The other day at the IAB’s leadership meeting, P&G chief brand officer Marc Pritchard sounded like he was channeling Mark Ritson and Bob Hoffman. Finally, a major advertising leader is changing how they use adtech. They’re moving from delusional wishful thinking to being hard-nosed about their money. Other deep-pocketed and smart advertisers should do likewise to put the pressure on.

You can read Mr. Pritchard’s recommendations at the link above. In addition to taking his recommendations to heart, as I wrote in my post on December 6th, you also have to practice proper marketing science:

The solution is not to buy more adtech or add more to your tech stack. It’s getting back to basics. The answer is practicing proper marketing science. It’s not that hard and you’ll notice that none of it starts with “audiences”:

• Hire trained marketers, not dilettantes
• Segment your audience
• Define your target segments
• Understand the purchase funnel
• Develop marketing strategies to address each segment
• Develop tactical plans to move the prospect through the purchase funnel
• Carefully measure each step of the way
• Make improvements to each “hole in the bucket”
• Audit each and every media buy, in detail

Takeaway: Look at what P&G is doing and ask yourself, am I doing more or less than that? If the answer is “less” do more and win.