A lot has been written in recent weeks about whether creative work or data holds the key to unlocking brand value. Plus ça change; new year, same old debate. But despite the panto-like protestations from each side that their discipline is better than the other, now isn’t actually a bad time to re-evaluate the relationship between the two.
That’s because marketers are currently being told (and as a company we’re as responsible as anyone for peddling this aphorism) that data is the new oil. The world is awash with consumers’ personal details, contact and messaging preferences, and if brands could only get their hands on all that lovely raw data then sift, clean and refine it and ignite the resulting insight, they could set the marketing world on fire.
On the other hand, creative departments argue – with some justification – that targeting the right people means nothing if the finished article is not eye-catching enough to provoke some sort of response. Taken one step further the execution can ignore insight completely. Cadbury’s Gorilla ad is often unfurled as the banner of the ‘idea is all’ camp, and the man behind that campaign freely admits it was an abstract leap of faith with little customer data used as a concrete foundation.
The fact is, the two approaches are not mutually exclusive and a great number of sparklingly creative campaigns have been given context by the data they were built on. Look how many successful marketing agencies have married blinding data insight with creative ingenuity, under one roof and to great effect. The results have proved profitable not only for their clients but also their own bottom line.
It’s no longer a case of never the twain shall meet – or at least it shouldn’t be. Creative and data folk need to take a progressive, grown-up approach and eat at the same table. Yet the average all-agency meeting will tell you this harmony remains a distant promise.
Even when a campaign is ready to be rolled out, it’s no bad thing to test work among a panel of consumers who will tell you which executions turn them on, which make them switch off, and even indicate how it could be tweaked to meet the brand’s objectives. Data is therefore involved every step of the way, both before and after the main thrust of the work has been developed.
The annual DMA Awards shindig is just one shining example of how important each of these two great marketing disciplines is, highlighting the ways both can boost sales. Is this the year we’ll see the introduction of a category entitled simply ‘best data-driven creative campaign’?
Ian McCawley is a marketing consultant at Acxiom UK & Europe
Interesting thoughts Ian, and the need for creative to work hand-in-hand with the data teams is absolutely essential, especially as the creative teams can often gain so much more insight into the target consumer and mindset. By the two teams working in close collaboration, steps such as making sure data sets are prepared sufficiently for when a campaign goes live, which includes making sure the data has received the necessary preparation, pre screening and suppression to gain a solid ROI, minimum returns and wastage.