Five things homegrown brands should not overlook in measuring ROI

1 Impressions do not speak on behalf of ROI

The misconception here starts from the belief that ROI stems from gross rating point (GRP), reach and impressions. Many Chinese clients deem successful campaigns to encompass a large reach of their target audience, or the surge in Weibo fans following their digital campaign activities. 

Granted, the media metrics are important and the easiest to calculate. However, successful campaigns do not perform well across media metrics, but brand-related and sales (financial) aspects as well. All three factors need to be in play to effectively measure the success of a campaign.

For example, a funny viral video was able to create a lot of buzz, which indicates excellent ROI.  However, it produced little uplift on sales due to poor brand linkage and lack of call-to-action, thus the real ROI for this campaign is close to zero.

2 Multiple factors play a part in a campaign’s success

Many homegrown businesses believe that their campaign is the sole influencer of ROI outcome. With this limited view, media agencies need to convince these domestic Chinese brands to adopt a panoramic view of the market situation, and realise that the ROI of their campaign is determined by the full marketing mix (not just their promotion aspect) as well as their competitor and category dynamics.

For example, sales uplift is limited after a well-planned OOH advertising campaign, which indicates a poor ROI. However, it was found that in the same period, a major competitor also had a huge advertising campaign for a major innovation which is direct competitor for our star product.

Our advertising campaign effectively offset a lot of negative impact from the competitor’s activities, otherwise sales would have decreased a lot. Considering these factors, the ROI of our campaign is actually high.

3 Measuring ROI is not mission impossible

Although complex, measuring a campaign’s ROI is not as hard as it may look. Due to the sheer number of variables that affect a campaign’s performance, numerous homegrown Chinese companies consider ROI measurement to be too complex and thus, impossible.

With the advancement of technology and development of data analytics, econometrics and data mining, measuring ROI is not only possible (and easy for qualified experts) but pertinent to a campaign’s/business’ future growth and progress.

We have successfully helped our clients across a wide range of industries to measure ROI accurately, and then optimized and improved ROI by 10 to 50 per cent.

4 Failure to launch leaves a disastrous trail

Many up-and-coming homegrown businesses are persistent. When their brand campaigns get off on an unstable footing, they stubbornly press on and are resistant to change.

The only way to salvage any potential ROI would be to take an immediate analytical approach, diagnose and eliminate the problem on the spot. For example, some brand and sales metrics can be analysed to measure the short-term success immediately after the campaign launch, and provide diagnostics to make future improvements.

5 Made-in-China data is useful

Due to the limited data sources and quality in China, Chinese brands believe the data is useless for calculating ROI.

However, even limited data can be useful — going into battle with a strategic plan is better than flying completely blind. For example, we help many clients to measure and improve ROI based on limited internal data by integrating different sources of information.