AMG Strategic Advisors Announces Alliance With ThinkVine For Leading Edge Marketing Mix Optimization Solution

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Sept. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- AMG Strategic Advisors, the growth strategy consulting unit of Acosta Marketing Group, today announced its collaboration with ThinkVine, a leading marketing mix optimization software company, to launch a breakthrough platform in the art and science of marketing mix analysis and implementation.  Named Smart ROI, this platform is designed to significantly improve the capacity of businesses to strategically allocate marketing dollars for an optimal return on their investment.  Smart ROI draws upon the analytical strengths of ThinkVine and the implementation expertise and data source experience of AMG Strategic Advisors to determine the optimal mix of marketing strategies based on a unique virtual market modeling software.

"We are excited that our collaboration with ThinkVine will bring its best-in-class technology together with AMG Strategic Advisors' expertise in retail execution to radically improve our clients' marketing ROI," said Dr. Michael Shea, Executive Vice President, AMG Strategic Advisors. "Today's clients have increasingly sophisticated expectations of marketing mix analysis and Smart ROI is AMG Strategic Advisors' solution to these demands.  Smart ROI is also ideally suited to assess the return on shopper marketing, experiential marketing, and digital marketing programs." Shea added, "Our expectations are that we will not only be able to deliver superior results compared to those of traditional regression-based models, but we will additionally be able to solve marketing mix issues using ThinkVine's modeling capabilities that traditional regression-based models cannot adequately address."

ThinkVine replicates reality by creating a custom virtual marketplace where marketers can measure purchase behavior across consumer groups and by marketing activity. Using an innovative, bottom-up approach, ThinkVine uses Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) to simulate how targeted consumers will respond to specific marketing tactics and other variables. Traditional marketing models rely on past consumer behavior, and are therefore limited in their relevance due to the rapid pace of change in the consumer environment, such as when products that did not exist as little as six months ago may dominate a marketplace today.  

AMG Strategic Advisors brings a complementary expertise to Smart ROI.  First, the firm's extensive experience provides the best data available to inform ThinkVine's software.  Second, AMG Strategic Advisors' extensive experience with the implementation of marketing tactics to accomplish strategic goals ensures the practical value of ThinkVine's output for clients utilizing Smart ROI.  Third, AMG/SA's strategic consulting experience allows us to use the ABM approach of Smart ROI to radically improve marketing mix modeling as a strategic planning tool for Marketing Strategies."

"Today's marketer needs to reach and engage the empowered, sophisticated consumer and deliver results against increasingly complex marketing challenges," said Mark Battaglia ThinkVine's CEO. "By simulating consumer response to 'what if' marketing scenarios, ThinkVine provides marketers with the forward-looking information they need to make better strategic decisions to achieve the best return on their marketing spend."

Drawing on the depth and breadth of AMG Strategic Advisors' expertise and data sources to inform ThinkVine's leading-edge models Smart ROI provides marketers a never-before-seen glimpse into the way specific marketing activity will influence consumer purchase behavior.  Once models are established with thorough, product and market-specific data – numerous 'what if' scenarios can be run for comparison sakes.  

Typical models - dependent upon past behavior - have necessarily been better at assessment than prediction.   Smart ROI anticipates consumer behavior, making it a better guide for optimizing allocation of marketing dollars.

"The combination of AMG Strategic Advisors' highly respected consultative expertise and insight capabilities bolstered by ThinkVine's 'ThinkAhead Technology'™ will help businesses use customer data to optimize their marketing campaigns," said ThinkVine's Battaglia.  "Smart ROI provides practical and actionable advice on how to best allocate marketing resources in today's rapidly changing, highly competitive marketplace."

SOURCE ThinkVine