Is MMM for Media Strategists, Media Planners, or Someone Else?
In today’s ever-evolving media landscape, marketing professionals face increasing pressure from brands to deliver effective and data-driven strategies. Media agencies must integrate various data sources—spend, post-campaign metrics, audience insights, consumer behaviors—into their workflows to stay competitive. Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) is emerging as a powerful tool to support this transformation. But who inside a media agency would benefit the most from MMM? Is it the media strategist, the media planner, or someone else?
The Role of a Media Strategist and Why MMM Matters
A media strategist is responsible for designing high-level media strategies that align with brand objectives. They analyze market trends, consumer behavior, and competitive activities to develop media frameworks that maximize campaign effectiveness.
Why MMM is Essential for Media Strategists:
- Data-Driven Decision Making: MMM allows strategists to quantify the impact of past media investments, ensuring their recommendations are backed by historical performance data rather than just intuition.
- Optimizing Cross-Channel Strategies: With the fragmentation of media channels, MMM helps strategists identify which media touchpoints contribute most to the KPI, enabling better allocation of budgets.
- Justifying Strategies to Clients: Brands are demanding more accountability and ROI insights from agencies. MMM provides a structured approach to demonstrate how different media investments drive business results.
Example Without MMM:
A strategist develops a media plan based on prior experience and industry trends. However, without MMM, they struggle to quantify which media channels truly drive sales. If the client questions their recommendations, the strategist lacks solid data to support their claims, potentially leading to budget cuts or loss of trust.
The Role of a Media Planner and Why MMM is a Game-Changer
Media planners translate strategic vision into actionable media plans. They decide on media buying tactics, channel mix, budget allocation, and campaign execution.
Why MMM is Essential for Media Planners:
- Precision in Media Buying: MMM helps planners fine-tune budget allocations by revealing the most effective media investments.
- Forecasting Performance: With predictive modeling, planners can anticipate how adjustments in media spend will impact KPIs, reducing guesswork.
- Reducing Wasted Spend: MMM highlights underperforming channels, allowing planners to reallocate budgets efficiently and avoid wasteful spending.
Example Without MMM:
A media planner distributes a client’s budget across different channels based on standard benchmarks. However, without MMM insights, they may over-invest in underperforming channels, leading to inefficient spend and missed opportunities to maximize impact. This results in lower ROI, and the agency risks losing the client.
Beyond Strategists & Planners: Who Else Can Benefit from MMM?
While media strategists and planners are the primary users of MMM, other professionals inside and outside of media agencies can also benefit:
- Account Directors & Client Leads: They need strong data-backed narratives to retain and grow client relationships.
- Marketing Analysts: They analyze media impact and require robust attribution models for campaign effectiveness reporting.
- Brand Marketers & CMOs: On the client side, brand marketers increasingly demand sophisticated measurement tools to justify their media investments.
- Marketing Technology Specialists: Responsible for tool adoption, they ensure the agency remains competitive in measurement capabilities.
MMM: A Competitive Edge for Media Agencies
We understand that media agencies have been operating successfully without MMM. However, the landscape has shifted. Brands are demanding more accountability, competition among agencies is fierce, and media fragmentation makes decision-making more complex. Agencies that adopt MMM will have an edge in optimizing media strategies, justifying their work, and retaining clients. Those that don’t risk falling behind.
At More Than Data, we don’t just provide an MMM tool—we deeply understand the media agency business model and operational workflows. Our solution seamlessly integrates into your processes, ensuring a smooth transition without disrupting your current way of working.
MMM isn’t a mandatory choice, but it’s a strategic one. The agencies that leverage it will outpace their competitors. Don’t be left behind—take action now and get started with us!