Before I get on my soapbox, I first want to acknowledge how excited I am about the whole digital universe exploding before our very eyes. New media, social media, experiential media and all the media that don’t even have names yet.
It’s as if the whole marketing sandbox enlarged exponentially almost overnight. And the ability to measure practically every action, reaction or waking thought of consumers is staggering.
You can’t hardly get on the internet without some analytics company monitoring your every move. They can tell where you’ve been, how long you were there, where you’re going and what you had for lunch. And much of this data is useful because it can help companies decide if they are passing muster in the way that makes CEOs, shareholders and accountants jump for joy. Yes, I’m talking about the almighty (cue the trumpets) ROI.
But let’s take a step back for a minute.
Before the analytics, before the Webtrends data, before the PowerPoint presentation with 426 charts, there has to be an idea. An idea big enough that it makes it worth all that effort that goes into measuring, analyzing and predicting effectiveness.
And big ideas do not come from computers. Big ideas come from people who often spend massive amounts of time consuming late night pizza and bad coffee. And while the makeup of the teams may have changed, what hasn’t changed is that moment when someone blurts out something that at first sounds preposterous or crazy or moronic but upon further examination is amazing.
A big idea might just be even more important than a big investment. So maybe it’s time to take another look at the old ROI model and start working against a new one. The new ROI stands for Return on Idea. And while it’s still just as measurable, maybe it puts the emphasis back in the right place.
Brad White, Chief Creative Evangelist | E-mail | Twitter
COB – Good question on where to draw the line. Finding a balance between ideas and analytics can be tricky. My experience says that relying solely on the later often leads to internal paralysis. To win big, sometimes you have to look beyond the numbers.