Measuring the Intangible: Embracing Culture for ROI

The trajectory of digital advancement isn’t showing the slightest signs of slowing. The brands leading the digital charge, and leading the way, are paying attention to what shapes us all: culture.

Sara Parish

Senior Data Planner Proximity London

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The trajectory of digital advancement isn’t showing the slightest signs of slowing. The brands leading the digital charge, and leading the way, are paying attention to what shapes us all: culture. They know that tapping into culture is key to becoming the best performing brand. And while culture might seem ambiguous and indefinable, the converse is actually true. There’s substantial evidence that tapping into culture is working and by using data, we can find tangible ways to measure performance. Measure the metrics that extend beyond likes and shares and you paint a robust picture of what’s actually driving business performance.

KEY TAKE OUTS

People expect brands to behave like people.
We're moving away from mass appeal and instead brands are communicating their core values as a business to stronger connect and align to their biggest advocates (who deliver the most value).
This acquires more agility as a brand. Before, digital businesses were slow and reacted to culture, whereas today we’re seeing a shift to a more agile structure which allows for markets to have more control and to truly react to local culture in a relevant way.
The guiding principles I have for brand approach now are, a) Target the right platform to the right audience at the right time. Everything for everyone all the time won’t resonate. You will be ignored b) A tale as old as time: peer to peer content is most trusted. How can we get people talking? c) And for god sake, don’t try and be ‘cool’, just try and be real. Deliver engaging content that matches an audience need.
Measure stuff! And when you do measure stuff, make sure you’re measuring effectiveness, not your ego. Gentle reminder: likes, comments, clicks, that’s your ego your measuring.
In an industry swamped with impatient and short-term mindset, be different. Think long term. Clickbait works, sure. But it’s a shallow way to reach short term goals without a thought to your long-game. Authenticity will prevail.

STAND FOR SOMETHING OR STAND FOR NOTHING, DATA'S ROLE IN TAPPING INTO CULTURE

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CONTACT

Mischa Hunt, Senior Account Manager, Proximity London, [email protected]

Guest Author

Sara Parish

Senior Data Planner Proximity London

About

Sara is a Data Strategist at Proximity London where she has worked across every vertical in varying capacities. She’s strives to bring multiple touch-points and models together to create living picture of customers. Digital was at the start and heart of Sara’s data journey. That has evolved into mapping out what part digital plays in consumers lives, the effective measurement approach among a sea of digital comms, and answering that age-old question, “is this even bloody working?”