Right-size your ‘measurement house’
Pivot: Broad data gathering and measurement to focused data gathering and measurement.
Every company has data with unique value to their business. Often, however, there’s a disconnect between the data and the value that can be created from the data.
Rather than get bogged down by the massive amount of data available from milk processors and digital platforms, MilkPEP and Gale wanted to be nimble in what they measure and how they measure it.
“MilkPEP measures so many things; it’s almost overwhelming,” Simms noted. “But part of the job is to make sure that we’re pulling the right things out of the data to activate against.”
For the purposes of the campaign, MilkPEP and Gale chose to monitor the overall sales of milk as well as consumers’ consumption of milk as revealed by self-reported third-party data. Consumer sentiment and attitudes toward milk is also important, particularly perceptions around “milk as a performance drink” or “milk helping everyday performance.” Basic media and messaging performance is critical as well. To stay focused and effective, Gale uses a research platform, Ask Gale, to understand whether and how their creative work is resonating—who they are reaching with what message, in what channel and how often.
“You have to be thoughtful about your measurement house,” Rani said. “We want to have accountability to report how we are doing, but sometimes that can overshadow our ability to find the data that inspires things that haven’t been done before—the creative activations that haven’t been seen before.”
Be attentive to both strong and faint signals
Pivot: Men to women.
A central theme in MilkPEP’s “Gonna Need Milk” campaign is how milk’s unique nutritional attributes fuel extraordinary athletic accomplishments. It was only natural that MilkPEP formed a “Team Milk” made up of professional athletes across the sports world, with National Football League players including JuJu Smith-Schuster, Terry McLaurin and Justin Herbert among the notable stars rounding out the roster.
An NFL partnership was intriguing to MilkPEP because the league’s two primary growth audiences are women and youths. Yet after notching several successful activations on social media with NFL players, MilkPEP and Gale analyzed the data and realized they needed to pivot. Turns out, they were reaching more dads than women and youths.
“We love dads, but they’re easy to get and they weren’t the audience we were going for,” Simms said. “Doubling down on the NFL with NFL players wasn’t the right move.”
The team shifted their attention to flag football and women’s tackle football, ultimately signing up Boston Renegades star Adrienne Smith to Team Milk. The pivot proved successful and illustrated the importance of being attentive to both the strong and faint signals you receive from the data.
