The challenge

Four brands sharing one Adobe Analytics implementation, each with different tagging conventions, event models, and reporting requirements. Leadership could not reconcile figures across brands. A major platform investment was on hold pending data trust resolution.

We began with a full audit of the existing implementation — mapping every eVar, prop, and event across all four brands to understand what was being collected, what was being used, and where the conflicts originated.

The root cause was a shared variable namespace that had evolved organically over six years. Each brand had claimed variables for different purposes without a central registry. The same eVar meant different things on different brand properties.

The rebuild approach

Rather than attempting to reconcile the existing implementation, we designed a new measurement framework from scratch — one that accommodated brand-level customization within a shared governance model. Key decisions included:

  • A canonical variable registry with brand-level documentation
  • Shared event definitions for cross-brand KPIs, with brand-specific extensions
  • A phased migration that maintained continuity in existing reports while the new implementation was validated
  • A data layer standard that all four brands' development teams agreed to maintain

Outcome

Within three months of the new implementation going live, the analytics, finance, and marketing teams across all four brands were working from a single set of numbers. The previously stalled platform investment decision was made with confidence.