“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; trouble is I don’t know which half.” JOHN WANAMAKER, pioneer of US department stores (1838-1922)

A century after Wanamaker’s famous lament, how effective are we at measuring our advertising efforts?

Cents per click? Opportunities to see? Cost per thousand? The rule of thumb?

As far as I can see, Wanamaker himself didn’t do any direct marketing – so he probably underestimated the underperformance of his advertising considerably. (He did become Postmaster General, so I guess he had some connection with direct mail at least.)

Today, everyone measures their marketing media performance – that’s a given. But what about your creative messaging? Shouldn’t you measure that too?

CREATIVITY IS NO MYSTERY

Some people say that creativity is a mystery. How do you put a price on a piece of art, they say. Some people, who tend to be self-proclaimed creative people, would rather point to other causes of advertising failure, rather than the words or the pictures.

But, as a writer myself, I beg to differ.

Sure, you need to get the media and the timing right. But creativity has to bear its share of responsibility too. Direct marketing techniques demystify what really affects consumer behaviour, so that you can write and design even more successful advertising.

THE RULE OF THUMB IS DUMB

I think there are two basic types of creativity. Creativity that sells and creativity that doesn’t. The rule of thumb will tell you nothing about that.

Essentially, you need to put your creative messages to the test of public opinion. I think that’s what’s exciting about truly creative advertising – you design to get a specific response. Your target market is the judge, not the advertising awards panel.

SUSTAINABLE MARKETING IS DIRECT

But successful, sustainable direct marketing means planning right from the start that everything will be measured. Especially if you intend to measure your creative messaging, you need to be very careful to prepare laboratory conditions – to reduce contamination from other marketing efforts. That’s why direct mail to your existing customers is often the best place to start.

So how come there’s a mythology that only half of an advertising budget gets wasted? Without DM techniques, I’m guessing it could range as high as 90% inefficiency. We have the sacred status of John Wanamaker’s quotation to thank for helping us believe that conventional advertising is only half bad.