CD advertising balanced scorecard indicators

Technologies have widened the range of advertising media. Among the new ones there is enhanced CD or CD-ROM advertising, especially for selling merchandise related to the information or entertainment contained on CD.

Promo-CDs are usually catalogues with images of goods or full description of services available, portfolio of company's works, databases of sites for outdoor advertising, CDs with some music recorded on it and branded by some mobile operators or even wine producing company. This kind of advertising is characterized by very good targeting, very good testing, very high cost per contact and easy modifications and it is widely used in push and profile campaigns especially in B2B marketing communications. Promo-CDs are good as a support for direct sales, lead generation and raising general awareness.

There are number of indicators that could measure the efficiency of advertising place on CD. They are cost per production to sales/inquiries ratio, evaluation of the promo-CD by stakeholders and by the clients, budget allocated and spent and etc. Let's consider some of them a little closer!

The indicators with financial perspective show the relations between the cost and revenues. As the CD advertising is rather expensive from the point of view of cost per contact it is vital to measure and compare the cost spent and the gains. On the other hand, as CDs are usually distributed to the prospect customers it is relatively easy to account for clients and sales generated by the promo-CDs.

There are a few other indicators that reveal the appreciation of the promo-CDs by the stakeholders that is to say the insiders to the company (employees, managers, shareholders, etc.) and by the clients. Although these evaluations may be somewhat biased nevertheless they will show the general trend and indicate the ways to improvement. Besides it is a good opportunity to receive feedback from clients as well as from the stakeholders.

A special attention should be given to the indicators with internal perspective. Development and design of a promo-CD usually requires the participation of the employees from different departments. So it is a project that requires careful planning and skilful project management. For example, it is vital that the people assigned to make contribution to the development of the CD really participated. Thus, they should have time and possibility to do this. On the other hand, there should not be too many participants as it will hamper the entire progress of the project.

Adherence to the allocated budget remains among the main indicators that may reveal some inefficiency in management or insufficiency of skills of the personnel at the advertising and marketing departments.