Tealium Measures Response to Social Media

The Internet promises marketers an exquisite measurability: you can tell precisely where each Web site visitor came from, and what people from each source do after they arrive. But non-advertising media such as blogs, online news articles, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are a blind spot because many references to a company don’t contain a clickable link. (Tealium, whose solution I’ll discuss shortly, put the figure at 80% in one study.) Without a link, users either must type the destination URL into their browser or find the site through a search engine. Either way, the visit is not associated with the original source. Therefore, marketers who want to know, say, how many site visits were prompted by a particular YouTube video have no direct way to find out.

Tealium, a developer of specialized Web analytics tools founded last year by veterans of WebSideStory/Visual Sciences, offers Tealium Social Media as a solution. It first builds a list of Internet references to a product, based on automated searches of sources such as Google News and Blogsearch, YouTube, Bloglines, Twitter, etc., plus any other RSS source you might have available. The system then checks whether visitors to a company Web site have previously visited one of these references by checking the cache of the visitor’s browser. If a match is found, the visit is attributed to that source.

I’m going to stop right here and say that this struck me as raising a significant privacy issue. I hadn’t really given the matter any thought but had assumed my browser history was private. But a Google search on "read browser history" shows that a method to check whether someone has visited a specified URL is widely known. This is what Tealium does and it isn’t as invasive as simply reading everything. More important, Tealium doesn't track individuals: rather, it reports how many people come from a given source. This is little different from conventional Web analytics, so I guess there is no particular privacy objection to the product. And, yes, you can always clear your browser cache or shorten the retention period. Quick show of hands: how many of you have actually done that? I thought so. End of sermon.

Tealium’s approach won’t be 100% accurate, since some people really do clean out their browser caches,. A few people will also access a site from a different computer or browser than the one where they saw the reference. Nor will Tealium capture referrals, such as an email I sent you with a product’s name after reading an article about it. But most of these problems apply to other Web analytics techniques, and on the whole the data should be accurate enough to be useful. It will certainly give a good measure of the relative power of different sources.

The system must also choose how to assign credit if the visitor’s cache contains more than one of the reference items. Tealium handles this by ranking the items on popularity and recency, and assigning the match to the highest ranked item. This seems reasonable.

Of course, Tealium can only measure Web-based activities. This almost goes without saying, but it's worth reminding ourselves every so often that there are still plenty of non-Web interactions taking place.

Tealium originally intended to present its social media results in a stand-alone interface. But the vendor decided a couple of months ago to instead feed them into existing Web analytics products, and Google Analytics in particular. This reduced the work Tealium had to perform (no reporting or data storage), hence lowering development and operating costs. From the client viewpoint, it integrates the social media results with other Web analytics, allowing direct comparisons between paid and unpaid media. In addition, downstream measures such as conversions or purchases automatically become available for the Tealium-derived sources. This was a very wise move.

What Tealium won’t provide is measures of sentiment, such as whether a particular social media reference was praise or criticism, of comments on particular subjects, or of changes in customer attitudes. Nor does it claim to. There are of course many other systems in this field; see last week’s post on reputation monitoring systems for a pointer to a detailed list.

Pricing of Social Media starts at $2,000 for implementation plus $250 per month with a one year contract. Price grows slightly as users add keywords and data feeds but is not related to actual traffic volume. The system has been in beta test with six clients until recently, and is being formally launched today.

Social Media is Tealium’s third product. The other two are WebToCRM, which captures Web visitor data and posts it to a CRM system, and Universal Tag, which lets a single page tag feed visitor data to multiple Web analytics systems.

Twitter Volume for Demand Generation Vendors

A comment on my previous post suggested Twitter mentions as a possible measure of vendor market presence. That had in fact occurred to me, but I hadn't bothered to check because I assumed the volume would be too low. But since the topic had been raised, I figured I'd take a peek.

The first two Twitter monitoring sites I looked at, Twitscoop and Twitterment, seemed to confirm my suspicion: of the three most popular vendors, Eloqua had 6 Twitscoop hits and 3 Twitterment hits; Silverpop had 2 on each; and Marketo had 3 on Twitscoop and none on the other. No point in looking further here.

But then I checked Twitstat. In addition to having a slightly less childish name, it seems to either do a more thorough search or look back further in time: for whatever reason, it found 152 hits for Eloqua, 65 for Silverpop, and 133 for Marketo. Much more interesting.

Alas, the numbers dropped down considerably after that, as you can see in the table below. Everything else is in single digits except for two anomalies LoopFuse with 22 mentions and Bulldog Solutions with a whopping 217. Interestingly, both those sites also had exceptionally high blog hit numbers on IceRocket. The root cause is probably the same: one or two active bloggers or Twitter users (which seems to be the accepted term; I guess we can't call them Twits) are enough to skew the figures when volumes are so low. More particularly, LoopFuse gets a lot of attention because some of its founders are closely tied to the open source community. Bulldog Solutions just seems to have a group of employees who are serious into Twitter. In fact, I now know more about their lives than I really care to (although there was nothing indiscreet in the posts, I'm pleased to report).

A couple of side notes:

- the very short length of the messages does make them easy to read, which paradoxically means you can actually gather more information from Twitter than by scanning blog posts, because reading the blog posts takes too much time. Of course, when we're dealing with such tiny volumes, there is no way to generalize from what you read: Twitter is strictly anecdotal evidence, and perhaps even dangerous for that reason.

- there seemed to be several Tweets that were purposely sent for marketing purposes. Nothing wrong with that, and they were quite open about it. Just interesting how quickly some firms have picked up on this. (OK, not so quickly: Twitter has been around since 2006 and very popular for about a year now.)

Still, the bottom line for the purposes of measuring demand generation vendors is still the same as for blogs: too little volume to be a reliable measure of relative market interest.

	Twitterment	Ice Rocket	Alexa	Alexa
	twitter mentions	blog posts	rank	share x 10^7
Already in Guide:
Eloqua	152	286	20,234	70,700
Silverpop	65	188	29,080	30,500
Marketo	122	229	68,088	17,000
Manticore Technology	0	56	213,546	6,100
Market2Lead	5	5	235,244	4,800
Vtrenz	8	53	295,636	3,600
Marketing Automation:				-
Unica Affinium	6	43	126,215	8,500
Alterian	5	145	345,543	2,500
Aprimo	6	139	416,446	2,200
Neolane	5	64	566,977	1,690
Other Demand Generation:				-
Marketbright	9		167,306	5,400
Pardot	4	33	211,309	3,600
Marqui Software	2	19	211,767	4,400
ActiveConversion	2	12	257,058	3,400
Bulldog Solutions	219	43	338,337	3,200
OfficeAutoPilot	2	5	509,868	2,000
Lead Genesys	1	5	557,199	1,450
LoopFuse	22	43	734,098	1,090
eTrigue	1		1,510,207	430
PredictiveResponse	1	0	2,313,880	330
FirstWave Technologies	0	11	2,872,765	170
NurtureMyLeads	0	5	4,157,304	140
Customer Portfolios	0	3	5,097,525	90
Conversen	1	0	6,062,462	70
FirstReef	0	0	11,688,817	10

Peer Networking Groups for Marketers

Maybe I need to get out more often, but I was a bit surprised to find how many membership groups are eager to help marketers with their jobs in general, and performance measurement in particular. Many publish research that is open to non-members too. Here is a list with brief descriptions, mostly taken verbatim from their Web sites.

American Marketing Association one of the largest professional associations for marketers, has 38,000 members worldwide in every area of marketing. For over six decades the AMA has been an essential resource providing relevant marketing information that experienced marketers turn to every day.

Association of Canadian Advertisers is a national, not-for-profit association exclusively dedicated to serving the interests of companies that market and advertise their products and services in Canada. Founded in 1914 and incorporated in 1917, membership in the ACA is restricted to advertisers only. ACA cuts across all products and service sectors and speaks on behalf of over 200 companies and divisions who collectively account for estimated annual sales of $350 billion. The ACA’s primary goal is to help members maximize the value of their marketing communications investments. Members realize tangible value through a wide array of specialized courses, seminars, publications and communications. Confidential one-on-one advisory services are also available for the asking.

Association of National Advertisers leads the marketing community by providing its members insights, collaboration and advocacy. ANA’s membership includes 400 companies with 9,000 brands that collectively spend over $100 billion in marketing communications and advertising. The ANA strives to communicate marketing best practices, lead industry initiatives, influence industry practices, manage industry affairs and advance, promote and protect all advertisers and marketers. ANA membership is corporate, not individual, and open to client-side marketing corporations only (advertising, promotion, PR agencies, media companies, and consultants are not eligible for membership). ANA advances marketing decision-making by acquiring, developing and disseminating unique and proprietary insights to ANA members. Our intellectual capital covers all aspects of the communications process, including brand building, integrated marketing communications, marketing accountability and the marketing organization. ANA consistently brings members together with industry thought leaders to promote fresh thinking, develop new ideas, provide professional training and facilitate industry-wide networking. The ANA convenes constituents across the entire marketing spectrum including peer marketers, agencies, the media, associations, consultants, vendors, production companies and academicians.

The CMO Club’s mission is to provide an environment of networking, insight, openness, and contribution for CMOs that enables its members to help each other become better CMOs. Members bring a diverse set of experiences and techniques to CMOs only dinners, online and events, creating an exchange of ideas that is truly valuable. The criteria for membership are simple: you are currently a Chief Marketing Officer, or have been within the last 4 months. You must not report to any other marketing executive. Should you leave your position as CMO and not retain another, your membership will continue for 1 year. We have over 1200 CMOs in the club (and over 550 online) with new CMOs joining every day.

CMO Council is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior marketing and brand decision-makers. The Council is based in Northern California, but regional chapters convene worldwide under the auspices of GlobalFluency, The Independent Network of Influence, which has more than 100 offices in 72 countries. The CMO Council is an invitation-only affinity group working to further the stature, credibility, influence, and understanding of the strategic marketing function among business executives, opinion leaders and critical stakeholders. CMO Council members are drawn from the upper echelons of corporate management to form a trusted, close-knit community of peers who use their access, connections and expertise for mutual benefit, support, referral and professional advancement. Membership is open to top-ranking corporate marketing decision makers only, not consultants or agencies. Members should have at least 15 years of marketing experience and have held executive management positions at new venture, emerging growth or established enterprise organizations. Nominees must have demonstrated marketing prowess, a proven track record of accomplishment, and leadership in evangelizing marketing and branding practices. The CMO Council operates the MPM Forum, which serves as a focal point for marketing professionals interested in advancing their knowledge of the MPM discipline. This Forum provides educational programs, access to the most complete library of MPM information available anywhere, and insights from leading global MPM experts.

Demand Metric is a management advisory firm dedicated to building Practical Tools and delivering Best Practices to Sales & Marketing executives in mid-sized enterprises. Based in Vancouver, it sells several subscription services. 500 members.

Evanta facilitates private executive networks designed to support the leadership needs of senior executives in Global 1000 organizations. Driven by self-governed, membership-only communities, its peer-based conferences, educational programs and digital media connect senior leaders who are focused on accelerating their organization's competitive advantage in the international economy. Activities include the CMO Executive Summit, a private conference built by CMOs, for CMOs. The one day event is by invitation only and is steered by a Governing Body of distinguished marketing leaders from Fortune 1000 companies and other leading organizations in our region.

Marketing Leadership Roundtable publishes ‘marketing performance measurement toolkit’ among other toolkits. The Marketing Leadership Roundtable operates on the principle that the collective experience and resources of a marketing member network can more effectively and efficently resolve challenges than any one of its individual participants. Through a central research team and the contribution of proven ideas, our members receive unlimited access to current best practice research and business intelligence, tools for increased effectiveness, and an unparalleled peer network. Key facts:
· Founded by the Corporate Executive Board in 2006
· Designed for organizations with annual revenue less than $1 billion
· Serves marketing executives and their teams with unlimited access
· Includes more than 1,200 best practice studies, benchmarking reports, and tools
· Over 150 member organizations and 2,500 participating marketing professionals

MarketingProfs, founded in January 2001, specializes in providing strategic and tactical marketing know-how for marketing and business professionals in organizations worldwide through a full range of online media. With over 308,000 members and 300 contributors, MarketingProfs provides members with practical marketing tools and information in many forms, including articles, online seminars, case studies, workshops, templates, benchmark survey reports, buyer’s guides and thought-leader panel discussions. Updated weekly, the content enables professionals to stay current and effective.

Marketing Science Institute, founded in 1961, is a learning organization dedicated to bridging the gap between marketing science theory and business practice. MSI currently brings together executives from approximately 70 sponsoring corporations with leading researchers from over 100 universities worldwide. As a nonprofit institution, MSI financially supports academic research for the development—and practical translation—of leading-edge marketing knowledge on topics of importance to business. Issues of key importance to business performance are identified by the Board of Trustees, which represents MSI corporations and the academic community. MSI supports studies by academics on these issues and disseminates the results through conferences and workshops, as well as through its publications series. Membership is open only to invited corporations and qualified academics.

World Federation of Advertisers is a network of 55 national advertiser associations on five continents and approximately 50 of the world’s top 100 marketers, WFA represents around 90% of global marketing communications, almost US$ 700 billion annually. WFA champions responsible and effective marketing communications worldwide. Its U.S. affiliate is the Association of National Advertisers.

MPM Reporting Software

One of my intentions for this blog is to help you find vendors for MPM projects. Let’s jump right in with software providers specializing in MPM systems. There are just a handful of these once you narrow the focus to firms that are:

• primarily software developers rather than consultancies (although all vendors provide some consulting to help you set up and use their products, and a couple of consultancies have slipped into the list below if I think their software can stand on its own)


• dedicated primarily to analyzing marketing results (as opposed to generic reporting systems or broader marketing management systems)


• work across multiple channels (as opposed to a single channel such as Web analytics or paid search management).

My current list is below, in alphabetical order. I plan to update this over time and welcome suggestions for additions. Each vendor is listed with a brief description taken from their Web site. I will post links to detailed reviews of individual vendors as I write them.

DecisionPower

• My take: builds simulations using ‘agent-based modeling’, a specialized approach that is very powerful and efficient. These can be used to create the equivalent of a traditional marketing mix model.


• Company quote: “The cornerstone of DecisionPower™ products and services is agent-based modeling (ABM) technology. ABM gives you the power to simulate real-life consumer behavior in real-world markets — in real time.”

• My review (from 2006)

Decisions Made Easy (Nielsen)

• My take: provides tools to build and analyze databases of point-of-sale and syndicated data.


• Company quote: “Decisions Made Easy, a global business service of The Nielsen Company, provides software and services for consumer goods manufacturers and retailers focusing on direct data. Clients use our solutions to efficiently extract insight from point-of-sale (POS) and related data, and create actionable information for use across the business.

Factor TG Leading Brands

• My take: analyzes program results based on online consumer surveys. A limited but interesting approach.


• Company quote: “Leading Brands provides a system of continuous marketing measurement that captures the effects of specific marketing tactics as they happen via online consumer surveys. Brand effects are measured according to accepted research methods, analyzed with sales data, and reported when and how you need them (for planning, execution, optimization, and modeling.)”

• My review (May 2008)

HardMetrics

• My take: not MPM specialists, they have a flexible technology for cross-system process measurement which was originally for call center performance management.


• Company quote: “MPM takes a self-service approach that allows you to define, drill and analyze in real time, your own dashboards, scorecards, reports and alerts on any moving part of a campaign. What’s even better is MPM allows you to drill down/up/sideways into any data source, anywhere in the enterprise to get the answers you need. ... HardMetrics is the industry’s FIRST and ONLY performance management company to offer a “codeless implementation’. That means your marketing organization can have a production ready system in hours/days and not have to wait weeks/months.”

• My review (June 2008)

Marketing Management Analytics Avista DSS

• My take: they’re really a consultancy with roots in marketing mix models, but they’ve productized their offering in Avista.


• Company quote: “Avista Decision Support Service provides marketers with an easy-to-use toolset that delivers on-demand insights about the effectiveness of marketing efforts. It combines the insights from MMA marketing mix models with the real time analytic power of industry-leading business intelligence to support fact-driven decisions – all drawn from a company’s integrated marketing data.... On-demand analytic tools support “what-if” scenarios, optimization, forecasting, portfolio allocation and media schedule optimization. Avista management dashboards support continuous tracking and diagnosis of marketing performance to help companies generate the maximum return from their marketing investment.”

• My Review (July 2008)

M-Factor M3

• My take: system combines modeling, planning and comparisons against actuals; can use models developed by the vendor or elsewhere.


• Company quote: “M-Factor provides marketing investment management solutions that keep analysis up to date and reveal choices with the best bottom-line results. Components include: Specialized reports that explain results as they occur; Scenario builder that predicts P&L impact from plan changes at any product and market level; Optimization engine that runs thousands of simulations within business constraints to maximize desired outcomes.”

• My review (June 2008)

Revcube

• My take: real-time reporting and optimization, online channels only. [4/24/08 - The company tells me they are repositioning to specialize in identifying optimal landing pages for customer segments. Formal launch is expected in the 3rd quarter of 2008.]


• Company quote: “Our proprietary platform captures and processes all useful data in the customer acquisition cycle across every online media channel. Proprietary algorithms then use this response data to generate optimization rules which are applied to campaigns in real-time. Optimization of placement, creative and budget occurs both within a single channel as well as across multiple channels including paid search, contextual search, display and email. This complete solution provides real-time attribute level reporting giving the advertiser unprecedented insight and control of their marketing efforts.”

• My review (June 2008)

SAS Marketing Performance Management

• My take: a comprehensive performance analysis and simulation system; SAS calls it MRM because it has another product called MPM which is more straight reporting.


• Company quote: “MRM automatically links sales and other business results to the marketing investments that drive them....With SAS, it is now possible to continuously plan, measure and optimize the impact of marketing spend on revenue and profitability.”

• My review (May 2008)

Upper Quadrant UQube

• My take: they consolidate media plans and sales results and make the results available with some forecasting and analysis tools. But no marketing mix models here.


• Company quote: “UQube Marketing is comprised of a series of web-based applications that automatically consolidate and interlink all marketing campaign schedules and sales data from any source. Each UQube Marketing application provides Cross Channel Reporting and Dashboards, Forecasting and Analytics, and rules based, version controlled Media Plan Management. Applications can be purchased separately or fully integrated with one another, and with the UQube Call Center Application Suite.”


• My review (from 2005)

Viewmark Viewmetrix

• My take: primarily an e-marketing consultancy but offers a powerful system to consolidate and report on marketing data across channels.


• Company quote: “Our Viewmetrix marketing-intelligence tool is an award-winning solution that lets you capture and correlate information from many sources – both online and offline. You can then analyze and present that information so you will make good business decisions now and secure new program resources for the future.”

• My review (June 2008)

VisualIQ

• My take: gathers customer-level data from online media and transactions, produces detailed analysis of factors influencing customer behavior.


• Company quote: “Visual IQ is one of the few marketing intelligence solutions capable of normalizing and integrating syndicated data, planning data and actual results from your campaigns - across multiple disparate data sources....[IQ] Reporter provides agencies and marketers the full data capture, integration, basic analysis and accurate reporting you need to make informed decisions and investment. IQ Envoy combines all of the features of Reporter with sophisticated media channel intelligence, customer transaction data, and high definition cookie-level analysis. Intuitive, customizable dashboards present intelligence in the formats most useful to your team. IQ Sage takes customer intelligence to its highest levels through the use of predictive modeling, scenario building, and simulation.”


• My review (April 2008)