River Island Case Study | Restoring board trust with revenue-linked media metrics
Media measurement aligned to commercial KPIs to improve investment decisions
Client Description
Family-owned UK fashion retailer operating 200+ high-street stores and a scaled e-commerce operation.
Service Area
Timeframe
Media Measurement
Q1 2023 – Q2 2023
At-a-glance
If you’re a CMO, performance lead or finance stakeholder seeking defendable, revenue-linked media reporting, this case shows how a unified framework rebuilds leadership confidence. Key takeaways: restored board trust, a single KPI taxonomy for planning and reporting, faster decision cadence and clearer ROI narratives.
Challenge
River Island needed to balance pragmatic media budgets with ambitious sales goals. Existing reporting was not aligned to revenue-driving KPIs, creating uncertainty around media effectiveness and eroding trust at senior leadership level.
Solution
We delivered a marketing measurement framework that consistently demonstrates how marketing activity drives profitable customer growth, giving teams and leadership a single source of direction for planning and reporting.
Measurement Framework
We identified media and marketing metrics with strong correlation to core commercial outcomes (revenue, profit, new customers). We then ran causation analysis (controlled tests/incrementality) to define the actionable metrics planners can optimise during campaigns. Together, these layers connect activity to outcomes and provide leadership with clear, defensible performance narratives.
Implementation Roadmap
Using the Educate, Align, Enable, Iterate framework:
Educate: Trained brand, performance and analytics teams on purpose, usage and everyday decision points.
Align: Set shared objectives, KPI taxonomy and governance cadence for C-suite reporting.
Enable: Deployed templates, dashboards and data access; embedded test-and-learn playbooks.
Iterate: Instituted regular reviews to refine metrics, experiments and reporting as market conditions evolve.
Outcome
Board confidence was restored, enabling approval of a seven-figure out-of-home investment for a flagship store refit. LEAD has been re-engaged to apply the framework in annual planning, ensuring media spend focuses on activities most likely to move commercial KPIs and progress towards sector-leading performance.
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