"Marketers have spent $50bn on generative AI and 95% of it has delivered zero return," the group CEO of Inspired Thinking Group (ITG), Andrew Swinand, tells The Drum, citing an MIT study.
But that wouldn't happen if marketers had access to better measurement that gave them clarity on what truly drives business growth, argues Henry Innis, CEO and co-founder of marketing mix modeling platform Mutinex. "We don't have a perception that marketing is a growth driver in the boardroom," Innis says on this week's episode of AdExchanger Talks. "That's the tough truth for most marketers; we're seen as a fungible cost."
Marketers have a lot of misconceptions about marketing mix modeling (MMM). But it's far less expensive - and easier - to execute than it used to be. Deli meat brand Land O'Frost has been investing in MMM for years, seeking insights into how different cultural trends, campaign strategies and channels impact its KPIs. Historically, it's been challenging to find "solid data points" to prove that certain channels, like paid social and influencer marketing, are driving sales, Land O'Frost COO Saverio Spontella told AdExchanger.
Sixty-one people. That's what it takes to run a single global creator marketing campaign today: an army of strategists, lawyers, analysts, and staff coordinating across time zones, agencies, and spreadsheets. Those 61 people reveal the creator economy's defining tension. It has scaled faster than the infrastructure built to support it.
It's not AI. It's not personalization. It's creativity. More specifically, it's emotional creativity executed consistently over time. The new research, released by digital advertising company System1 and Effie, evaluated over 1,200 campaign outcomes, totaling $139 billion worth of marketing spend, and ad data from over 200,000 people, from challenger brands to massive organizations. And it revealed that many companies have it backwards, ranking targeting as their number one priority when in actuality it only delivers a 1.1x profit multiplier, on average.
Nearly half (46.9%) of US brand and agency marketers plan to invest in marketing mix modeling (MMM) over the next year, according to a July survey from EMARKETER and TransUnion. 27.6% of US brand and agency marketers found MMM to be the most reliable marketing measurement methodology, according to the same July survey. Multitouch attribution (MTA) (19.4%) and unified, holistic measurement solutions (18.9%) came in second and third, respectively, in this survey.
If you're a business owner or sales leader at a manufacturing company, you've probably asked this question: "We're spending money on Google Ads, but are we getting the right leads?" It's a frustratingly common problem. You see clicks, you see traffic, but the sales pipeline isn't filling up with the kind of quote requests your team can actually close. The issue often isn't your ads; it's the data you're feeding the machine.
Trust isn't just a nice-to-have in 2025. It's the foundation for every meaningful customer relationship. In an era of widespread misinformation, rapidly shifting social expectations, and tightening consumer wallets, brand trust is now one of your most valuable currencies. According to recent eMarketer data, 62.7% of B2B marketers agree that branding is critical to long-term success. But here's the challenge: proving ROI on trust-building efforts is notoriously difficult.
