<p>This year marks the 30th anniversary of my working in the ‘internet’ industry. Although at the time I got involved in my first web-related project, I wasn’t aware that the internet would spawn a whole new way of working and living for just about every person on earth. Certainly, I didn’t think the next 30 years of my career would be devoted to it. In fact, in 1993, I had barely heard about the World Wide Web browser that Tim Berners-Lee created.&nbsp;</p><h2><strong>An ‘Internet Tech’ Career Path: Dumb Luck or Planned Destiny?</strong></h2><p>Thirty years ago, I was working as a software engineer and a systems analyst for an IT consulting company. Much of what we did was custom software development in nature and usually operations related. For instance, an early project I was given was to develop an inventory control software system for a consumer packaged goods company.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>I was called into my supervisor’s office and put on a new and very vague project.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>“Rick, a steel company just acquired another steel company. One company runs on Windows, the other on Macintosh. You need to figure out how these systems can speak to each other. They don’t want to invest in a new infrastructure.”&nbsp;That’s it. That’s all I had to go on.&nbsp;</p>

With 30 years of experience in the internet industry, partner, Rick Gardinier gives insight into what is important for the success of digital marketers. Read more.

30-Year Perspective: Seven Traits of Successful Digital Marketers

At Brunner, media is in our DNA. From ad targeting to ROI tracking, hear from the experts in media.

<p>At Brunner, media is in our DNA, blending data-driven strategies with creative execution. Explore our insights to optimize your media investments and engage customers at every touchpoint on their journey.</p>

Our Perspectives on Media: Trends and POVs | Brunner

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Unlock the power of your data with insights from Brunner’s data management and analytics team.

<p>Unlock the power of your data with insights from Brunner’s data management and analytics team. Explore how we transform complex data into actionable insights that drive informed decisions and uncover new growth opportunities.</p>

Data Management and Analytics Content and Perspectives | Brunner

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<p>Google Analytics 4 is here. The latest iteration of the powerhouse web analytics tool, known as GA4, might be leaving you wondering, “What does this mean for me and my business?” In this landscape of ever-evolving technologies, it can be difficult to keep track of the most important changes and the impact they have on your teams.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>At Brunner, we have helped dozens of clients across a range of industries manage the transition to Google Analytics 4.&nbsp;Read on to learn more about the latest version of this tool.&nbsp;</p><h2><strong>What is Google Analytics 4?</strong></h2><p>Google Analytics 4 is a web analytics service that provides metrics and analytical tools for marketing that’s just come into use as Google’s new standard. In early 2022, Google announced it would be sunsetting its current analytics platform, Universal Analytics, and implementing GA4 as its main analytics service. GA4 became the new analytics standard on July 1, 2023. Google wanted to provide a more comprehensive and accurate view of data across multiple devices and platforms, such as websites on laptop or desktop computers and apps on mobile devices, including cell phones and tablets.&nbsp;</p><h2><strong>Benefits of GA4</strong></h2><p>Google Analytics 4 came about to provide two main benefits — protecting personal data and improving metrics for customer journeys.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><ul><li>First, Google needed to ensure that the data collected about individual users preserved their privacy. In Universal Analytics, you could drill down to information at the individual user level, potentially revealing information about them. In GA4, the privacy controls — such as cookie-less measurement, and behavioral and conversion modeling — accommodate tighter privacy restrictions.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Second, Google wanted to give the end-user a more holistic understanding of the user journey. For example, in previous versions of the tool, a website visitor’s journey via mobile and via desktop would be tracked separately. GA4 allows us to track them together, meaning we get a fuller picture in one spot.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ul><h2><strong>How Brunner Uses GA4 </strong></h2><p>Measuring performance is key to everything we do at Brunner, so our team has been busy preparing for the launch of GA4 since Google’s announcement. Nearly every client at Brunner uses Google Analytics and relies on us to manage it for them, so we knew we needed a plan for a smooth transition. Here’s how we did it.&nbsp;</p><p>For our current clients, Brunner set up GA4 properties in July 2022, ensuring that these clients would have one year of web analytics GA4 data for comparison come July 2023.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>Another crucial limitation of Google Analytics 4 is that it only keeps user data for 14 months. We’ve developed a workaround for this as well. At Brunner, we ingest the GA4 data into our marketing intelligence hub, allowing us to keep historical data and give clients an alternative to using Big Query, Google’s data warehouse.&nbsp;</p><p>“By ingesting GA4 client data into Brunner’s marketing intelligence hub, we create the opportunity for our clients to explore and analyze data to guide future decisions, and track campaign success and opportunities for improvement,” explained Olivia Coghe, Brunner’s Google Analytics specialist.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><h3><strong> 1. Setting up Tagging/Tracking </strong></h3><p>The first step of setting up GA4 for our clients was getting the measurement ID onto each website so that we could ingest their web analytics data over a full year ahead of the switch.&nbsp;</p><h3><strong>2. Configure Data Collection Streams </strong></h3><p>Ensuring that the data collection is seamless can be a complex process. After setting up the tagging, we can adjust the data collection streams accordingly to enhance measurement events, configure domains for cross-domain collection, and define internal traffic.&nbsp;</p><h3><strong>3. Create Goals, Events, and Conversions </strong></h3><p>Each client is unique in terms of how their website works and what key performance indicators they want to measure. Our deep knowledge of their marketing goals helps us guide each client, with their specific needs in mind. We made sure all GA4 goals were mapped to each client’s larger objectives and were reflected appropriately within the platform. When creating GA4 events and conversions, we create GA4 events based on Google’s best practices. We also can register custom dimensions and metrics depending on client needs. Once the events are created, we mark appropriate events as conversions.&nbsp;</p><h3><strong>4. Finalize the GA4 Property</strong></h3><p>Google Analytics 4 is highly customizable for each client. This stage of the process is where our team sets up audiences, data settings, and attribution models, among other things. This is also the point when our team connects Google Ads and Big Query to the property. Along with these changes, our team can create custom Explore Reports, a new reporting feature in GA4, for each client.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>“In UA, they used to have a whole suite of default reports that allowed the end user to jump in and just look at different slices of data. Now they have the Explore tab, which is very powerful, but unfortunately, it’s not user-friendly,” said Matthew Cancilla, Brunner’s associate director of data management.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>These customized Explore Reports give us the power to dig into the data, but it can be a learning experience to get there. Our team describes learning Google Analytics 4 vs. Universal Analytics as similar to learning to speak a different language. The Brunner team can translate these differences easily for each client, giving them digestible and actionable information and reports.&nbsp;</p><h3><strong>5. Monitor and Make Changes </strong></h3><p>Google continues to make changes to GA4 even after its release. Staying on top of these changes is vital, so our team checks for updates daily. As our clients’ needs change, we can pivot their GA4 settings quickly.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><h2><strong>How Can You Get Started with GA4? </strong></h2><p>If your company needs help transitioning to GA4, we can guide the process. For new clients, we start with a Google Analytics audit. We ask: are pixels firing? Does this website track conversions? Understanding where a potential client is with their GA4 migration or set up can give us actionable next steps to help them. Google Analytics 4 is ever changing and here to stay — and the Brunner team is here to help.</p>

Google Analytics 4 is here but what does this mean for you and your business? Discover key features of GA4 and how it affects your tracking and analytics strategies.

Google Analytics 4: What It Is and Its Impact for Your Businesses

Get the download on business data from Eric Perz, Vice President of Data Science at Brunner.

Perspectives from Eric Perz | Brunner

Vice President, Data Science

Eric Perz

Stay updated on the latest business intelligence trends and strategies to make data-driven decisions for growth and success.

<p>Unlock the potential of data with our Business Intelligence team, combining tailored consulting with automation and statistical expertise to deliver valuable insights directly to you. Stay updated on the latest trends and strategies to make data-driven decisions for growth and success.&nbsp;</p>

Our Thoughts on Business Intelligence | Brunner

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<p>Last year, a healthcare client told me that they would need to stop tracking their paid advertisements due to new rules from the U.S. Office of Civil Rights. Many other healthcare organizations made the same decision.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>The OCR guidance aims to protect patient privacy by strictly enforcing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act — widely known as HIPAA — when it pertains to tracking user activity. This means that healthcare organizations cannot use the usual tracking technologies, like cookies and pixels, that could potentially reveal personal information about patients. As a result, legal departments in healthcare organizations are acting to eliminate digital media tracking, at least until they can sort out what kind of tracking is acceptable.&nbsp;</p><p>This creates a challenge for healthcare marketers who need to generate demand but now have lost their ability to track and report on their campaigns.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><h2><strong>Building a New Way to Measure Marketing Impact&nbsp;</strong></h2><p>To deal with this challenge, a collaborative team at Brunner has started building a system to replace media performance reporting. We have been working closely with our healthcare clients to identify the right key performance indicators to create a new model for measuring marketing performance.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>For this work, we are using machine learning and artificial intelligence including something very new — explainable artificial intelligence, sometimes referred to as XAI. An additional key piece of our new system is a knowledge base built from a well-established marketing mix model.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>Here’s how our team is approaching it:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>Since we can no longer rely on digital conversions, we focus on aggregate values that comply with HIPAA, such as call volume or insurance leads.</li><li>We set up models to generate new results regularly, focusing on the most recent campaign performance.&nbsp;</li><li>We collaborate closely with Brunner’s media teams, who are running campaigns on various channels.&nbsp;</li><li>We encourage our media teams to question the model scores and suggest new ways to evaluate the performance of ad units.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ul><p>The collaboration between data science, media, and strategy teams is crucial for improving the quality of the marketing mix models and the usefulness of the outputs.&nbsp;</p><h2><strong>Keys to Success in Using XAI&nbsp;</strong></h2><p>If there is one thing you take away from this article, it should be this: use XAI with caution and only when you have an established knowledge base for marketing’s bottom-line impact on the business. This understanding can come from a marketing mix model, previous marketing experiments, or a combination of both. But without this knowledge base, it’s difficult to evaluate the AI/XAI models you are using, and you may end up with unreliable results.&nbsp;</p><p>In our work with Brunner clients, we incorporate insights from the marketing mix model directly into our processes that deal with AI/XAI outputs. This establishes guardrails to keep the results and interpretations of AI/XAI models in check. You may have heard how generative AI can “hallucinate.” Similarly, other varieties of AI can generate misleading results. We have to steer clear of those.&nbsp;</p><p>There are pros and cons to each situation. One weakness of marketing mix models is their lack of granular insights, such as those at the ad or creative level. That limitation exists for very good reasons, but we see AI as the best tool to resolve it. That is because one of the great traits of AI is its ability to accommodate highly granular data as inputs. However, when you use AI, you are typically left with a black box: something that produces helpful results but does not give you insight into its internal workings. That is where XAI comes in. XAI, while still a developing field, is a collection of approaches that probe these black boxes to measure the relative importance of the original inputs, which are easier for an analyst to interpret.&nbsp;</p><p>A good example comes from image classification. An XAI model would explain which pixels from an image were most important in determining that the image depicts, for example, a frog. Now apply that same concept to advertising. Just as XAI might help us identify the pixels that let us know that the image shows a frog, XAI might help us understand which ad units, or creative executions, are most effective at improving some healthcare marketing key performance indicators. We also just need to have that knowledge base in place to keep us from misinterpreting something.&nbsp;</p><h2><strong>Forging the Future of Measuring Marketing Impact&nbsp;</strong></h2><p>At Brunner, we’re excited to collaborate with our healthcare clients to build a new approach to measuring marketing performance in a way that complies with the OCR rules. We understand how important it is for marketing teams to know how each campaign and channel is performing and where we can identify opportunities to improve ROI.&nbsp;</p><p>If you’d like to learn more about new ways to measure marketing performance and impact, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’d be happy to chat.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

Brunner is using explainable artificial intelligence in our marketing mix model to help clients comply with OCR guidance. 

How Can Healthcare Marketers Navigate Reporting with Post-OCR Guidance

How Can Healthcare Marketers Navigate Reporting in a Post-OCR Guidance World that Aims to Protect Patient Privacy? 

Gain valuable insights and perspectives to build your business and respond to market changes from Kristen Taggert, VP of Integrated Marketing Communications.

Perspectives from Kristen Taggert | Brunner

Vice President, Integrated Marketing Communications

Kristen Taggert

CRM and marketing automation streamlines your business connections with powerful tools to manage customer relationships and drive sales. Hear from our experts.

<p>Discover how CRM and marketing automation can streamline your business connections and drive sales. Explore insights from Brunner's experts on maximizing your platform investment and delivering personalized content that keeps customers engaged.</p>

Our Perspectives on CRM Marketing Automation | Brunner

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Explore the latest trends in B2B solutions with Brunner.

<p>Explore the latest trends in B2B solutions, where we recognize that B2B customers are just like everyday consumers. Discover insights on how to adapt your marketing strategies to meet evolving customer expectations and drive meaningful connections in a digital-first landscape.</p>

B2B Solutions Content and Perspectives: Trends and POVs | Brunner

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<p>Digital marketing transformation continues to be a hot topic, and its acceleration has continued to increase exponentially. Businesses are implementing systems to better market to their customers; enable sales to understand, prioritize and react to leads that fuel opportunity; to manage the lifecycle of customer engagement; and at the end of the day, to hopefully tell a value story for marketing impact on sales opportunity and ultimately, revenue.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>So why do so many organizations struggle to get to that state of nirvana? There are certainly a lot of factors that contribute, but here are 3 guide rails to rally around that can lead to&nbsp;success.&nbsp;</p><h2><strong>1. Always&nbsp;Start with Your Customers</strong></h2><p>&nbsp;To be successful, everything you do must be keenly aligned to your customers. Who are they? What do they care about? How are you meeting their needs along the entire journey of becoming a customer? Who are decision-makers and influencers? What are the customer touchpoints along that journey that will not only allow you to win that business but to maintain that relationship long term?&nbsp;</p><h3><strong>Start with&nbsp;Definition</strong>&nbsp;</h3><p>As&nbsp;marketers, everything we do serves&nbsp;and supports&nbsp;the customer experience.&nbsp;UX exercises such as empathy mapping and persona development can help define&nbsp;customer&nbsp;demographics&nbsp;and&nbsp;psychographics&nbsp;to&nbsp;better&nbsp;understand&nbsp;their&nbsp;needs,&nbsp;mindset,&nbsp;and behaviors.&nbsp;These simple&nbsp;exercises&nbsp;put&nbsp;you&nbsp;in the mindset of the customer and help&nbsp;you&nbsp;understand who&nbsp;your customers&nbsp;are, what they need, and even&nbsp;how your product or service can alleviate their specific&nbsp;pain points.&nbsp;When combined with supplemental&nbsp;primary&nbsp;and&nbsp;secondary research&nbsp;and analytics,&nbsp;organizations&nbsp;can&nbsp;sharpen their focus on&nbsp;defining&nbsp;customers&nbsp;which should&nbsp;in turn&nbsp;refine&nbsp;marketing strategies.</p><h3><strong>Focus on Customer Experience and the Journey</strong></h3><p>Having defined your customer, start thinking about what content&nbsp;and touchpoints&nbsp;are&nbsp;relevant to&nbsp;them at each step in their journey.&nbsp;Keep in mind, this isn’t just about awareness. It’s about&nbsp;a&nbsp;360–degree&nbsp;view of&nbsp;customer&nbsp;experience. From awareness and conversion to loyalty,&nbsp;the goal is to engage, win, and&nbsp;retain.&nbsp;</p><p>Starting with simple activities such as journey maps can help&nbsp;sharpen your&nbsp;marketing and&nbsp;content&nbsp;strategy and&nbsp;develop relevant messaging across the customer lifecycle. There will be multiple touchpoints along the way, with different organizations within the business involved. Make sure to&nbsp;not only&nbsp;identify&nbsp;marketing and&nbsp;content strategy but&nbsp;other touchpoints along the customer lifecycle that should be considered. Those areas may include&nbsp;sales&nbsp;enablement,&nbsp;customer&nbsp;support,&nbsp;procurement, and even brick and mortar experience. It’s inasmuch about your&nbsp;marketing/sales&nbsp;experience as it is about your overall Brand experience!&nbsp;</p><p>There are plenty of frameworks out there to leverage; but start&nbsp;simple,&nbsp;test&nbsp;and learn, and evolve quickly. The beauty of digital is that it allows us to do just that as marketers. Where you start with your strategy can and will evolve – and should be a natural progression of continuing to refine your customer strategy. And to better know,&nbsp;and serve,&nbsp;your customers.&nbsp;</p><h2><strong>2. Focus on Your Data&nbsp;Model&nbsp;Early</strong></h2><p>Data is often overlooked, and&nbsp;it’s&nbsp;a critical key to success—both&nbsp;at the system and customer level. Knowing that your business will more than likely have multiple systems in place that focus on customer data can add to that complexity. Not just for maintaining a single master record of the customer, but also how to standardize key pieces of information across systems. It can be a tough challenge, but one that can be&nbsp;realized. Here are some key considerations to think about&nbsp;along the way…</p><h3><strong>Define&nbsp;and standardize&nbsp;your marketing data model</strong></h3><p>Your marketing data model will typically consist of two types of information: <strong>demographic </strong>and <strong>behavioral</strong>.</p><p>Both will have significance in how you develop and drive your content strategy, your ability to test and learn, and how you empower your Sales organization to assist with the sales process.</p><p><strong>Demographic data </strong>will help with your segmentation strategies, while <strong>behavioral data </strong>will give insight into interaction (or lack thereof). Both will play a key role in how you continue to Market to your customers and how a qualified lead is defined through marketing activities (lead scoring models). Thinking about the different types of information you’ll be collecting and standardizing within your marketing and sales systems is essential for success.</p><h4>Start with demographic data</h4><p>Your <strong>demographic data </strong>can include simple things like Title, Industry, Role, and even things we take for granted like State and Country. These tend to be very structured types of data and help to define who a customer is. As a marketer it’s important to identify that type of information; to tightly define it (including data types); share it with key stakeholders in the business for alignment (sales, customer support); and to develop a cross-system integration strategy. And don’t forget to develop your business rules around data management – this includes how data enters your systems; whether through website/3rd party integrations, imports, or manual entry. It’s important to define those rules to maintain data integrity – that, at the end of the day, will allow you to report on marketing’s impact on opportunity more easily and empower your marketing efforts along the way.</p><h4>Apply&nbsp;the same definitions exercise&nbsp;for your behavioral data.</h4><p>Most, if not all, Marketing Automation and CRM systems will come with out-of-the-box fields you can leverage with the ability to define custom fields and to omit fields you don’t want. While the <strong>behavioral </strong>model may seem daunting, there are simple things to think about that can help. Establishing a strong UTM model across ALL your marketing channels can be a starting point. Don’t overlook things that sit outside of digital marketing where UTM’s are traditionally considered; remember, data can enter your system in many ways and your UTM model can be a gateway to first/last touch attribution and reporting. And one that you can easily roll out across all your marketing channels and be captured at the system level. Finally, think about measurable touchpoints that might be gathered outside of your UTM strategy; understand where that information is stored at the system level, what that data looks like (don’t forget to work on standardization!), and how that might play into your behavioral model.</p><p>Once you have both established, think about systems standardization and engage key stakeholders. That may include Marketing Automation, CRM, ERP and other systems. Remember, it’ll be important to make sure key stakeholders outside of the marketing organization are involved to understand and agree upon data definitions that extend beyond marketing. And to also give those organizations insights into other types of customer data that may not have had prior visibility.</p><h2><strong>3. Operational Readiness</strong></h2><p>The last&nbsp;area to consider, and one that may&nbsp;actually be&nbsp;the most challenging, is operational readiness. It’s important to ensure cross-organization alignment as you start to implement your&nbsp;marketing strategies.&nbsp;Here are some general questions to consider that can help gain organizational alignment and streamline efforts for both short-term implementation and long-term business value.</p><ul><li>How defined is your customer data model across the organization? Do all groups understand what types of information&nbsp;are&nbsp;being collected?&nbsp;Where&nbsp;and&nbsp;how&nbsp;is&nbsp;that information stored?&nbsp;What&nbsp;is the&nbsp;structure of the&nbsp;data? And how it can be leveraged to support the customer experience?&nbsp;</li><li>Are&nbsp;the right team structures in place to support&nbsp;modern&nbsp;marketing and customer experience&nbsp;needs?</li><li>Have you defined&nbsp;and selected systems that focus on empowering the business to meet the need of the customer vs. and inward-focused&nbsp;strategy?</li><li>Have key stakeholders agreed upon the value of data and marketing efforts? And how that&nbsp;equates to&nbsp;empowering&nbsp;sales efforts and ROI?</li><li>What&nbsp;governance rules have been established for systems&nbsp;usage&nbsp;and integration;&nbsp;including data management, access, automated workflows, and how systems interact with one another?&nbsp;</li></ul><p>There is a lot to think about as a modern marketer, especially as systems become more advanced and businesses continue to evolve and drive demand for better customer experience (and ROI reporting!).&nbsp;</p><p>Remember –&nbsp;start simple,&nbsp;test,&nbsp;and learn, and continue to&nbsp;refine&nbsp;your overall&nbsp;strategies. These&nbsp;three guide rails&nbsp;don’t work independently of one another, either.&nbsp;But when&nbsp;they start to&nbsp;align, they&nbsp;can be a powerful gateway to drive&nbsp;modern&nbsp;marketing and&nbsp;sales success.&nbsp;</p>

Explore three key guidelines that can help ensure success in your B2B marketing efforts.

3 Guide Rails to Consider for B2B Marketing Success

<p>Speed versus depth of insight is a fundamental trade-off marketing strategists often face when working with analyst teammates. Both sides contribute to this reality. Strategists often ask nuanced or difficult questions (what is the ROI of a sports sponsorship?), and analysts or data scientists, reacting to a wide variety of these questions, tend to approach each new project from scratch.</p><p>This conundrum can be solved when convening agency and client strategists <em>and</em> data scientists. We believe the conversation should cover:</p><ul><li>What prior analytical work was most helpful to strategists?</li><li>What new features would strategists like to see from analytical output, and what compromises are acceptable?</li><li>Which data sources are reliable and are refreshed often?</li></ul><h2>Automated Systems Can Drive Efficiencies</h2><p>Data scientists, now understanding the value of their past work, as well as having clear direction and an approved list of data sources, can then work on automated systems.</p><p>An example of what such a system could do is calculate and compare marketing ROI across detailed paid channels while accounting for the diminishing returns effects of increased marketing investment. These are sophisticated, non-linear models – the kinds marketing strategists associate with weeks or months of turnaround for each request. To be fair, it can take a few months to get this system up-and-running. But once that upfront work is completed, the outputs are automated and the insights valuable and frequent. A few thousand lines of code will import raw data, transform it as needed, test different models, pick the best one, and push the results to the strategist team.</p><h2>Strategists Can Leverage Output to Inform What's Next</h2><p>Strategists can dig into the data and review fresh modeling outputs to inform thinking and next steps. Here are some use cases:</p><ul><li>The client wants to increase this week’s non-branded search budget by $10,000 to meet a business goal? OK! According to the outputs of the program, the first $2,000 should be in Exact Match and focus mostly on mobile in region A, the next $1,000 should be desktop Broad Match in region B, etc.</li><li>How is our new display vendor doing? Easy! We are seeing great returns on low levels of investment but it really flattens out after that. There seem to be reach limitations and we should modify our spending accordingly.</li></ul><h2>Automation Supports Agile Strategies</h2><p>An automated system like this allows strategists to deploy budgets fluidly and optimize across search engine or publisher, device type, region, and other dimensions. In contrast, most strategists still must pre-ordain budgets for each channel and try to optimize within them based on experience and simple reports. If they are lucky, they have access to marketing mix model results that optimize budgets by channel at a high level, and maybe only annually. Fast analysis is not limited to reporting, and sophisticated analysis does not have to be slow. But analysis, insights and reporting can make the difference – and should be a fundamental part of any marketing strategy and partnership.</p>

Discover how automating complex marketing models can provide deeper and more frequent insights for your brand.

Automating Complex Marketing Models for Deep Insights

Automating Complex Marketing Models for Insight That is Deep and Frequent

<p>Many articles have commented on the acquisition of creative talent by consultancies to compete with ad agencies. In hindsight, this was a predictable progression as advertisers shifted more budget into data-intensive digital media and at the same time increased expectations for financial accountability. Reading between the lines, it’s easy to extrapolate the trend to the “inevitable consultancy takeover”. However, agencies may be in a better position than they think. Those with strong data science capabilities should not only be able to retain current business, but be a competitive resource on projects traditionally in the domain of the consultancies. How? By aggregating the right talent and understanding the landscape.</p><h2><strong>The Right Talent Comes First</strong></h2><p>Data science groups should be built around talent with deeply technical backgrounds with must-have skills including statistics, machine learning, coding, database and cloud computing know-how, communication, and a strategic mind. Then you have to consider the role of data in daily responsibilities but also within the larger marketing ecosystem.</p><p>Data scientists spend a great deal of time measuring marketing ROI. It’s the biggest technical challenge in the feedback loop linking plans and budgets, strategy sessions, and campaign execution. For example, if comparing year-over-year sales growth for markets where, say, media was heavy versus where it wasn’t approximates your approach to analytics, then consultancies are a serious threat. And while marketing ROI is a much more complicated calculation than that, the landscape is much bigger. It’s important for agencies to demonstrate knowledge of how <em>non</em>-marketing factors affect a business and its marketing.</p><h2><strong>Engage Past Marketing</strong></h2><p>Data scientists can build sophisticated models (commonly referred to as “marketing mix optimization”) to detect and quantify often complex relationships between marketing and their desired effects. Think: cable TV can lift search activity, which in turn lifts store traffic. But don’t forget non-marketing factors!</p><p>Data must account for KPI changes due to the environment (e.g., macroeconomic conditions, weather, competition), operations (e.g., inventory, pricing), and seasonality (e.g., holidays, elections). These inputs affect brand performance and in most cases, marketing performance can only be measured <em>in the context</em> of these other variables.</p><p>While agencies are typically approached to answer questions about marketing specifically, having deep knowledge in dynamics such as the relationship between staff turnover and sales, the initial impact when competitors launch a new service, or how much inventory shortages cost the organization creates domain experts in the <em>business. </em>Serving in that role puts agencies in the position to be a valuable resource for departments outside of Marketing.</p><p>That’s why finding the right talent, and encouraging them to go beyond marketing can increase an agency’s competitive advantage.</p>

Agencies should match consultancies in competitive non-marketing engagements to enhance their value and client relationships. Learn more.

Cultivating Agency Talent to Compete in Non-Marketing Engagements

Agencies Should be as Competitive as Consultancies in Non-Marketing Engagements

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<p>This series covers the elusive topic of data. How to gather it, develop it, and structure it so that you can hone in on valuable insights. Getting closer to your customers requires making the most of the data available to you and understanding where the organization is at in terms of data maturity.</p><p>Find “Own Your Data: Data Analytics Maturity Series, Episode 1,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.brunnerworks.com/perspectives/own-your-data-data-analytics-maturity-series-episode-1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p>In our second episode Brunner’s Director of Data Science, Eric Perz returns to our data analytics maturity matrix and dives in to the importance of setting the foundation for success. Eric talks about ensuring your organization’s data analytics structure has the “4 Vs,” of variety, volume, velocity and veracity. Key to building a data-driven organization is cultivating a culture that is bought in to the importance of sourcing, analyzing and using data to transform.</p>

Continue your journey in data analytics maturity with Brunner’s second episode, focusing on building a strong foundation for success.

Data Analytics Maturity Series Episode 2

Foundations for Success: Data Analytics Maturity Series, Episode 2

Hear from the Brunner Marketing Team as we give agency news updates, awards announcements and valuable insights on the ever-changing digital landscape.

Perspectives from Brunner Marketing Team | Brunner

Brunner Marketing Team

<p>Getting closer to your customers requires making the most of the data available to you and understanding where you are in terms of data maturity. We’re here to help with our new series on Data&nbsp;Analytics Maturity, coming to you from our Data Science &amp; Decision Analytics team. This series will cover the elusive topic of data. How to gather it, develop it, and structure it so that you can hone in on valuable insights.</p><p>In our first episode we explain the steps businesses can take to turn “so-so data” to mature data. Our team are experts in helping brands take the first step in having a data plan. At the intersection of data, analytics, and your organization’s business processes lay the insights your business needs to capitalize on to drive success. We’re here to help you progress towards discovering and capitalizing on these data driven learnings.</p><p>Need help getting started? Contact us to create a plan for success for your business.</p>

Discover how to take control of your data and enhance your business decisions with the first episode of our Data Analytics Maturity Series.

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