My previous two posts (I, II) have attempted to lend structure to the inherently elusive measurement model for cross-channel campaigns. As much as I underscore on the ‘qualify over quantify’ model, people love numbers. Particularly clients.

Hey, go figure.

Luckily, many of our applications love the numerical spotlight. Take Jumbli, for example. For our cross-channel campaign with AT&T, the average interaction time for the word game was 76.77 minutes for web players and 4.15 minutes for mobile players. We have players that have accumulated more than 5 million points- that requires literally months of play.

However, as I discussed in yesterday’s post, the Vans Be Here campaign follows an entirely different user reward model. For this campaign, we want the actual user interaction time to be fairly short (because the UI is clear and the submission process is efficient), and for the meat of the interaction (the ’share’) to carry on long after the site has been closed (or after the user walks away from the billboard).

The metrics we can track numerically (total # of users, # of unique users, # of submissions) pale in importance to the number of minutes that users spend sharing their snapshot, replaying their Times Square webcam video, encouraging their friends to send in their photos.

And therein lies the rub.

Because we’ve outsourced the ‘reward’ to the user (in allowing them to use our platform in a very personal, natural way), we’ve made the richest metrics harder to quantify. Does this make the campaign less valuable than a Jumbli campaign that has a much more quantifiable user experience? Of course not.

But it does require an understanding within the industry that a shift is happening– one that humiliates your calculator under a pile of Facebook status updates.

As we prepare for NYE, the anticipated busiest day of our cross-channel campaign with Vans, we’re faced with the question of measurement. Multi-multi-measurement.
To put it mildly.

Let’s back up. Single-modal campaign stats can be broken down into fairly standard tables with the traditional cast of characters: users, pageviews, impressions…

Even digital or otherwise ‘dynamic’ campaigns have become digestible enough over the past few years; interactions like clicks and txts have accumulated the necessary precedence to be adopted into the common marketing vernacular and hold meaning at face value. In most cases, digital numbers can be chopped finely enough to be contained within a traditional analytic structure (with possibly a few relational clauses and an asterisk or two).

But what about a campaign that asks users to click, txt, view, visit, watch, write, submit, photograph, playback, share, and embed? And do so in their own particular way, using whatever combo of devices they want, globally, 24/7?

Welcome to our world.

Cross-channel campaigns like Vans BeHere require an entirely new measurement rubric- one that involves far more than Excel tables and line graphs. User engagement becomes a complex equation involving all of the verbs above, some multiplied, some summed. But here’s the kicker: the three-click rule still applies, and it’s no longer confined to just the web or the mobile phone. When ’spreadability’ reigns, you just better make sure that you let the user decide which three clicks (or txts, or playbacks, or embeds) he wants to make.

From a brand perspective, the ultimate success of a campaign like this isn’t raw numbers; that’s far too compartmentalized and myopic to mean much of anything. The ‘win’ here is verifying that the audience has been given the tools to craft their own user experience in an instinctual way, and can then pass these tools to friends (so that they can then use them in their own way…) Boiled down, it’s a matter of containing viral spread to the point that it captures and engages a critical mass of target users without losing effect.

Toss that in your pie chart.

The Loca team is representing us well at Advertising Week in NYC today! They’re on-site for our integration with Clear Channel for real-time photo display in Times Square. If you’re attending Ad Week, head down to the tent underneath the Spectacolor jumbotron (between 48th and Broadway) to get your photographic moment of glory! Not in the area? You can send your mug to adweek@wiffiti.com for a chance to show your lovely smile (or scowl, we won’t judge) to the masses.

We’ll also be showcasing our platform at the main gala this evening, so keep an eye out for Loca’s finest!

Too meta for you? Pffft… we’ll take it :)

MediaPost’s Online Media Daily featured a piece this morning highlighting the fact that regular mobile phones (those “which do not have operating systems of offer the same range of functionality as smartphones”) are working to keep up with the likes of  the iPhone and BlackBerry. The article notes that while “feature phones” are slowly losing ground to smartphones, they still hold a strong lead in market share – 72%.

So we’d like to use this opportunity as a reminder to those looking to add interactivity to their digital out of home campaign: no smartphones, no custom apps, no true OS? No problem. All you need to interact with the LocaModa platform is a text messaging plan (US only…for now).

I’ll admit that the majority of LocaModa employees have iPhones (with a BlackBerry or two in the mix). But that doesn’t mean we don’t build our platform with universal compatibility in mind. We even have a few feature phones sitting around the office for testing.

Sure, writing a custom app (like Jumbli for the iPhone) to integrate into your DOOH campaign will enhance some interactive experience, perhaps providing revenue opportunities and – of course – plenty of buzz. But when it comes down to it, the good ol’ text or photo message is all you need to extend your interactive media to audiences beyond the web.

Above, LocaModa’s test cell phones. Shown with original iMac puck mouse to illustrate age of technology.