Marketers (Still) Don’t Count

“INEFFECTIVE MARKETING” is the misleading headline on eMarketer’s report of a survey of 3,000 global marketers released today.

Yes, the respondents did say that 65% of their marketing spend had no discernible effect on consumers.  Only later does the reader learn that few had any solid basis for that assessment.  Here’ the ugly truth:

• 45% do not even bother trying to track the results of their spending.
• 45%  do it manually, spending hours gathering and analyzing data. 
• 10% have automated systems to track their spend’s effectiveness.

The headline this data supports is “Marketers (Still) Don’t Count.”  But acknowledging the difficulty of reegineering the marketing function would not advance eMarketer’s boosterism for online marketing.   Frankly, I’d rather address the hard realities than salute the flag for the umpteenth time, but that’s just me.

Online Gambling

In order to prevent US citizens from gambling at European betting sites, the US gave EU companies new trade opportunities in four service sectors: postal and courier, research and development, storage and warehousing, and testing and analysis. The US wouldn’t estimate the value of these market openings but it sure is a lot to give up just to protect a blue law. The sacrifice of jobs for morality got little coverage. The Reuters story on the deal is here.

 

Full Disclosure: I’m involved with a online start-up that enables users to create odds on future events and am a bit sensitive on this topic.