Advertising has a measurement problem – not a data problem
Article 14 of 14 in series: The Great Reach Reset
Technology and fragmentation is transforming media at a crazy speed, but the fundamentals of brand growth remain unchanged.
At the recent WFA Global Marketer Week, Gulen Bengi, Lead Chief Marketing Officer at Mars and Chief Growth Officer for Mars Snacking, spoke about fragmentation, connectivity, and growth in a way that kept me thinking long after the session ended. As I listened in the dark conference room in “Folkets hus” in Stockholm, I found myself reflecting on how much our industry is changing and how much it actually is not.
Then Gülen Bengi said something that immediately resonated with me: “So this leads me to one of the biggest challenges of our industry today: measurement.”
I could not agree more.
Because despite all the technological acceleration happening around us through AI, retail media, streaming, creator ecosystems, algorithmic feeds, and increasingly fragmented consumer journeys, marketers are still trying to answer the same fundamental question they have always been trying to answer:
Are we actually reaching people in a way that creates long-term growth? That question feels more difficult to answer today than ever before, not because we lack data, but because we are surrounded by too much disconnected information that often tells us more about individual platforms than about real marketing effectiveness.
The fundamentals of brand growth have not changed
One of the most important reminders from Gülen’s presentation was that while technology evolves rapidly, the fundamentals of marketing remain remarkably stable. Brands still grow by reaching new buyers, building mental availability, creating emotional relevance, and staying visible across buying situations. This aligns strongly with Byron Sharp’s work on brand growth and incremental reach, where broad exposure and consistent presence matter far more than simply targeting existing customers more efficiently.
That truth has not changed, but what has changed dramatically is the media environment surrounding it.
Consumers now move seamlessly between television, streaming platforms, social media, gaming environments, podcasts, commerce ecosystems, and connected devices throughout the day, often without even noticing the transitions themselves. At the same time, marketers are expected to understand how all of these touchpoints work together, where incremental reach is created, where duplication occurs, and how investments contribute to both short-term performance and long-term brand growth.
We have more data than ever, yet less shared understanding
The paradox is that we have never had more data available to us, yet we have arguably never had less shared understanding.
The industry talks constantly about connected consumer experiences, but measurement itself often remains deeply disconnected. Every platform claims effectiveness. Every dashboard demonstrates success. Every algorithm promises optimization. Yet very few marketers can confidently explain the true incremental contribution of each channel across the entire media ecosystem.
In many ways, we are becoming exceptionally good at measuring parts of the system while simultaneously becoming worse at understanding the system as a whole.
That is where I would slightly challenge the broader industry narrative around connectivity. We often speak about creating seamless consumer experiences across channels, but much of our measurement infrastructure is still built around siloed environments that optimize locally rather than globally. A campaign can look highly successful within one platform while repeatedly reaching audiences who have already been exposed elsewhere, creating the illusion of effectiveness without necessarily generating meaningful incremental growth.
This is exactly why cross-media measurement matters so much. Not because measurement itself is the goal, but because understanding how channels work together is becoming essential if marketers want to make smarter investment decisions in an increasingly fragmented media world.
AI will amplify whatever measurement foundations we build beneath it
AI will accelerate this challenge even further. On one hand, AI introduces extraordinary possibilities through creative personalization, predictive targeting, automated experimentation, and real-time optimization that would have been unimaginable only a few years ago. On the other hand, AI will inevitably amplify whatever measurement foundations we build beneath it. If those foundations remain incomplete, siloed, or overly focused on short-term platform metrics, then AI simply scales those imperfections faster and more efficiently.
That is why I increasingly believe that independent and transparent cross-media measurement is becoming strategic infrastructure rather than just a technical discipline. The next competitive advantage in marketing will not come from access to more dashboards, more platform metrics, or even more AI tools. It will come from the ability to create clarity across fragmented signals and maintain a consistent understanding of how brands build meaningful reach and growth.
Technology will continue to evolve. Media fragmentation will continue to increase. AI will reshape large parts of our industry over the coming years, but the fundamental challenge remains remarkably familiar: understanding how brands reach new people, stay relevant in consumers’ minds, and create sustainable growth over time.
Because in the end, the brands that win will not necessarily be the ones with the most data, the best algorithms, or the most advanced technology, but the ones that understand people best. And that is where measurement plays an essential role.
This article is 14 of 14 in our series: The Great Reach Reset
About this article series
In a fragmented media landscape, reach is no longer a simple KPI - it is a strategic growth lever. In this article series, AudienceProject explores why advertisers are not failing at reach, but at measuring it properly, and why incremental, deduplicated cross-media reach has become essential to driving penetration, controlling frequency, and unlocking sustainable growth.
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