Short, focused, and useful from day one.

A small number of things are needed from the client to begin. Marketing spend data across all channels, agencies and activities. Commercial performance data — revenue, margin, or whatever KPI the board actually cares about. Any existing measurement reports or agency reviews. And time with three or four people — usually the CFO, the marketing lead, and whoever manages the agency relationship.

Perfect data is not expected. Part of the value is understanding what exists, what does not, and what that gap tells you.

A report. It answers the question the engagement started with — is the marketing spend producing the best possible return, and if not, why not, and what should change. The full findings sit behind it, structured around the four workstreams, with evidence, benchmarks and specific recommendations.

Written for a board audience. Clear enough that a CFO can act on it without a translator.

The agency assessment is benchmarked against the ISBA Media Services Framework and IPA remuneration guidance. The measurement assessment draws on peer-reviewed research including documented incrementality experiments at major platforms and academic work on attribution failure.

The spend allocation review uses Binet and Field's effectiveness data as the primary benchmark for long-term versus short-term allocation. The commercial reality check draws on commercial due diligence methodology applied to the marketing context.

Where the data supports it, marketing mix modelling is run using the same open-source tools used by Google and Meta. The output is presented with honest confidence intervals — not as a precise answer, but as the best estimate the data can support.

How much of my team's time does this take?

Time with three or four people, totalling a handful of hours each across the four-to-six week period. Usually the CFO, the marketing lead, and whoever manages the agency relationship. The marketing team is interviewed to understand what they see; the agency is informed about the engagement but not interviewed unless useful. The disruption is minimal — the engagement is designed to run alongside the business, not interrupt it.

What happens after the engagement ends?

The engagement is designed to deliver a clear answer and end on delivery. The client acts on the findings independently. If ongoing support would be useful — to help implement specific changes, or to revisit the assessment after a year — that is a separate conversation, not part of the original scope.

How is this different from a media audit (Ebiquity, ID Comms)?

Media audit firms do excellent work on a specific part of the chain — primarily media buying efficiency and agency contract benchmarking. Verso Insights covers a broader question: not just whether the media is being bought efficiently, but whether the overall marketing spend is producing a commercial return, and if not, where the problem actually sits. Different question, different answer.

We already have a measurement partner. What does Verso add?

A measurement partner assesses what the numbers say. Verso Insights assesses whether the measurement method itself is sound, whether the spend allocation makes sense against the evidence, whether the agency relationship is producing commercial value, and whether the business challenge is actually a marketing problem at all. The measurement partner answers a tactical question. Verso Insights answers a strategic one.

Will my CMO see this as a threat?

The engagement works best when the CMO is in the room as a collaborator, not bypassed. It is not designed to catch anyone out. It is an independent assessment of a complex system that nobody inside the company has the complete view of. The strongest engagements are the ones where the marketing team is part of the conversation throughout.