Briggs to Agencies: Brands to Surpass Media Shops in Tech Use by 2014

NEW YORK, May 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- According to serial author Rex Briggs, brands are rapidly investing in marketing technology to become self-reliant to drive better effectiveness from their limited marketing spend. Briggs has also concluded that more than one-third of Fortune 100 brands have already deployed real-time ad/marketing management tools. In addition, more than half are earmarking resources for marketing budget and media mix optimization tools, allowing them to implement in-house optimization and media planning, effectively pulling these functions back from their agencies.

The findings reflects the strategies uncovered in Briggs' latest book, SIRF's-Up - Catching the Next Wave in Marketing, out today and available at amazon.com and online at www.SIRFs-UP.com. SIRFs-Up tells the story of how brands such as Coca-Cola, Best Buy and MTV have saved billions in wasted advertising spend with improved, self-managed technology and equations known as Spend to Impact Response Functions (SIRFs). The book serves as a culmination of more than six years and $100 Million of ROI research with major brands, and provides guidelines in how to eliminate wasted marketing dollars and drive more effective methods for reaching customers.

"John Wanamaker's quip that half my marketing dollars are wasted might be a coy way to deflect the sorry state of marketing accountability," explains Briggs. "But, the best CMOs and their marketing teams are doing something about it. They are using SIRFs, and putting in the necessary software to leverage real time insights and make the sound, strategic decisions."

Briggs outlines both simple theories, like deploying a zero budget starting point for media planning, to more complex and interconnected strategies that help marketers test, adjust and get the most return out of their marketing spend.

These findings stem from six years of intense research, which include the following insights:

• Despite the multiple technologies to increase effectiveness available to brands today, 40 percent of advertising dollars are still being wasted.
• The ROI of marketing driven content surpassed advertising-centric marketing in 2006 – thanks to social media sharing.
• Television advertising should be the last part of a marketing plan, not the foundation. And within TV, cable TV is frequently under-valued and delivers better ROI against many campaign goals.
• Digital display's ROI is flat to declining, while mobile and social, which can be extremely effective in the right situation, are woefully underutilized at this time.
• The majority of marketers fail to organize best practices to re-apply them to future campaigns, and lose billions as a result.
• Campaigns focused on awareness building before advocacy building generally end in failure. Brands that focus on ROI to nurture repeat purchase and engage advocates in promoting brand is more than double than to spend the same amount on splashy awareness oriented advertising campaigns.
• Technology companies like Adobe, IBM, SAP and others will fundamentally change marketing with their SIRF oriented technologies. Marketers that understand how to leverage these new technologies to manage marketing ROI will be in high demand. Those marketers that fail to integrate analytic thinking with marketing creativity will find it difficult to hold down a job in marketing in the near future.  

"SIRFs-Up is full of eye-opening ideas and insights," said Bob Liodice, President and CEO of the Association of National Advertisers. "One of the most important is to understand how content and social media factor as critical components to optimizing marketing ROI. Rex Briggs brings it all together in this must-read book."

SIRFs-Up by Rex Briggs is the ultimate guide for marketers to help increase their ROI, providing a framework for companies to organize their ROI data and shed light on the best ways to invest budgets. Industry experts are using SIRFs to make key marketing decisions and as result are seeing more than a 30 percent increase in their ROI. 

SIRFs-Up is backed with deep ROI analysis from Marketing Evolution, who Inc. Magazine named the fastest growing marketing ROI measurement company in America. Insights from more than $100 million in research reveals how under-achieving marketing is costing companies billions—and how SIRFs are changing the game by providing companies with an unprecedented ability to measure, forecast, and manage marketing ROI.

Rex Briggs is a leading expert in media effectiveness measurement and founder of Marketing Evolution, and coauthor of the critically-acclaimed What Sticks, Why Advertising Fails and How to Guarantee Yours Succeeds. Briggs consulted in over twenty countries, and his research has been translated into dozens of languages and is taught at leading universities around the world. 

SIRFs Up- Catching the Next Wave in Marketing, already a top three business book on Amazon is available for purchase at Amazon.com.  To purchase a signed copy visit www.SIRFs-UP.com.

SOURCE Marketing Evolution