6 things to remember to create strategic impact with Marketing Mix Modeling in APAC
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Maximize Marketing Mix Modeling impact with 6 strategies to align global marketing efforts, foster a learning culture, and optimize investments for measurable ROI and business growth.
Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) has the power to drive strategic transformation, aligning both local and global marketing initiatives with business objectives to deliver top and bottom line improvements. Yet, many organizations underutilize its potential, limiting its scope to channel-specific validation. In this article, we outline six essential principles for leveraging MMM as a predictive, holistic tool to inform decision-making, foster a learning culture, and optimize marketing investments specifically for APAC. With insights into structure, collaboration, and leadership, these actionable steps can help your organization maximize ROI, uncover revenue opportunities, and achieve significant market value. Learn how leading brands are transforming their approach and reaping measurable rewards.
1. MMM is about forward-looking continuous improvement, not validation of past decisions
In APAC, MMM is increasingly used not just to validate past media spend but to predict future performance across diverse platforms like Douyin, Tmall, JD.com (China), LINE and Rakuten (Japan), and Kakao and Naver (Korea). For example, a recent Nielsen study in Southeast Asia showed that TikTok ads delivered a 2.3x ROAS, outperforming other channels in both short- and long-term brand equity. By answering key questions such as “Are we investing the right platforms for our market?” and “How do offline and online channels interact in hybrid media environments like Japan and Korea?”, MMM also enables markets to improve strategy and tactical execution to drive higher media performance.
2. You’re building a capability, not a set of models
In many APAC organizations, MMM is still fragmented—outsourced to different vendors across markets, with insights siloed into analytics teams through one-off presentations. This limits MMM’s strategic value, as it becomes disconnected with broader organizational learning, with knowledge often lost when key individuals leave. Currently, many leading brands in the region are shifting toward centralized MMM frameworks that allow for cross-market comparability while respecting local nuances. For example, looking at Ekimetrics’ 2024 APAC whitepaper, we were able to observe the importance of omnichannel strategies and data harmonization across North Asia and Southeast Asia and provide cross market recommendations to re-strategize accordingly under this centralized MMM framework. Organizations driving real impact have transformed MMM into a 360° commercial driver analysis, creating a unified framework that fosters organization-wide learning and ensures all marketing decisions align with a single global strategy, enabling true strategic transformation.
3. You’re embarking upon a strategic transformation, treat it as one
As one of the most diverse regions in the world, MMO transformation programs in APAC need to be tailored to account for the vast differences in media consumption behavior across different countries. Establishing a common currency to better define core KPIs and activated media channels globally is a good first step to ensure comparable results between markets and also allow for a better understanding of cross market dynamics to be developed. MMM implementation in APAC also often requires organizational restructuring. In markets like China, where regional business units operate semi-independently, aligning MMM with global strategy means redefining roles and responsibilities. While MMM operates at a local level, strategic impact hinges on creating a cohesive ecosystem where all decisions ladder up to shared goals. In order to achieve this, CMOs, CCOs and CFOs must establish a core MMM framework that balances global consistency with local flexibility, while also empowering local teams to adapt models to their unique data ecosystems (e.g., Wechat CRM data in China or LINE engagement metrics in Japan). Effective leadership is essential to manage disruptions, redefine responsibilities, and ensure teams embrace the strategic vision.
4. You’re fundamentally changing your decision-making process and what you make decisions about
MMM should inform not just media planning but broader commercial decisions—from pricing and promotions to innovation testing. In APAC, where quarterly performance pressures often clash with long-term brand building, MMM can also help balance short-term ROI with strategic growth by considering impacts from baseline and non-media related factors. MMM also allows for the consideration of synergistic effects between different media channels. For example, Nielsen’s study found that TikTok and TV ads in Southeast Asia delivered 9.4% incremental sales when run together, allowing marketing teams to re-strategize and better optimize media performance by looking at the timings of media activations between channels. Strong alignment between the C-suite is crucial for refining the strategy, setting budgets, and maintaining executive commitment to long-term goals. Operationally, successful media planning requires close collaboration between marketing, analytics, and media teams. This collaboration considers all perspectives, contextualizes results, and harnesses data-driven insights for optimal decision-making.
5. The aim is to develop a learning culture and agenda based on future predictions
In fast-moving APAC markets, a test-and-learn mindset is essential. Brands that succeed with MMM typically allocate budget into experimentation with media activations (e.g. testing new ad formats on Red, Douyin etc.) while also encouraging open dialogue between marketing, data science and media partners. This test-and-learn approach to media optimization provides extra layers of dimensionality for MMM models to more accurately simulate future scenarios based on past learnings. A widely adopted strategy in APAC combines A/B testing with MMM, enabling businesses to precisely assess performance variations of different ad creatives and targeting strategies by comparing between multiple controlled media activation scenarios under a specific budget. This is a strategy we observe across cosmetics, retail and insurance industries in APAC. Testing new ideas, setting aside a budget for experimentation, and accepting failure as part of the learning process are key aspects to drive continuous improvement with MMM, and usually lead to more measurable business impacts, a more engaged team and more powerful outcomes.
6. Be clear about who owns the budget, who makes decisions
In APAC’s matrixed organizations, decision-making can be complex. Within companies with multiple brands, individual brands may often have ideas about their own strategic direction and marketing plan without aligning with their central teams, while central teams may often want to have better control and balance across multiple brands. Because of this, MMM’s success is highly dependent on clear governance, defining roles on budget ownership and decision rights within internal organizations, while aligning on the goal of what the team should target to achieve with the set budget between different stakeholders. Local teams should maintain accountability, but decisions must also align with a unified strategy across the organization to drive cross market impact. A unified but flexible MMM framework should also be established to provide a common language for performance while allowing for local data inputs and market-specific KPIs to address specific data needs. Despite potential disruption, strong leadership is necessary to navigate changes in roles, responsibilities, and power dynamics.
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