The Boardroom Project is a group of advertisers, agencies and marketing scientists—including the likes of PepsiCo and research giant VNU—dedicated to (finally) discovering a formula for how and why marketing works.
If successful, the initiative will establish easier ways to determine the success of marketing decisions. With the life expectancy of CMOs at an all-time low, I suppose such a metric might be welcomed—especially if it demonstrated that the majority of marketing efforts take time to bear fruit.
That said I tend to distrust bean counters because numbers aren’t objective; they come with agendas. Here’s more on the story from Media Daily News:
Kate Sirkin of Starcom MediaVest, one of the agencies involved in the initiative, said: “Right now, of course, we measure the impact of copy, circulation, GRPs, engagement–but we need to understand how and why they’re linked to increased cash flow. Does it lead to increased value for the brand in the short or long term?”
Of course, failed efforts to formulate industry-wide plans for marketing accountability have littered the road over the last few years—so what makes The Boardroom Project different? Well, in the past the initiative often came from a small group of people, who didn’t really sell it to the rest of the industry, according to Sirkin. By contrast, “We’re working on the whole industry. We’re working with merchandisers, manufacturers, media agencies, advertising agencies, and industry bodies—everyone.”
