Every now and then we like to highlight a new IAB Australia member that we think our community will find interesting. Today we meet Gain Theory. Written by Justin Nel, Director at Gain Theory.
Please give us some historical background to the company:
Gain Theory has a rich history of innovation that dates back to 1973 when we pioneered the use of econometrics via MMM to improve marketing effectiveness. Other notable landmarks over the last 50+ years include:
- Being the first to develop an advanced econometric model that took into account the recency and frequency of message in the 1980s
- Launching the AdModel™ to help brands understand how consumers respond to advertising in the 1990s
- Being one of the first to measure the measure the long-term direct and indirect effects of advertising in the early 2000s
- Launching Sensor™ as a privacy-first alternative to multitouch attribution in the 2010s
- Unveiling HiFusion, our approach to improving investment decisions and activation by fusing hindsight, insight, and foresight, in the 2020s
Today, Gain Theory is a global marketing effectiveness and foresight consultancy that is part of WPP. Our expertise saw us named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Marketing Measurement and Optimization, Q3 2023.
Tell us a little bit about your company's mission and vision?
Our aim is to empower smarter data-informed marketing investment decisions.
Our vision is to help ambitious brands accelerate business growth, whatever the macroeconomic climate. We know there’s a lot of uncertainty out there currently and marketers are being asked to do more with less, but we believe our holistic approach can help marketers to succeed and their brands to thrive.
This starts with helping clients to understand what has happened (hindsight), uncovering why it happened (insight), and planning for what might happen next (foresight).
Our proprietary technology and solutions – from marketing effectiveness benchmarks and roadmaps, to data, AI, and advanced analytics – are designed to address complex needs with speed and scale.
These tools are backed up by our experienced teams who provide high-touch consultancy, acting as trusted advisors to guide clients through every challenge and opportunity.
We also leverage exclusive partnerships and the strength of the WPP network to provide access to a wealth of data, expertise, and tools that augment our solutions.
Do you have a particular 'hero product' that you are most proud of?
Sensor™ is our award-winning measurement solution that provides granular, near-time insights that are privacy compliant and enable optimization at the tactical level across all channels.
Given the current data privacy challenges and fragmentation of audiences across a growing number of channels, we know marketers need faster, more granular insights. Sensor™ was built for this purpose. It enables marketers to answer key questions, including:
- how to spend across different channels, partners, campaigns, tactics, creatives, and audiences
- when to spend to account for new launches, promotions, and peak or soft periods
- how to optimize budgets, including annual and incremental
- how to meet different business objectives, such as in-store sales, e-comm sales, and foot traffic
Tried and tested by some of the world’s leading brands, Sensor™ can be deployed for a variety of use cases, including to:
- Dissect TV partner performance by network, creative, and audience group
- Assess the impact of budget shifts across paid social media platforms
- Diagnose drops in media performance and plan for how to remedy the situation
- Uncover portfolio-level insights across different brands
What area of digital do you personally work in and how do you hope to enhance this within your business?
In my role at Gain Theory, I focus on helping our clients navigate the ever-evolving landscape of modern marketing. I work with them to solve a wide range of challenges, from accurately measuring and optimizing the impact of their digital tactics, partners, channels, and campaigns, to answering more strategic questions. This includes helping them determine the optimal size of their digital budgets, defining the role of digital in achieving their short- and long-term growth objectives, and developing strategies for how their digital initiatives should evolve to account for different future scenarios.
While digital is a growing priority for our clients, Gain Theory takes a channel-agnostic approach. We understand the importance of incorporating all marketing channels into our analysis to provide a truly holistic view of marketing effectiveness. I contribute to this by ensuring that we measure and optimize our clients' non-digital initiatives alongside their digital efforts, giving them a complete understanding of how all their marketing investments contribute to their overall success.