Come month-end, the minions in ad agencies are busy churning out monthly reports – how much money was spent, how many checked out the website, how many fans were garnered on the Facebook page, how many Instagrammers interacted with the video that was put out, how many came back after a purchase and said “OMG! I really love how comfortable your jeans are,” so on and so forth. This happens in agencies that are blessed with clients who think that there are other things probably as important, if not more, than how much money they made. When speaking to a traditionalist, you will be asked what the expectation is in terms of the actual conversion of investment of marketing dollars. In other words, “How many did we sell?”

In typical MBA lingo, this is the definition of ROI – Return on Investment. Some people still believe that this is the best and the only way to measure the success of their marketing efforts. To those of you who do, well, congratulations on mastering the art of time travel!

But seriously, it’s time we all knew that there is something more than earning back our marketing investment. There are so many intangibles we draw out of a campaign that just looking at the moolah you earn will not cut it. People remember you for how you made them feel, the experience they had while being engaged with you. They might find another store that sells better products, but prefer the way you treated them and ultimately let you have the honor of their purchase. Brands that were focusing on ROI are now realizing the importance of ROE - Return on Experience.

Let’s face it. Consumers are smarter now, thanks to all the social media buzz, the hazaar apps, and the websites that keep them well-informed about everything under the sun and ensure they are not fooled easily. Your one single campaign may or may not push them to go and pick up something that they probably did not need in their closet or kitchen. Think. Every time Paperboat puts up a post which takes me back years and jolts me to tears, I will not be like “Oh! Let me go have a Paperboat now because they do such a good job on social media!” But I might be more inclined towards pushing it up the list in my consideration set when I do feel like having a fruit juice. Checking out the Myntra app has almost become a hobby now; part work, part guilty pleasure. I love the user experience this app provides me with. But I don’t decide to pick something up by just seeing an app notification about a sale. But it still is something that’s become my go-to for queries on fashion and trends, because they take the pain to curate better than most portals do. My top-of-mind recall of Myntra will definitely be better when I have to buy something online and the other sites won’t even feature in my radar!

Let’s look at another brand which comes up brilliant campaigns using great insights – Dove. Remember Dove Real Beauty Sketches? Remember how it tugged at our heartstrings and made us think a little more deeply about what the brand has been trying to tell us since the launch of their over-arching campaign Real Beauty? What it ended up doing for the brand was immense. 8 million views from TrueView alone (which lets users choose whether they wish to watch the video or not, thereby ensuring that only engaged users are reached), 4.6 billion PR and blogger media impressions and a reach of 1 in 10 FB users world over – these are numbers that cannot be taken lightly, especially at a time when paid media wasn’t ruling our lives like it is now! As Mike Byrne, founding partner, Anomaly, rightly puts it, “This took a lot of guts. Elegantly crafted. The campaign made so many women feel better about themselves. That’s priceless.”

Well, people had to, in some way become a part of the brand story, and there is evidence to suggest that they bought Dove products not because of a new formula that made the product better, but because they genuinely felt connected with what the brand spoke about and how it made them feel! [source]

So the acid test of a marketing campaign, which most companies have begun to realize, is that not all campaigns will result in sales or ROI. Few of them will help deepen that connect between the customer and the brand and these are the hardest to push for. But going by the recent trends in marketing, as long as the brand is able to occupy a positive association in the customer’s mind by creating a favorable experience, you have understood the new golden rule. Constantly creating such experiences and nurturing this relationship will go a long way in building loyalty as opposed to an “I saw, I bought, I forgot” situation.