Have you noticed the new “it” drink on every menu? It’s the Aperol Spritz, a combination of sparkling wine, Aperol, and club soda. Move over rose’ – the Aperol Spritz is on everyone’s cocktail menu, and I honestly don’t remember it as an option a few years ago. Turns out, it wasn’t.
Aperol sales are skyrocketing. 2023 experienced an approximate 1 million volume increase, a 9% improvement YOY. That’s pretty astounding for the category. And for a product that is over 100 years old without ever changing. What’s the deal?
They didn’t do it by lead-generation tactics.
They didn’t do it by influencers.
They didn’t do it with pricing.
They did it by using a variety of really smart branding initiatives, including innovative and new distribution, making the bottle visible at key moments, and extending those key moments past summer. They invested in a ‘tradigital” media mix, including touchpoints of radio, out of home and print.
Like any change goal, the stimulus to Aperol’s growth can be attributed to multiple variables of paid and owned media, and of improved distribution. These variables are simultaneously attention-worthy and patient, like a Tuscan vintner awaiting the grape harvest.
So why are we talking about this?
Too often we see brands invest in what they can narrowly measure, at the expense of their own business health. For example, do any of these look familiar?
- Equivalizing Customer Acquisition Costs from social media campaigns with Customer Acquisition Costs from CTV campaigns. Social media ads have a much shorter shelf life than CTV ads. This “shelf life” is called “ad stock” and ad stock should be included in attribution models.
- Calculating lift in web metrics only during the campaign flight. Brand media can demonstrate lift for up to 18 months, depending on how long it has run and on what media channels.
- Not attributing improvements in paid search or email marketing to brand media – and then doubling down on investments in the last touchpoint of paid search/direct mail, at the detriment of brand building. You see the circular logic here.
- Limiting your dashboard to digital media because digital media has engagement metrics. Media dashboards should be inclusive of all paid media and should provide time-series correlations between media exposure and consumer response data sets. This is, at least, a directional view of your holistic media performance over time.
- Excluding “exogenous” variables, like weather or interest rates, from attribution. Not all goal events are attributable to paid media. Some goal events happen because of shelf space, new sales outlets (distribution) or even weather or the economy. If a data set influences sales and, assuming it’s available, it should be included in the attribution model.
Executive leadership is compelled to say “If you can’t measure it, it’s not worth the investment,” which sometimes force-fits a measurement. No mathematician wants a force-fit. Perhaps the new question should be, “Is this the right measurement to grow our business?” In developing FutureSight.online™ we’ve found a way to help marketers maximize opportunities for growth.
Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by Marilois Snowman, Partner and CEO of Mediastruction.
At The Blake Project, we help clients worldwide, in all stages of development, define and articulate what makes them competitive and valuable. Please email us to learn how we can help you compete differently.
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