The economic climate of 2023 put marketing budgets under intense scrutiny across the industry. In the face of this pressure, River Island grappled with the challenge of making pragmatic budget efficiencies while still striving to meet ambitious sales targets. Coupled with this, they required a revised marketing strategy to more effectively communicate the value of their activities in driving customer consideration.

River Island needed a consistent and effective method to demonstrate how their marketing initiatives could drive profitable growth.

Our proposed solution comprised a robust measurement framework complemented by a detailed roadmap for its implementation.

Measurement Framework
Our initial step was the establishment of a measurement framework. A correlation analysis between various marketing metrics and the client’s core business metrics helped us identify marketing metrics that demonstrated a strong correlation with business outcomes. Building on this, we conducted causation analyses, which allowed us to define individual activity Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These tailored KPIs enabled teams to utilise the framework effectively for both planning activities and communicating success to senior leadership. This approach ensured a unified direction, while also catering to the diversity in activities.

Roadmap for Implementation
Alongside this framework, we devised a detailed roadmap outlining the necessary actions across various teams and stakeholders to ensure a successful rollout and long-term integration of the new framework.

To facilitate this, we proposed using the “Educate, Align, Enable, Iterate” framework:

Educate
Equip all relevant teams with the knowledge of the framework, its components, and how to use it effectively within the organisation.

Align
Achieve alignment across all teams on the vision, objectives, and priorities of the framework, ensuring cohesion with overall business expectations.

Enable
Provide the necessary tools, resources, and support for successful deployment.

Iterate
The solution represents the first iteration of media measurement and should evolve in response to market changes and River Island’s needs.

The implementation of our measurement framework was pivotal upon the appointment of a new Chief Digital Officer, ensuring all marketing teams aligned in their approach, leading to more cohesive marketing efforts. The increased confidence from using our measurement framework enabled the marketing team to secure investment for an out-of-home campaign centred on a store refit.

The implementation of our measurement framework was pivotal upon the appointment of a new Chief Digital Officer, ensuring all marketing teams aligned in their approach, leading to more cohesive marketing efforts. The increased confidence from using our measurement framework enabled the marketing team to secure investment for an out-of-home campaign centred on a store refit.

We continue to support River Island in building new measurement capabilities, such as in-depth control vs exposed testing frameworks built on statistical analysis. This ongoing work has enabled the client to build a robust body of evidence supporting their marketing effectiveness and allowed them to continue expanding their remit across European markets.