Scott Rakestraw

Why you should care about a tracking tag management system for 800#s, URLs, Promo Codes

srakestraw@upperquadrant.com — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:56:00 GMT

Tracking Tag Management systems enforces best-practices and cost management around TFN (800#), URLs, Promo Codes, Online Tracking Tags and other tracking tags to ensure marketing reporting is accurate and tracking tag costs are minimized.

Why should you care about tracking tag management?

Change focus - eliminate the countless hours and emails going back and forth between tag users and tracking tag managers
Eliminate reuse errors that void marketing reporting
Quickly identify tracking codes that can be recycled or decommission
Eliminate costs associated with unnecessary tracking codes
Works on weekends – reduces the dependency on specific individuals. If the 800# manager is on vacation or if a campaign coordinator is working late, keeps the marketing organization from coming to a standstill.
No Dead Ends - workflow and QA tracking ensure the tracking tag is working before the costly campaign goes live.

Marketing Hierarchies empower cross-channel reporting

srakestraw@upperquadrant.com — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:45:00 GMT

Hierarchies are important to marketing because they create a mapping between planning, forecasting, execution and actual performance. Supporting a common marketing hierarchy is the core to enable cross-channel reporting.

A hierarchy is composed of levels and level items. Think of it as a directory structure where the same file can live in more than one folder or an organization chart where a person reports to one person or many people. In the illustration below, the products are unique but the channels and sub channels are shared across products.

Hierarchies empower organizations to look across all marketing functions or organizational units through the same lenses.

Level Example	Corresponding Level Items

Marketing Spill or Client Number 9?

srakestraw@upperquadrant.com — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:57:00 GMT

Did you ever wonder how terms take on a meaning?

I am always amazed at how a concept gets a word and multiple people from multiple companies know it. If you were asked are you, "Master of Your Domain?" you would most likely know what that means. I hope one day to coin a term that gets adoption and to be master of my domain.

This takes me to the term at hand, Marketing Spill, which is used to represent responses or sales to a program that occur in geographical areas outside of the circulation areas. For example, a direct mail campaign has sales but no circulation in zip code 20191, the sales in 20190 are considered spill, hence the term Marketing Spill. Marketing Spill occurs for several reasons; someone could receive the mail piece at home and call or stop by a store near the office.

As a follow-up blog, I will highlight some techniques we are using to allocate spill sales to the geographical area that received circulation and most likely drove the action. To explore the world of urban or coined terms or if you just need a laugh, visit http://www.urbandictionary.com. Below is a sample from the Urban Dictionary.

Moneymoon

The time after your purchase of a good or service and before 'buyer's remorse' happens.

Spank bank

A memorable collection of mental images that one wishes to retain for master debational purposes.

Gullible

The only that is not in the dictionary. Go Look.

Slacktivism

The act of participating in obviously pointless activities as an expedient alternative to actually expending effort to fix a problem.

Newspapers are Innovating to survive

srakestraw@upperquadrant.com — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:08:00 GMT

I recently attended the DMA Insert Days and learned what the Tribune Newspaper is doing to be more competitive. They have a new service offering, Direct Plus that allows them to compete for direct mail dollars because they can target at a sub-zip level to areas that match the desired demographics. Also, unlike direct mail the insert is wrapped around the paper inside the plastic, forcing it to be noticed.

In addition to the sub-zip delivery, they have a very unique targeting capability where they will match a prospect/customer list or demographics profiles against their subscriber database, allowing for great targeting. They can also guarantee in home dates, something direct mail is lacking.

I applaud the Tribunes effort to innovate.

Applying Geo Analysis to Insert and Print media, no Jedi mind trick…

srakestraw@upperquadrant.com — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:30:00 GMT

The last few of months I have been heads down working with our development team and clients to develop UQube Geo™, a web-based application for allowing marketers to visualize performance for geo targeted media (ValPak, Advo, Money Mailer, etc) at the market level daily. One of our objectives is to eliminate ad-hoc analysis that takes week, empowering clients with actionable insight to impact every media buy.

Market level is the evolution of media optimization for insert and print media. Once you are settled on your mix of marketing channels (direct response/alt media, direct mail, tv, and online), media categories (inserts, FSIs, circular, etc), and programs (Advo, Money Mailer, ValPak, SmartSource, New Movers), the next logically step is to optimize the programs at the market level.