Marketing Effectiveness: from best practice to common practice?

And some sacred cows were toppled, including by moderator Bart De Pauw (WPP Media). He immediately asked how the two experts viewed the fact that the focus on marketing effectiveness penetrates so slowly within companies, something that Nencycz-Thiel and Patilinet could only confirm.

Both experts did agree, however, that in recent years the topic has gained a lot of traction, pointing to the success of the book “How Brands Grow” (to which Nencycz-Thiel contributed). The professor from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute also made a striking comparison: it took more than 100 years for doctors to adopt handwashing as a habit, even though the health consequences for patients had long been clear. “Even when the numbers clearly show what works, many companies continue to cling to intuition or tradition,” she said.

The temptation of technology

Sorin Patilinet, former Director of Marketing Effectiveness at Mars and recently started at PepsiCo, emphasized that over the past ten years, technology has mostly absorbed marketers’ attention. “We allowed ourselves to be lured by newsfeeds, TikTok, and Instagram Stories, while the holistic view of the customer increasingly faded into the background. The tools too often became the goal.”

And yet, demonstrating marketing effectiveness is an obvious matter, both for the speakers and for many of the attendees. Again, Magda Nencycz-Thiel drew a comparison with doctors: “The more a doctor relies on prior evidence when diagnosing a patient, the greater the chance that the patient recovers. But absolute certainty never exists. It greatly increases your chances of success, and this is also true in marketing.”

Marketing can be engineered

Moreover, the focus on marketing effectiveness is crucial to give CMOs an important role in the boardroom again. That is also the starting point of Sorin Patilinet’s book, Marketing Effectiveness. Applying Science for Brand Growth, which was recently published.

“I think I’m stating the obvious when I say that, on the one hand, smaller budgets and, on the other, the greater availability of data and knowledge about analytics have increased the pressure on marketers to deliver better results and demonstrate the effectiveness of their decisions,” said Patilinet. “But marketing effectiveness is not just about ROI. It’s about a way of looking at every element of the marketing mix—from strategy and pricing to media and creative choices. We should not limit ourselves to advertising metrics. Effectiveness goes beyond clicks and impressions. It’s about business outcomes and consumer behavior. I firmly believe that marketing can be developed in a scientific way. Marketing can be engineered. Whoever does that speaks the language of the CEO and the CFO.”

Evidence-based marketing boosts creativity

The debate also dispelled a common misconception: that evidence-based marketing stifles creativity. “It’s actually the opposite,” argued Magda Nencycz-Thiel. She gave the example of a unique bridge in Sydney’s harbor. It could only be built because the architects started from existing knowledge about bridges and laws of physics. Precisely because that was their starting point, they were able to be extremely creative in the design.

Finally, Magda Nencycz-Thiel and Sorin Patilinet also had a message for Belgian advertisers, who often work with smaller brands. For these brands too, evidence-based marketing is not obvious, but it is absolutely necessary. “For small brands, it is felt even more strongly, but the basic principles remain the same: reach, continuity, and consistency,” Nencycz-Thiel stated clearly. “Casting the widest net remains the way forward, even if it has to be done with limited resources.” A forewarned Belgian marketer is worth two…