I S S E L - Pilot HitList syzygy case study

The Power of Proof

Internet Solutions company Syzygy runs a specialist Insight division, offering strategic customer and web analysis, customer planning and research. The team uses Pilot HitList web performance software to capture and analyse data on how sites are used as a foundation for delivering customer insight. The tool also helps guide design and return on investment goals, forging connections between web advertising, direct marketing and channel initiatives.

Syzygy is an Internet Solutions company, creating interfaces and applications returning measurable value for high-profile clients across Europe. Its work involves connecting customers, partners and suppliers using Internet technology to deliver better value to all. Clients include Mercedes-Benz, Ernst & Young, Department of Culture, Media and Sport, The Air Miles Travel Company, Rolls Royce Engineering and Mazda amongst others.

“A few years ago, the Insight department was considered a useful addition to web marketers to report back on traffic across their sites. Now we’re mission-critical in the eyes of our clients,” said David Ellis, head of analytics at syzygy. The team has developed a series of methodologies and measurement techniques to help define how a site can be proven to deliver against goals and most importantly, to deliver accurate customer insight to the client.

The company services clients across entertainment, travel, education, automotive, retail, Government and B2B sectors. The Analytics team has evolved to play an increasingly important role in providing web metrics to Internet clients, which can be directly translated into on and offline customer strategy.

“We’re a profit centre, certainly,” said Ellis. He insists that advising on how to quantify the performance of client spend on the Internet channel is now a service of considerable value. “Whether it’s internally or externally, our findings have a huge impact. Doing something online as opposed to offline is almost always related to cost efficiency. It’s my role to be able to prove our websites are delivering value and ROI for clients.”

Performance management has been particularly welcomed by clients in the automotive sector. The company develops Internet programmes for car companies including Citroën, Mazda, DaimlerChrysler, smart and ATS. Most use the web as a catalyst to feed sales leads to dealerships, although some manufacturers have recently introduced direct customer sales through the web. According to a recent report from Jupiter Research, 82 per cent of people who buy a car look at the website beforehand. With analytics in place, the web stretches the ability to measure the impact of marketing activity. Ellis cites how you can’t audit dealer visits following TV ads but you can track site visits connected with web advertising.

He points out that even if an overall campaign fails, the web element can often be proven to work. “A lot of companies have distributed sales networks – dealerships and retail outlets. With the web, you’re creating leads that often get dealt with offline. The sales process may break down at a dealership level, though your initiative has driven people to the dealer. Other failings can mask the success of your slice of the campaign so it’s important you can prove your element worked. It’s like working with a fuse box – you can identify which circuit trips and then fix it.”

Pilot has enabled a flexible reporting and analysis system that allows individuals to query on different aspects of site usage. “We used to have to analyse pages of log files to try and turn the data into something marketing people could use and understand. The new generation of web performance management tools eliminates this effort.” Syzygy works with Pilot Software European distributor ISSEL to hone the technology to the needs of its customers and certification bodies.

A key driver for the rollout of analytics has been the acceptance of the ABC ELECTRONIC certification as an industry measurement standard. “In recent years simple statements about hits and unique visitors have become discredited,” Ellis comments. “Our clients – typically marketing or e-commerce directors – don’t find visitor or visit statistics tangible enough. The ABC audit eliminates this problem as it’s a currency every marketing person recognises. We’ve gone a stage further at syzygy and become the first Internet agency to achieve ABC ELECTRONIC subscriber status. This means the in-house client measurement reports we produce with the help of Pilot Software meet the accuracy standards of ABCe.”

He suggests the advantage of ABCe is that advertisers suddenly have an asset that can be audited in similar ways to other media. In fact, the complex connections between different campaigns have been a driving force. ”If an audited campaign goes through a site that isn’t auditable, this undermines the overall ability of a client to understand the impact of the web on their bottom line. Over time each of these auditing holes needs to be filled.”

Awareness of the potential to measure web performance still varies among people commissioning projects. “There’s still a significant body of business people who remain unsure about what’s achievable in terms of web measurement,” said Ellis. “Their expectations can either be unrealistically high or low.” Nonetheless, a majority are now well versed or, even better, still experimenting. “It’s important to remain open to ideas about how measurement can be done. For all the talk of instant, direct connections to customers, surprisingly low expectations exist about the web as a vehicle to drive direct customer insight.”

Projects are definitely more accountable now. Ellis supports a growing trend for transparency in measurement. “Soon everyone will have to be open to advertisers and colleagues about their site performance or they’ll be assumed to be hiding something.”

Ellis argues that with maturity comes realism and that can only be a good thing. “It’s important to realise that the web usage data you’ve got is research and nothing more. The real value begins when you start to work out what it actually means.”

He concludes that web analytics is now much more forward looking. “It’s gone beyond showing what people have been doing. Reports are now becoming less about history and more about what they do next. Measurement of customer behaviour and usage allows analytics to become a planning tool helping marketers to determine customer strategy based on concrete evidence and accurate information.”