Data from analytics companies and academics suggests the key to consistently higher marketing return on investment (ROI) is synergy and taking a multichannel approach.

Paul Sinkinson from analytics consultancy Analytic Partners told the IAB Measure Up conference in Sydney that putting the majority of a marketing budget towards one channel is such a weak marketing strategy that he would hesitate to even call it that.

“Let’s be honest. Ninety percent or a hundred percent on any one channel, you don’t have a marketing mix. I’d say you probably don’t have a marketing strategy. You’ve got a channel strategy,” he said. (For more, read WARC’s in-depth report: Single channel marketing doesn’t measure up.)

Through data from multiple studies and peer-reviewed academic papers, as well as the utilisation of a unified measurement model, Sinkinson said he and his team have come to clear conclusions about how various marketing activity affects sales for brands.

The model created strips out economic conditions, prices, competitive activity and weather to determine the impact of marketing spend. The first finding of this model is that in the short term, digital delivers a solid return for marketers.

“If TV was making you $1… social, in the short term, is making you $3.79,” said Sinkinson.

“Could you take all of the money that’s invested in TV and put it into social and see the same sort of a result? No. It would collapse, because it can’t take that sort of investment,” he added.

More importantly, the result is being driven by a synergy between digital and other channels, which would see a dive in results if there was no variation in the marketing mix.

“If you take TV out of it, if you take out-of-home out of it, those ROIs collapse. We need that broad reach, and then we can have digital leverage offers and get you those strong returns,” said Sinkinson.

By removing a percentage of out-of-home or TV, the model shows a drop in the overall results of up to 90%.

“The idea that you can focus on a channel and have a great result is flawed. So even though TV is not the greatest, or out-of-home, it’s the combination that’s working really well,” he said.

Sourced from WARC