What the new data-driven organisation looks like: Webinar highlights

Editor's note: This webinar, which took place this morning, will be available on-demand within a day or two.

As the martini-fuelled gut feelings of the Mad Men days are long gone, big data is seeping into everyone’s vocabulary. And the message is clear: if you’re not data-driven, you could be sitting on the wrong side of the fence.

Scott Likens, analytics consulting lead at PWC, and Matt Westover, VP of product marketing at Turn, both acknowledged the scale and growth of data globally as well as the challenges and opportunities they present to marketers.

“Data is doubling every two years, and two-thirds of it is created by consumers,” said Westover. “Organisations need to make sure they’re not just capturing that data but have the tools to understand it.”

While “fragmentation and silos” are terms that weren’t in the marketing conversation a few years ago, the fact that 58 per cent of online adults are now “always addressable” across multiple devices and locations is driving a more holistic approach to data and performance marketing.

Audiences who tuned in to the live webinar agreed. In a live poll, 75 per cent of respondents believed that “the advantage of data is overwhelming but that there’s more to the story” while no one agreed data is just “a piece of the puzzle”.

However, while data practises, data and digital talent are major challenges in Asia, one of the biggest problems facing the industry is “data ownership”.

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“Organisations need data stars, people who are directly in charge of data, not just responsible for it,” said Westover. “You need a mandate from the C-suite to buy into the notion that data needs to be centralised and not just something that marketing gets excited about.”

Both Likens and Westover agreed that in the past few years, digital marketing and programmatic “made things complicated quickly”. When brand marketers couldn’t keep up, agencies stepped in to say they understood the technology, started building DSPs and told marketers they could run it.

“But now brands want to get more involved and take control of their own first-party data,” said Westover. “Digital is not just a measurement tool but a brand vehicle now.”

Bringing together ad tech and marketing tech: a customer journey

In China and other parts of Asia, where some organisations are not mobile-first but “mobile-only”, Likens sees great opportunities in social and digital.

“In China 90 per cent of consumers look to social to find out about a brand,” said Likens. “And they’re two times more likely to share personal information if there’s value associated with it, like a free download or coupon, as compared to consumers in the US.”

However, Likens also stressed that marketers in the region are still in an experimental phase as technologies continue to emerge and evolve. His advice to this challenge was to take a “test and learn” approach: create small pilot projects and adopt a “fail fast” mentality. “You need to quickly find out what doesn't work,” he added.

On that note, Westover said that the key is to have “data centralised in the digital hub to create more informed segmentation” as well as to use the technology to do the “labour intensive data analysis”.

“That way you can have your data talent do more higher level strategic work on the insights, rather than be a data monkey looking at spreadsheets,” said Westover.

In a digital marketing landscape, where clicks are on their way out as a main measure of success, a more customer-centric approach is on its way in. This means that a data-driven approach to marketing will take an outside-in view, and listening to engage will ensure success over pushing products.

Here are some highlights from the Twitter discussion on #campaignturnlive:

#campaignturnlive Tweets