Measuring digital isn't everything: Cummings

Digital measurement tools are rapidly proliferating and actual take up in the market may not be reflecting the trend but regional director of digital and social media at Samsung, Damien Cummings (pictured), feels it really doesn't matter.Speaking at a recently held Interactive Advertising Bureau event, Cummings said it's really about marketing and not about digital marketing."There are a lot of tactical measurements in digital, including click-throughs, impressions, site visits, fans, followers, likes and connections and for marketers, these simple tactical measure have become too important."In reality, the only measurement that matters is market share and that is driven by the whole marketing mix and not just digital marketing, according to Cummings."So why hold only one part of your marketing mix to a much higher standard than the rest? Why aren’t we measuring the next action someone takes after listening to a radio spot or reading an ad in the newspaper?" he told Marketing.This is why he believes marketers are measuring digital efforts poorly because they are often too focused on meaningless numbers "when we should have a common set of metrics that gives us a good indication of whether our marketing efforts are winning new sales and improving our market share.""At the end of the day it really is about marketing and whether people will buy the product, not about the technicalities of digital," he said.