May 15, 2017
New working group topics represent two of marketers’ most critical challenges with multi-touch attribution
May 15, 2017– The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) today announced the formation of two new working groups, Walled Gardens and Data Quality & Accuracy, both part of the organization’s broader Marketing Attribution Think Tank (MATT). The working group topics were identified as two of the more critical challenges that marketers have with multi-touch attribution (MTA).
First unveiled in Fall 2016, the MATT initiative began with an in-depth analysis of more than 20 MTA solution providers, with each scored against a list of defined criteria including transparency, unified IDs and more. Following an MMA survey that revealed a negative 29 net promoter score from current users of MTA, the organization is looking to give marketers greater confidence when selecting solution providers and applying their offerings to their businesses.
Working with more than two dozen brand marketers from the MMA Global and North American Boards as well as attribution experts, the MMA has now completed the first phase of the MATT initiative, releasing a comprehensive, Multi-Touch Attribution Assessment and Landscape Report. The report includes an industry-approved Request for Information (RFI) template and corresponding Provider Scoring Tool for brands to use for their own MTA selection processes. The MMA also created a four-part webinar series, aiming to ease the complex vendor selection process for marketers.
Based on MMA surveys, more than 150 of the top 500 marketers are using MTA, and an additional 250 are seeking to implement a solution in the next 18 months. Organizations that have either downloaded the materials and/or are participating in the steering council have anecdotally credited the project with saving more than six months’ worth of effort while also limiting the risks of selecting the wrong provider.
“It is critical for brands to adopt a more agile approach to marketing to gain a clear competitive edge,” said Greg Stuart, CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association. “While the importance of MTA to marketers is very clear to both the MMA and its Board of Directors, good MTA analysis must start with data completeness and accuracy, and we have formed these two working groups to catalyze new standards around MTA, including transparency and performance.”
“I applaud the MMA for its leadership on multi-touch attribution, and encourage brand marketers, media companies and solution providers to join their efforts toward bringing a higher level of fidelity to how we capture and reflect value in the ever-more complex marketing ecosystem. This work will help our industry to discover new best practices and more inclusive guidelines than are currently available, which will ultimately support marketers’ efforts to optimize both their channel mix and their customer experience design," said Lou Paskalis, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Media Planning, Investment and Measurement Executive at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “The MMA’s efforts to date are already helping to accelerate the process for marketers who are reviewing solutions, and we are confident that our future efforts will bring even higher levels of confidence.”
MMA recently completed a third industry survey with brand marketers to determine the current landscape for MTA adoption and intent to adopt. According to the survey results:
- Selecting and onboarding an MTA provider is a year-long process, beginning with the initial RFP (using the current MMA RFI now cuts this down by at least 6 months)
- Most marketers who use MTA are still not applying MTA very broadly in the organization, leaving, on average, about 65% of their spend unassessed by MTA.
- Marketers, on average, pay nearly $500K a year for MTA, although these costs feel low to most MMA MATT committee members.
- While most believe that MTA is marketing measurement’s holy-grail, only two thirds of marketers surveyed were sure MTA “pays for itself”.
- Marketers’ biggest priorities for MTA are showing lift in campaign performance and improving validation of results.
- Non-users of MTA seem to have somewhat different perceptions and expectations:
- They estimate longer selection and onboarding times compared to current MTA users
- They believe MTA, once implemented, will enable them to assess a higher share of their marketing spend (about 45%)
- They have higher expectations about MTA’s impact on ROI than do current users, with two thirds expecting a positive impact on ROI (vs 50% of current users)
Marketers are invited to join one or both MTA working groups, and can contact [email protected] for more information.
About the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)
The MMA is the world’s leading global non-profit trade mobile marketing association comprised of more than 800 member companies, from nearly fifty countries around the world. Our members hail from every faction of the mobile marketing ecosystem, including brand marketers, agencies, mobile technology platforms, media companies, operators and others. The MMA’s mission is to accelerate the transformation and innovation of marketing through mobile, driving business growth with closer and stronger consumer engagement. Anchoring the MMA’s mission are four core pillars; to cultivate inspiration by driving innovation for the Chief Marketing Officer; to build the mobile marketing capabilities for marketing organizations through fostering know-how and confidence; to champion the effectiveness and impact of mobile through research providing tangible ROI measurement; and to advocate for mobile marketers. Additionally, MMA industry-wide committees work collaboratively to develop and advocate global best practices and lead standards development.
Members include: 1-800-Flowers.com, Allstate, American Express, Bank Of America, Campbell’s, Chase, Chobani, Choice Hotels, Citi, Colgate-Palmolive, DataXu, Dunkin’ Brands, E*TRADE, Electronic Arts, ESPN, Facebook, Ford, Foursquare, Google, Havas, Hilton, iHeartMedia, InMobi, Johnson & Johnson, Krux, Marriott, MasterCard, McDonald’s, Mondelez, Nestle, OpenMarket, Pandora, Pfizer, Pinterest, PlaceIQ, Procter & Gamble, R/GA, RadiumOne, Razorfish, Samsung, SAP, Sears, Spotify, Starcom, The Coca-Cola Company, The Rubicon Project, The Weather Company, T-Mobile, TUNE, Ubimo, Unilever, Verve, VEVO, Vibes, Visa, Walmart, Wendy’s, xAd , Zurich and many more. The MMA’s global headquarters are located in New York with regional operations Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) and Latin America (LATAM). For more information about the MMA please visit www.mmaglobal.com.