Daily Archives: September 25, 2014

Affordable Marketing Act.

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The Affordable Care Act is working. Reports suggest hospitals are seeing more patients pay for their care. The new focus on tests and meds and outcomes is making it so that projections of overall healthcare spending will slow way down over the next 15 years. The current 18-19% of our GDP going towards healthcare will be a relic of this new healthcare era. Why is this? Good use of big data.

If we can herd all the crazy cats that are the healthcare industry, why can’t we do the same in marketing? I once oversaw an ad photo shoot of a mint on a pillow that cost $30,000 plus. How can one TV spot cost a million, another $40,000? One agency charges a $345,000 monthly retainer, another $60,000 (for the same staffing and creative output). Clearly there is elasticity in pricing in the marketing business. But is anyone tying outputs to effectiveness? Certainly marketers say they are. But are they really? Are marketers using big data tools to track ROI?

Where is the Affordable Marketing Act? Who is watching out for costs and effectiveness? AAAAs? AMA? I McDoubt it. Google is one great big data tool and may at some point have a horse in this race, but it’s not happening now.

Someone needs to turn up big data in a big way to help address the madness that is unmeasured spending. The madness that supports John Wannamaker’s famous line “I know half my advertising is working, I just don’t know which half.” Peace.