#LVRSummit Recap: Part 3

Once retailers understand how important attribution is to a brand’s success, choosing a media partner will seem a lot less overwhelming. Put simply, attribution is how a marketer determines the efficiency of their engagement efforts. Francesco Sommariva, Measurement Partner at Facebook, hosted a roundtable of experts on the matter.

How often are consumers presented with an online advertisement for a product they have already bought? Most can relate. Dave Reed, Managing Director of MediaMath, addressed the issue of budget waste when engagement is mismeasured. Often, media players compete to take the credit for clicks. This phenomenon, known as gaming attribution, means boxes are being ticked in terms of driving traffic to sites, but in reality brands are facing overexposure for all the wrong reasons. Carlos Duez Escobedo, Regional Manager of Ingenious Technologies, called for credit to be reattributed to those who deserve it to be the first step in tackling the problem.
There are thousands of potential touch points for customers to engage with companies, from purchasing online and influencer marketing, to landmark events that resonate with audiences. The job of the marketer is changing from being “empirical to statistical,” (Sara Buluggiu, Rubicon Project), and relying on gut instinct is no longer sufficient. Successful attribution is monitoring all of these accomplishments and building on them. Giovanni Lorenzoni, CEO of BitBang, pointed to the potential for refocusing attribution to cut marketing costs by up to 40%, remarking that “the promise is huge.”
Measurement is especially important for luxury retail, a sector built on brand loyalty and bespoke relations with clients. The lesson here is to be selective when collaborating with media partners and to not be blinded by irrelevant statistics. ROI via meaningful B2C is still the target to aim for. As Francesca Lusini, Chairman of Peuterey, puts it: “fashion today is not about fiction but truth, honesty and purposefulness.”