Marketers need to understand this fundamental truth...in a digital, social, mobile age, consumers can choose brand messages as much as the brand messages choose them.

Consumers are 'always-on' and this has fundamentally changed how we shop...we browse incessantly, on whatever screen we have handy. Progressive marketers know their brands need to be 'always-on' too...to generate earned (social media) or owned (e.g. website visits) media impressions.

And these owned and earned impressions can be quite significant. Fiona Blades, founder of MESH, The Experience Agency, that tracks all experiences a consumer has with a brand via mobile, offers, "In some categories we monitor, Digital Owned and Earned experiences can account for as much as 60% of total reported experiences."

But perhaps the most important insight about an owned/earned impression is this.

While a paid impression tells us that the MARKETER thinks the user is interesting to the brand...an owned or earned impression tell us that the CONSUMER thinks the brand is interesting to THEM.

This simple 'aha' is the reason that digital and social data offer unique insights in 6 ways:

1. BRAND HEALTH MONITORING: They give a naturally occurring barometer of brand relevance, and why. Their impact on the path to purchase has been successfully modeled. Clients are even asking me if they can replace their surveys altogether with digital and social data.
2. ALWAYS ON MARKETING REPORT CARD: They reflect how good the marketer is at always on marketing
3. CAUSAL SALES MODELING: Owned and earned impressions should have more impact than a paid impression at driving sales (see WOMMA industry study.) But let's include these data into our models and let's find out...
4. REAL TIME CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT: They reflect the degree to which a marketing campaign is having impact on consumer behaviors in time to adjust spending plans

(For other impact areas, please read the full blog.)

Signs are emerging that the data-driven research transformation is starting to happen.

Lieberman Research Worldwide offers a next generation tracking system called BX that "Thinks in data systems, not research studies". Surveys, digital, and social data are integrated around a consumer decision journey framework, all accessed in close to real time.

Marketing Evolution, founded by Rex Briggs, offers a breakthrough in cross-media optimization technology that, unlike most marketing mix modeling approaches, puts the consumer in the equation. Consumer interviews are enriched with data from the ad tech ecosystem, cookies from tagged digital ads, social media profiles, etc. to predict the probability of ad response as a function of the marketing lever, characteristics of the user seeing the impression, weather conditions, etc. From this, media can be optimized in near real time so changes can be made in-flight. Their experience is that marketers can achieve a 30% increase in productivity via this optimization process.

(Disclosure: I work with both companies so contact me for more information).

The next area I hope to transform is new product forecasting around Moneyball ideas and predictive analytics. Perhaps the problem isn't purchase intent inaccuracy, it's a failure to model integrated data. If interested, please contact me.

I have opined at a number of conferences that the number one priority for marketing research is to integrate survey and digital data. Now we see it's starting to happen and I'm happy to help you design your own integrated data system solutions.

BTW, an idea...many readers tell me they forward my monthly newsletter to numerous colleagues.  Please do so, and when you do, ask them to subscribe...much appreciated!