Manage and advise
A monthly retainer that keeps your measurement trusted, with Neil as the CMO's fractional effectiveness lead.
Measurement drifts unless someone runs it
Agencies change, campaign names slip and tags break. Even trusted numbers don't move a budget on their own: someone has to read them with the CMO and take them to the CFO. Manage and advise does both, and the advice rests on numbers we check ourselves every day.
What's included
Manage
The daily checks and data upkeep. The monthly report. The test and learn rhythm. Your media mix model, built and refreshed each quarter.
Advise
Board and CFO reporting with the CMO. Budget planning by See / Think / Do / Care. Agency reviews, brief reviews, and reporting results back to your agencies.
How the first year runs
| Months | Focus | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | Align | Meetings run on the agreed numbers. Agency briefs improve, and agencies get a monthly report back on how their work performed. |
| 4–9 | Test | Incrementality tests, with platform attribution as a signal only. The first media mix model runs and is checked against the tests, then used to plan next year's budget. |
| 10–12 | Embed | We build capability in your team, refresh the model and review the year with the CMO. |
The minimum term is 12 months, because changing how a board reads marketing usually takes most of a year.
Meetings
- Weekly, 30–45 minutesWith your team and agencies: check status, tests and blockers.
- Monthly, 1 hourWith the CMO: the report, the decisions and the advice. Agencies get their report-back the same week.
- Quarterly, 2 hoursWith leadership and the CFO: the board view only, with forecasts and ranges.
We advise, and you decide
Every piece of advice and every decision goes in one log, with a date to read the result. Your agencies or in-house team change live campaigns, and we check that each change held. We don't buy media, so no fee of ours depends on which channel comes out ahead.
When the model and a test disagree, the test wins until the model can explain the difference.
What we need from you
A finished Measurement build, or an existing set-up that passes our checks. A fixed monthly slot with the CMO, and your agencies at the weekly session.
Budget decisions backed by tests and a model, with the advice and decisions on record.
Decisions log entry
| Date | 4 March |
| Question | Move a fifth of the paid social budget into online video for the second quarter? |
| Advice | Yes, in two test provinces first, because paid social's lift is not proven yet and video has never been tested. |
| Decision | Approved for two provinces, for eight weeks |
| Decided by | CMO |
| Read the result | 15 May, at the monthly session |
- Approve the brand budget floor for next year's plan?
- Share the first model results with the CFO now, or after the second test reads?
This entry is made up to show the format.
Where this comes up
When the board asks for the numbers, have the answer.
Tell us where it hurts: the budget conversation, the agency relationship, or numbers nobody trusts. We'll suggest where to start.
TALK TO NEIL →