One of the greatest benefits of the digital age has been all of the amazing information we are able to easily collect. From real-time tracking for online ad campaigns to more cost-efficient consumer behavior studies, the Internet and advent of new technologies have provided marketers with access to more data than ever before. Now, how do we manage all of this information?
Everyone from the New York Times to smaller research and innovation shops such as PSFK are addressing this industry hot button. Just look at the ever-increasing attention being paid to social media and the value of consumer feedback through this medium. From a marketing perspective, it’s clear that research and analytics companies will become more of a premium in the years ahead.
It’s also clear that small and large agencies alike must better assist their clients in this space. If it’s not a current competency, making sense of data needs to become one, whether internally or via trusted partner relationships. Marketers must figure out how to be better listeners in the form of delving through the immense clutter of information and data that is now available. The challenge is upon us to efficiently organize and make sense of all the noise, and then provide our clients with the information that’s truly important to them and their future success.
Sharing this type of research and analytics BEFORE we start client campaigns will make us smarter in our client media spend recommendations, website refreshes and social media platform selections. This type of proactive data mining and discovery process will also pave the way for more efficient metrics analysis once a campaign is completed. If we’re lucky … and I do believe in making your own luck … that sometimes-difficult client postmortems and “learnings and findings” sit-downs might go better than hoped!
