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Want to win a DMA Award? Demonstrate how data drives creativity

Direct Marketing Association (DMA)

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August 21, 2015 | 5 min read

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Mark Runacus, chairman of the DMA Awards Committee and partner at Karmarama examines the judges’ thoughts on the work of last year’s DMA Award entrants and extracts the insights that will help this year’s hopefuls.

Mark Runacus

Each year the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) gathers some of the best minds in one-to-one marketing, arms them with fine tooth combs, plies them with coffee and asks them to choose the men, women and brands they think deserve the most coveted prize the industry has to offer: a DMA Award.

In between the heated debates and fevered networking, the DMA takes this opportunity to canvas their opinions on the work they’re reviewing, as well as industry topics at large. The results of last year’s survey have just been released and they make for interesting reading, especially for those who are planning on entering the awards this year.

A few findings stood out to me in particular and they concern creativity and data specifically. To my surprise, 60% of the judges said that creativity – creative thinking and creative craft – were the strongest element of the work they evaluated. Naturally, creativity always catches the judges’ eye, but innovative use of data and technology have been driving campaigns for a number of years now, so 60% seems high, especially when you consider how data fared in comparison.

Despite being voted the second strongest element of the work submitted, data secured just 24% of the vote. Further interpretation of the survey results suggests the judges deemed data to be as much a hindrance as a help to marketers. When asked to name their biggest professional challenges last year, the majority of responses from judges related to data.

Yet there’s also hope buried within the statistics. Last year’s panel predicted that data related trends would dominate 2015, so clearly they believe that marketers will continue to experiment with it.

So what should aspiring DMA Award winners take from this?

Well, at a glance these results seem to support the accepted industry narrative that Data is the problem child of the marketing family, brimming with untapped potential and always playing second fiddle to the golden boy, Creativity. However, looking more closely at the verbatim comments included in the survey, the imbalance in the results can in part be attributed to the way data-led elements of campaigns were presented in entries rather than the effectiveness of data itself. For example, one judge bemoaned that the entries he reviewed failed to show the value of data. Another noted that data was missing from most of the work he examined.

With this in mind, I urge entrants to emphasise the true value and impact of data and ensure that this shines through in submissions.

The survey results also highlights the divide that still exists between data and creativity. It seems they’re still perceived as distinct elements of the marketing mix that mainly generate results when applied in isolation as opposed to being integrated seamlessly within campaigns.

Although this is a rather depressing insight, there’s also an obvious opportunity here. Innovative brands that have broken through the integration barrier and combined data and creativity to generate measurable results should stand a good chance of piquing the judges’ interest this year. I know work of this nature would certainly catch my eye.

It would be fantastic if data-driven creativity was amongst the strongest elements of work judged at this year’s DMA Awards, but that may be too much to hope for. One thing’s for sure – application of data is going to be a key consideration and, with the rate of technological innovation, there’s no doubt the value and importance of data in one-to-one marketing will grow. The question is, have brands already started to realise its potential?

We’ll have to wait until 1st December to find out.

If you’ve worked on an exceptional one-to-one campaign over the last year that you believe will bear scrutiny by the DMA Awards judging panel, we’d love to see it. To enter the awards, click here.

Twitter: @markrunacus

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