During the recent UK election there were lots of claims and counter claims from all parties about what their plans were, how they would fund them and how they would achieve them – the fact-checking team at the BBC has probably never been so busy!

It reminded me of an interesting assertion from a prominent economist in the 1970s which became known as Goodhart’s law. He said:

“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure”.

What he meant by this was that if you have a target to increase something on a purely numerical basis (with few qualifications around it) the numbers can, and will, be manipulated, massaged or the definitions blurred, so that the target is hit, and so the measurement becomes irrelevant.

What does this mean in a marketing context? 

We see the biggest issues around metrics within digital and social channels, which have KPI’s that are easy to measure but difficult to quantify.

At BPL, our belief will always be that quality (sales, conversions, increased revenue) is more important than simple followers, likes, or clicks. We believe experts make things simple and therefore we should increase your bottom line rather than your following.

And we believe it’s our job is to make every £1 you spend work like £10. It’s not easy, but it’s what good agencies do.

We call this approach ‘Powerful Simplicity’ and would love the opportunity to explain how we can make your budgets work harder and your marketing be a profit line not a cost line.

Everyone has to do more with less these days so why not get a second opinion?

Drop us an email or give us a call.