Marketing is one part science and one part art

Published September 24, 2013 at 10:59 am

It shouldn’t take the most recent survey results to convince even the most hardened skeptics of analytics that Big Data is here to stay. Although, for what it’s worth, nearly two-thirds of organizations surveyed by Gartner said that they planned to invest in Big Data this year.

The 90,000 marketing and advertising professionals heading to New York City this week for the 10th annual Advertising Week are no doubt excluded from the “skeptics” category. These true believers are aware of Big Data’s growing importance to the success of their marketing efforts.

“Madison Avenue is becoming increasingly reliant on data and analytics,” according to the Wall Street Journal’s preview of the conference. “Advertisers are using information on consumers’ purchasing histories and their online behavior to help guide companies’ ad-buying decisions.”

As marketing campaigns become just as rooted in “science” as they’ve historically been in “art”—that’s the assertion of Advertising Week chairman Matt Freeman—marketers must reconsider the extent to which they engage with potential customers. Guessing their needs is no longer likely to generate the best results.

Engagement for engagement’s sake isn’t sufficient either. Consumers are so accustomed to being “always on” that marketing efforts must occur in real-time. The expiration date of marketing campaigns keeps inching closer to their launch dates—without agility and flexibility built into a marketing campaign, it will become stagnant and ineffective in little time at all.

Fortunately, the technology is in place to support the constant monitoring of campaigns. As long as marketers are willing to support their constant evolution, marketing campaigns will generate consistent, high levels of returns for the brands they represent.

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Was there ever any doubt that Big Data would seep into the world of marketing?

It shouldn’t take the most recent survey results to convince even the most hardened skeptics of analytics that Big Data is here to stay. Although, for what it’s worth, nearly two-thirds of organizations surveyed by Gartner said that they planned to invest in Big Data this year.

The 90,000 marketing and advertising professionals heading to New York City this week for the 10th annual Advertising Week are no doubt excluded from the “skeptics” category. These true believers are aware of Big Data’s growing importance to the success of their marketing efforts.

“Madison Avenue is becoming increasingly reliant on data and analytics,” according to the Wall Street Journal’s preview of the conference. “Advertisers are using information on consumers’ purchasing histories and their online behavior to help guide companies’ ad-buying decisions.”

As marketing campaigns become just as rooted in “science” as they’ve historically been in “art”—that’s the assertion of Advertising Week chairman Matt Freeman—marketers must reconsider the extent to which they engage with potential customers. Guessing their needs is no longer likely to generate the best results.

Engagement for engagement’s sake isn’t sufficient either. Consumers are so accustomed to being “always on” that marketing efforts must occur in real-time. The expiration date of marketing campaigns keeps inching closer to their launch dates—without agility and flexibility built into a marketing campaign, it will become stagnant and ineffective in little time at all.

Fortunately, the technology is in place to support the constant monitoring of campaigns. As long as marketers are willing to support their constant evolution, marketing campaigns will generate consistent, high levels of returns for the brands they represent.