Is digital media simply too measurable for branding?

Yaakov Kimelfeld, Ph.D.
Chief Research Officer
Millward Brown Digital

Yaakov Kimelfeld, Chief Research Officer at Millward Brown Digital, has a challenging post today at Online Metrics Insider in which he asks (rhetorically) "Perhaps digital media is simply too measurable for branding?"

He argues that traditionally we have thought of branding as "the promise of greater rewards to come" -- not as a distinct, identifiable moment in a transaction (which he sees as the direct response perspective of what digital advertising is good for).

Kimelfeld writes, "brand awareness and favourability have become key indicators of success largely because of the measurement gap between exposure to advertising and actual sales. . . . [but] The distinction between 'direct response' and 'branding' campaigns is purely the time it takes ton convert: shorter for the former, longer for the latter. It is a continuum, not a dichotomy."

Kimelfeld answers his own question: is digital media too measurable for branding?  No. But "traditionally minded advertisers may not yet be ready."