Beware the gold rush: Data is worthless without context, content and creativity
Data is the new magic ingredient. We all know it allows us to target who we want, when we want and how we want, with no wastage - bingo - GOLD!
Beware the data 'gold rush'
Data is virtually able to dictate our behaviour, after all, each of us is the sum of our data, and our behaviour has patterns.
But wait a minute, how many times have you said 'I can't believe you just did that’, ‘that’s not like him’ or 'I didn't expect her to say that’?
The thing is, we humans are a bit odd at times and don’t always act in a predictable, linear manner. I am not the same man when I am standing on the terraces at Ipswich Town Football Club watching my team lose, as I am when reading my 4 year old a bedtime story. Yet the data says I am.
Don’t get me wrong I am not against data in any way; quite the reverse, as data is, and continues to be, a vital part of the marketing communications mix.
However, those who think data for its own sake is gold are failing to appreciate context, creativity and content. The environment we are in when we receive the message is just as important as who we are; the content has to be brilliant and it has to be relevant.
Take Facebook - they can target their ads with pinpoint accuracy and yet can any of you recall the last ad your saw on Facebook? I can’t. Ask the same question of a telly ad and you could reel off several. In fact, if you go on to YouTube there are millions of views of people's favourite TV ads. Not many people have posted up their favourite Facebook ad.
It also may account for the fact that regardless of all the targeting now available you are more likely to survive a plane crash than click on a banner ad... I know this to be true, because the data tells me so.
A related irritant is the use of the term ‘wastage’ - what is ‘wastage’ anyway? Does it mean someone who is outside the data targeting is not a customer or potential customer? The fact is, everyone is a potential customer - maybe not now, maybe not directly, but everyone has an influence and to ignore them is just plain stupid.
If a person came into your shop but they weren't in your target audience would you ignore them? Of course you wouldn't, you would try and sell them your goods. If you only target those that are most likely to buy, and ignore the others, your customer base will shrink.
It is also to ignore advertising’s two basic functions. The first is the one that every marketer focuses on - sales. But the second, which is too often overlooked, in this grab for immediate results, is brand equity. Advertising builds equity so that when everything is not looking so good or a company has to temporarily cut back on its marketing spend you still can generate income.
This is, of course, how Apple was able to report continued growth even though innovation over the last couple of years has been less than forthcoming.
One of the reasons people continued to spend their money to purchase Apple products was not the result of advertising that they ran in that quarter. It was because of the advertising that Apple had run the previous 25 years – its built up brand equity.
The concern I have today is that with data fast becoming the most prominent marker of success we are becoming more and more short term and therefore denigrating the real value of our brands.
More worryingly is the ‘Gold Fever’ mentality of some data devotees. Like the 19th Century gold miners, everyone wants a slice of the action, but for every successful prospector, there are those who end up with nothing more than Iron Pyrite – close to gold, but the missing ingredients making it not close enough.
So, I will leave you with this – to strike gold in the data landscape – the nuggets you uncover must have context, content and creativity. Without ALL all these ingredients working together, rather than gold, all you really have is the worthless, fool’s version. And that can’t pyrite.
Simon Daglish is group commercial sales director at ITV