Activation

Activation is the name for conversion-focused, short-term advertising work, meant to run in parallel with brand-building, long-term advertising work.

The "95:5 rule" from John Dawes at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science suggests that only 5-20% of your target customers are "in-market" and ready to convert at any given moment.

Immediate sales lift as measured by "ROAS does not determine growth efficiency" (how strong lifts in ad spend correlate with lifts in sales)... "In our dataset, there is no correlation" — Growth efficiency, marketing's existential metric

"Econometric modelling is the lens through which many brands evaluate and forecast the commercial effect of their advertising investments... These models measure the direct incremental sales effect of advertising activity over and above the contribution of other factors like distribution, price changes, promotions, economic factors, competitor behaviour and the brand baseline in a given week... In the short run these models serve marketers well, helping them to optimise investment weights across alternative advertising channels, understand the true impact of promotions and to forecast accurately in the medium term (around a year). But the limitations of ROI measurement using econometrics alone become clear when planning takes place over longer time horizons." — It’s time to bring pricing power into the business case for advertising

"Activation effects tend to be particularly big for more considered purchases." — Effectiveness in Context

"Activation works particularly well when the buying decision involves a lot of conscious, rational thought." — Effectiveness in Context

"In high research categories, because we can activate responses more easily and with less money; consumers themselves are creating activation opportunities for brands... The optimum balance in high research categories is a much greater allocation to brand building compared to low research categories"— Effectiveness in Context

"An analysis by IRI suggests that promotions are unprofitable, even in the short-term... They do little to encourage trial... They can be useful in some contexts, like encouraging trial for new products or categories" — How Not to Plan