Magic Numbers: Reach vs. Frequency Studies with Luke Regan

Luke Regan serves as the managing partner at DAC UK, where he holds comprehensive accountability for the business and client performance across the UK. With over 19 years of professional experience, Luke has adeptly supported complex and high-demand international clients in identifying and leveraging substantial growth opportunities through strategic problem solving. 

His expertise spans a diverse range of areas including measurement, content and media strategy, technology stack evaluations, search engine optimization (SEO), analytics, and effective communication with stakeholders and C-suite executives. 

Throughout his distinguished career, Luke has cultivated a significant portfolio of client experience, working with esteemed organizations such as Center Parcs, The Bicester Collection, Medivet, Graff, Tiffany & Co, NetJets, Burgess Yachts, Tesco, The Post Office, and David Lloyd Clubs. 

LBB> What’s the number one question that clients are coming to you with when it comes to how they can better use data to enhance the creativity of their content and experiences? 

Luke> It’s usually about what are the best metrics to assess content and creative that most align with driving the business forward. We’ve seen studies repeatedly show that CTR is not a good proxy for advertising effectiveness, so clients need advice on what is. This means content and creative need to become part of your overall testing framework and not just tested in isolation. We need to run fewer creative with test and controls and assess them using econometric techniques alongside using deterministic techniques such as CRO. 

LBB> How can you make sure that data is elevating creative rather than forming a wind tunnel effect and knocking all the interesting or unique edges off that make something distinctive? 

Luke> Pre-testing can be very useful as it can assess emotional response much better than something like CTR.  

LBB> More brands are working to create their own first party data practice - how can a brand figure out whether that’s something that is relevant or important for their business?   

Luke> It’s relevant to all businesses and you can assess the magnitude by how much you rely on third party cookies right now. If the answer is ‘significantly’ then your need to grow and harness your first party data is burning.  

LBB> "Lies, damned lies, and statistics" - how can brands and creative make sure that they’re really seeing what they think they’re seeing (or want to see) in the data, or that they’re not misusing data?  

Luke> Spreadsheets and dashboards can mislead. The biggest miss is usually incrementality of campaigns or channels. You can use econometric techniques to look for incrementality but this also needs to be married with incrementality testing with test and control audiences or locations. 

LBB> What are your thoughts about trust in data - to what extent is uncertainty and a lack of trust in data (or data sources) an issue and what are your thoughts on that?   

Luke> Any data source which is not effectively ‘open source’ should be taken with a huge amount of scepticism and you should always look critically at methodology. A lot of what is described as ‘evidence-based’ or ‘marketing science’ would not pass muster in properly scientific fields.  

LBB> What does a responsible data practice look like?   

Luke> It should be an open book, anybody preparing data and reports for a brand should be comfortable with sharing all assumptions used and any coding. Responsible data management should also respect privacy and include clear application of consent and consent management. 

LBB> In your view, what’s the biggest misconception people have around the use of data in marketing?   

Luke> That you can have a marketing report statistically watertight enough to be ‘a source of truth’. Most marketing data is directional, that’s why you need multiple techniques and to be on top of wider industry studies, all with a critical eye. 

LBB> In terms of live issues in the field, what are the debates or developments that we should be paying attention to right now? 

Luke> Reach vs. frequency studies. If there is any future in attribution, should we treat all creative with the same principles or is there anything truly different about digital creative? Are too many of the marketing studies we see based around CPG brands and presumed to apply everywhere?