{"id":2737,"date":"2020-07-12T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-12T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jeffgreenfield.com\/?p=2737"},"modified":"2020-07-26T09:01:15","modified_gmt":"2020-07-26T13:01:15","slug":"attribution-apocalypse-with-alice-sylvester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeffgreenfield.com\/attribution-apocalypse-with-alice-sylvester\/","title":{"rendered":"Alice Sylvester – Partner at Sequent Partners"},"content":{"rendered":"
When Alice Sylvester exited the agency side of advertising, she witnessed both the emergence of market research and the explosion of digital advertising.<\/p>\n
Now as marketers embrace multi-touch attribution for media, will we see a day where brand and media metrics meet in the middle?<\/p>\n
Hear her thoughts on privacy changes leading to an attribution apocalypse \u2013 and what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n
About Alice<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Alice Sylvester has held a variety of research and planning positions at major advertising agencies including DraftFCB, Young & Rubicam, Leo Burnett, and J. Walter Thompson. She was Chairman of the Board for the Advertising Research Foundation, a member of the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Advertising Research, and was recently inducted into the Marketing Research Council Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n She has chaired the David Ogilvy Awards for Research Excellence, as well as The Emotional Response to Advertising Initiative. Alice is a co-author of Advertising in the Mind of the Consumer.<\/p>\n She\u2019s currently a partner at Sequent Partners where she is involved in industry ROI initiatives, new media metrics development, and cross media measurement.<\/p>\n She is also the content producer for Attribution Accelerator held in October in New York City.<\/p>\n Key takeaways<\/strong>:<\/p>\n [2:00]<\/span> I introduce today\u2019s guest, Alice Sylvester, and ask her about how she came to be where she is today.<\/p>\n [6:36]<\/span> I mention the dual roles of advertising \u2014 brand preference and sales impact, both of which can negatively affect each other \u2014 and ask Alice if she sees any way or any value in resolving this divide.<\/p>\n [8:41]<\/span> I mention a chat I had with a Capital One exec who has been doing brand lift studies and hopes to one day be able to pinpoint the KPIs responsible for brand love. Alice details why she thinks that we don\u2019t have the data to answer these questions today.<\/p>\n [12:52]<\/span> Alice outlines where she sees multi-touch applications fitting into the current landscape of customer journeys as well as the promises it makes.<\/p>\n [15:04]<\/span> Has the industry gone too far with regards to attribution and privacy? Alice touches on privacy issues and coming regulations and what she calls the attribution apocalypse.<\/p>\n [16:15]<\/span> Some unfulfilled promises of attribution.<\/p>\n [18:24]<\/span> I\u2019ve noticed that clients who don\u2019t or won\u2019t do attribution often have a lack of trust in where the data comes from and how it\u2019s attributed. Alice and I discuss the possibility of breaking out of the confines of confidentiality and standardizing the process, or parts of it.<\/p>\n [24:05]<\/span> Alice offers that even if we understand the limitations of the datasets, attribution is something people should definitely jump into. Don\u2019t wait for perfection!<\/p>\n [26:02]<\/span> In the past 10 years, even if it may seem that marketers have had reduced choices in terms of ad placement, Alice finds that digital out-of-home has offered a wealth of possibilities that were none existed before, however, there may less experimentation \u2014 everybody in the industry is stressed and overworked.<\/p>\n [27:44]<\/span> A.I. as a tool to alleviate oversight and optimization workloads \u2014 and a scary prospect for Alice as a creative person.<\/p>\n [29:31]<\/span> Is the agency of the future just a janitor, turning the lights on and making sure the machine works?<\/p>\n [30:54]<\/span> On the worth of continued measurements, Alice offers the example of a 12-year-old: you don\u2019t know how they feel about your brand, but in four years they may be making purchases. The customer base always replenishes itself and changes.<\/p>\n [33:45]<\/span> Are we moving more towards a short term marketing environment? Alice offers that we\u2019ve been in one for 20 years and touches on why and how attribution can help.<\/p>\n [36:48]<\/span> How much of a marketing budget should be devoted to metrics? Alice has an interesting answer.<\/p>\n [38:40]<\/span> Alice offers up some parting advice: get ready to face privacy restrictions on a mass scale and how it\u2019s going to change the data landscape. I thank Alice for coming on the podcast and sharing so much of her experience.<\/p>\n Be sure to tune in for the next episode and thanks for listening!<\/p>\n Connect with our guest<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Alice K. Sylvester at Sequent Partners<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n