Since we’ve been keeping the pulse of what multichannel (or “cross channel,” depending on your take) analytics and attribution can do to drive business decisions for our clients, we thought it might be helpful, especially with 2010 around the corner, to provide a list of the top 10 case studies for multichannel marketing.

We didn’t realize how hard it would be to put this list together, considering the great amount of “fluffy” opinion and information that currently exists on the topic. So we hope that this compilation helps you and your organization in understanding the issues on multichannel marketing, how to extract meaningful results, and most importantly, provide new avenues to find information about the growing area multichannel marketing/analytics and attribution.

Big caveat!
A lot of the resources below do not take in consideration offline media, which is obviously a big flaw. So if you know of any case studies or reports that provide insights into the offline effect on online and vice-versa, let us know and we’d love to include them here – and maybe even create a new Top 20 list next month

1. Integrated Campaigns Worth Overcoming Hurdles – from IMMI

• Key takeaways:
  • An IMMI study looked at the multitasking behavior of television viewers and found that TV watchers spent an average of 9.3% of their time online and simultaneously watching the tube.
  • Among viewers watching broadcast TV, 11% also are surfing the Web
  • The survey also found that women, who do the bulk of the shopping, do the most simultaneous viewing

2. Cross-Channel Attribution Model On Track To Replace The Last Click – from TV Week & Forrester

• Key takeaways:
  • Technology leaders are emerging from the pack, namely: Atlas, ClearSaleing, Coremetrics, Theorem, TruEffect, Visual IQ, and [x+1]
  • Between 5% and 10% of marketers think about deploying attribution management across multiple media
  • Attribution is taking hold most quickly in the search industry, supported by companies, such as 360i and Range Online Media

3. The Truth about Attribution Modeling – from iCrossing’s Blog

• Key takeaways:
  • Multichannel analytics should be derived by the need to understand the right media mix
  • Framework for Quantifying Multichannel Attribution from Forrester
  • Technology mentioned ClearSaling, TagMan
  • Results from attribution? Sample case study highlighted the following results:
    • 13.7% increase in natural search visitors
    • 2.5% increase in unique visitors
    • 14.8% increase in paid search click thru rate
    • 11.2% decrease in paid search cost per click

4. The Challenges of Cross Channel Marketing- from eMarketer/TNS

• Key takeaways:
  • Eyeblaster/TNS Research
  • 85% of marketers see the value in cross-media integration
  • 67% of the marketers were currently running cross-channel campaigns

5. Achieving Cross Channel Marketing Mix Nirvana – from White Horse Agency

• Key takeaways:
  • Go beyond Reach and Frequency – go for performance
  • Use media options to get incremental return – add one channel at a time
  • Use behavioral targeting
  • Test digital media to create offline media model

6. Measuring ROI Beyond the Last Ad – from Microsoft Advertising Institute

• Key takeaways:
  • Microsoft Advertising Institute found that 44% of sponsored search clickers are exposed to display ads prior to the click
  • Identify which (media) buys are cost-efficiently contributing to the upper part of your purchase funnel

7. Beyond Search: Illuminating The Alltel Wireless Sales Funnel – PDF – From Atlas/Microsoft

• Key takeaways:
  • 94% of the touchpoints in converter histories are ignored by the last ad standard and receive zero credit
  • Conversion rates from display combined with search get a 56% lift over search only campaigns
  • Optimize the entire funnel, not just the last ad

8. Attribution Indices – From American Attribution Index – sponsored by ClearSaleing/Vetra Analytics (PDF)

• Key Takeways:
  • Attribution Indices from Small, Medium and Large advertisers from a sample set of over 1.3 million Purchase Paths from the ClearSaleing Advertising Analytics and Attribution Management platform
  • Although at its infancy, we are hopeful to see more coming out of this web site.

9. 8 Core Elements For Attribution Modeling Beyond The Last Click – from iProspect/SearchEngineLand

• Key takeaways:
• Before engaging in multichannel analysis/attribution – consider:
  1. Technical resources
  2. Attribution plan
  3. Tracking
  4. Cookie expiration
  5. Data cleaning
  6. CRM data
  7. Data weighting
  8. Reporting

10. Media Mix Optimization – The Starting Point for Customer-Centric Communications – from Axciom

• Key takeways:
  • Difference between “Inferred Attribution” and “Direct Attribution” and “Normative Performance”
  • “Inferred Attribution” can result in 10-15% of reduction in media spend
  • Lifecycle marketing can result in up to 20% top line growth through “direct attribution”

Our take on the research above?

If your brand is going to engage in any multichannel analytics program, remember:

• Keep it simple – don’t bite off more than you can chew
• Conduct attribution between two channels, then add a channel at a time
• Do research on potential technology vendors, interview them, interview their customers. If you have access to analyst group, purchase their reports – it will save you a lot of time
• Understandably, online marketers have a strong bias towards looking just at online channels than offline, and vice versa
• Although many agencies pay attention to attribution between display and search, they don’t seem to pay much attention to TV, Radio or the effect of direct mail on online media (and vice versa). That’s ignoring a very large component of consumer behavior, and risking the success of your overall marketing
• Companies that keep each channel separate (and their agencies separate) are missing out on huge opportunities – and killing their bottom line

Other notable resources:

• Unica’s Resource section
• Neolane’s Resource section
• Kevin Hillstrom’s Data Analysis Methodology
• Case Study about NetFlix’s cross channel marketing
• Multi-click Attribution The Way Conversions Actually Happen (Disclosure, Daniel Riveong – blogger for Emergence-Media.com who blogged for Ad-Tech also works at e-storm)

Did we miss something or do you have some thoughts on our takeaways? Comment or let us know.

Related posts:

1. Multichannel Marketing: PPC vs TV, and PPC vs Radio
2. Multichannel Marketing: Analyzing the Impact of PPC & Display on One Another
3. Analyzing the Impact of Multichannel Marketing: A Case Study Told in Four Conversations