Having the most creative campaign ever doesn’t mean a thing if you haven’t achieved your goal. The classic case, of course, remains pets.com. That sock puppet was hilarious! But the site eventually went out of business.

Measuring the success of a campaign is crucial to being effective. I’ve written about this before, and it’s so important that I think it deserves more attention. One of the first facets of measurement is determining a baseline. Where are we now? Next, we want to determine our goal. And remember that it’s not always actual product sales. Maybe it’s increased brand awareness. Maybe to change brand perception. Finally, how are we going to measure? What are the tools we need in place?

In a world where people are barraged with messages on a minute-by-minute basis, standing out is key for sure. But standing out is only effective if it’s done its job.