Data-driven marketing is more than a buzzword these days, it’s a necessity. What was once a novelty for marketers and communicators has now become mainstream, and is helping businesses develop deeper connections and sharper insights that connect them with their consumers.
The necessity for this approach formed the crux of the ‘She Leads’ webinar on the 10th of November 2020, as Patricia Mulles of She Loves Data and Felipe Flores of Futurology spoke with the veterans of the data industry – Vidyarth Ellupai Srivatsan (Vid), Head of Marketing Technologies of Coca Cola, and Pavel Bulowski, CMO & Co-Founder of Meiro.
Data and the Art & Science of Marketing
Pavel spoke about the pendulum swing between the ‘art’ & ‘science’ of marketing – the balance between data and communications. He went on to explain how in the past, marketing was always considered in the domain of creative communications – but in recent times it’s become more about AI and other technologies.
Business is driven by business but informed and greatly supported by the power of data.
Vid agrees, but with a slight variation – the pendulum constantly swings – IT and data always have to prove their value in terms of a positive ROI on tech for the organisation.
Which data-driven marketing platforms are worth it?
Vid’s response is that there hasn’t been one company or platform that could provide every benefit. But what is more important is to consider the impact and value of every touchpoint – whether it’s earned media, shared media, or digital.
Pavel chimed in agreeing that ROI was an important challenge induced by the ‘walled-garden’ of data by 3rd party data platforms. He also stated that harmonisation and interconnectedness remained an issue between platforms – and that brands must put customer experience over AI to stand apart in the marketplace.
The Pandemic Effect
Vid acknowledged that the pandemic was indeed a huge catalyst for digital transformation for businesses and people alike. He added that even then on a commerce level, the pandemic wasn’t the biggest driver of change – but instead, it was the changes in data privacy laws like the crippling of IDFA and the crackdown on 3rd party data.
Pavel too agrees that the pandemic was the strongest push towards digitization that the world has ever seen – pushing companies to hedge their risks with retail shutdowns. Pavel though insisted that the privacy laws such as the GDPR in Europe were a welcome change in the internet.
The Evolution of AI
Faced with the concept of AI developing separately in the West and the East, Vid simply answered that “no technology has ever progressed by forking into two different geo-locations”. Pavel agreed with Vid but countered that the difference was not the deployment of AI, but the differences in legal frameworks between the US & China.
Pavel translates AI into algorithmic processing of data – as AI isn’t actually a futuristic Artificial Intelligence, but actually smart algorithms that help the processing of data, and predictions of behaviour. With regards to a CDP, Pavel mentioned that it would all come down to what data would be fed to it – the better and richer the dataset, the better the algorithms can process it.
Watch the whole show
Missed the exciting webinar but still want to catch up? Watch it in full here: https://youtu.be/1g3KrXoknKU
