By Clive White 

How does your business manage and evaluate its data?

Something like Google Analytics for example. Is this something your business takes seriously and monitors on a regular basis to tailor its marketing campaigns based on the results?

Or do you have a loyalty scheme where you can track customers purchasing patterns and entice them to revisit quicker?

It could be considered an urban myth that it was Henry Ford who first coined the quote:


It was actually John Wanamaker in 1882. Here he is:

John W

Wanamaker was an American merchant and a religious, civic and political figure, considered by many to be a proponent in advertising and a marketing pioneer yet it has taken over 100 years to get close to trying to answer his profound question.

Digital marketing experts will say you can manage, monitor and understand exactly how your Pay-Per-Click campaign has performed.

Analytics experts will measure more criteria than ever before, and the common use of algorithms in programmatic advertising helps us to answer these questions.

But do they give us a definitive answer to Wanamaker’s question?

And if we did completely solve the riddle, what would be the future of a traditional media agency?

In order to measure, monitor and rationalise an advertising campaign, we use and capture as much data as possible. This may be through frequency and reach figures obtained from a media owner, post campaign performance after an online campaign, or information based on the personal behaviour of your prospective new customer.

Data is more essential than ever before to understanding how effective your marketing budget has been deployed and how engaged your customers – existing and potential – have been. The good news is that this critical data is readily available for us all to use through analytic tools and trackers.

For those of you reading this shrugging their shoulders at the thought of even attempting to understand how to analyse their data, do not fear. That’s where we, the experts, come in to help you make the most of it. Pointless having the fastest car, if you don’t know how to drive.

Through understanding the available data, an accurate answer to Wanamaker’s question could well be answered by every business that commits to a marketing budget.

So if you could benefit from our expertise in order to help you use your data better, give us a call on 01284 337 540.