"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half."
John Wanamaker (1838 - 1922)
Is Mr. Wanamaker's oft-cited pearl of wisdom still accurate today?
There is no doubt that the art/science of advertising has changed since the early 20th century. With new communications channels popping up almost daily, both audiences and advertisers have more choices on where to spend their time, attention and money. We have a greater ability to collect data on who views our messages and what they do after they view the message than we did 100 years ago, when Mr. Wanamaker was espousing his frustration about marketing budgets. We can track everything visitors do when they come to our website, read our twitter, or stop by our blog. We can tell where they came from, how long they stayed, and what they looked at while they were here. We can, more accurately and with greater detail, compile and aggregate customer and prospect information to create customer profiles, matching purchasing behavior with electronic media use; past purchase behavior with current activity, and even search engine searches with a wide range of demographic data.
I am wondering if advertisers can use ALL this data to figure out which half of the advertising budget is wasted? And if they can, do they? And if they do, does yesterday's data accurately predict tomorrow's behaviors, given the rapid growth of communications channels and the splintering of the media audience?
If Mr. Wanamaker were alive today, I wonder what he would be tweeting about his advertising budget?
