METRICS OF BTL

Any advertising is devoid of merit if a brand fails to get into metrics. Value measurement of the impact of advertising is vital for the brand's growth and survival. And this is a universally known fact. However, ATL metrics are quite different from BTL metrics. Whereas ATL metrics are related to 'brand building', 'mind-share' of consumers and are more broad based; BTL metrics are more focused on 'target markets', 'winning potentials,' 'converts to brand,' etc. These metrics can also be extended to include 'increased reach of brand,' 'acquisition of larger TG,' and most importantly 'Direct Impact on Sales.' So how does a brand get the right metric system in place to gauge ROI of a BTL activation? Unfortunately, there are no fixed standards or software even to measure ROI on BTL investments. However, we will try to reach at a formula in this blog post to get ROI metrics that could help brands evaluate their success rate through evaluation of parameters. PARAMETERS:

*) Number of Customer Interactions Achieved The number of customer interactions achieved can be evaluated by having a simple form to be filled up by Customer-Relationship-Management staff thoroughly briefed to interact and answer customer queries, doubts, information gathering etc. The form should ideally contain all contact details of customers as well as a simple Yes, No, Maybe, Not Interested style of columns to be filled in by CRM staff. The tricky part is preparing the form...wherein its imperative to pre-empt customer queries etc. and have suitable answers/ information ready for CRM staff to disseminate. *) CONVERSION CHART The conversion chart is the second stage of customer interactions achieved by which all forms are then tagged on the basis of lead generation: a) CONVERSIONS b) HOT c) COLD d) FUTURE POTENTIALS These conversion charts can be 'Trended' using software to give you a graph of ROI and the actual impact of the BTL activity. *) ASPECTS OF ROI METRICS AND WEIGHT Next, what a brand really needs is to identify its Target Goals well in advance of any BTL activity, then putting percentage weight points to create an evaluation chart. An Example: MAHINDRA 2 WHEELERS XCHANGE KARWA

Brand Building: 24%, Sales Figures: 20%, Increased Revenues: 15%, Interactions:16%, Conversions: 13%, New Targets Gained: 12%

The selection of aspects and assigning weight allocations are extremely crucial in getting the right model as ROI cannot be dependent on just one factor. To quickly sum up, DRE devised a metric system for ROI for the 4-city Mahindra 2

Wheelers Roadshow we'd ideated, created and executed titled: 2 Wheeler XChange Caravan. The primary objective of this roadshow was: a) Increased Sales (38%) b) Increased Revenues (24%) c) Conversions d) Future Potential Leads (28%) e) Customer Relationship (10%) In the activity that lasted a month each in all of the 4 districts across Mumbai, Pune, Thane and Nagpur, DRE was not only able to deliver the requisite sales in numbers, but also helped greatly in the brand evaluating its ROI overall as well as geographically, demographically, etc.

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In India, brands have mostly played safe with only conventional forms of BTL, like events and road shows, exhibitions, conferences and sampling. However, BTL opportunities extend to many other forms, such as word of mouth, viral marketing, podcasting, consumer generated media, field marketing, contests, as well as innovations within the conventional media." Below-the-line initiatives are gaining success because of their customer centric communication, low spillover and, above all, the ability to deliver the brand experience as against pure messaging

BTL provides immediate returns on the money that has been spent on activations. The data that is collated post activations help in closures through telecalling." Take, for example, a campaign that RC&M did for Mahindras Bhoomi Putra tractor the agency claims that for an activity that reached 2,500 farmers in 11 states, 400 spot sales were achieved.

Trial generation and free sampling spot sales