All marketing is accountable today!

With economic and business pressures continuing to grow, marketers are being required to justify their budgets more and more. Some may argue that traditional advertising or general marketing are not direct response oriented and thus their impact unquantifiable.

I beg to differ… Marketers of today MUST review the financial pro-formas of ALL their advertising and marketing activities and build a balanced portfolio of assets. In cases where direct financial performance is difficult (or impossible) to measure they should be classified as unknown assets; the important point to take away here is that this lack of track-ability itself is important for portfolio balancing since no portfolio of activities should be over-weighted with unknown performers / question marks.

In an environment of cost sensitivity, the marketer who can show a dedication to accountability will be able to grow high performing programs and re-allocate resources from under-performing ones. This proactive management style with ward off arbitrary budget cuts, since every invested dollar can be accounted for along with its contribution.