Is data eating your instincts?
Breakthrough platforms, data sets, algorithms, machine learning… our world of marketing will keep on shifting. Talking to industry peers, and simply reflecting - it sure doesn’t feel like things are slowing down right now in this digital world.
Of course, we're faced with an endless stream of new systems engineered to make it 'easier' to measure and consume data assets, to help us slice it in a bunch of new ways as we look for that statistically significant root cause. More often than not the answer can indeed be found lying within the numbers. But once you’ve found the answer, what do you do?
As a community we hope to reach and connect with time poor audiences, but how often do they actually care?
It's a numbers-heavy world out there and it can get hard to carve out space for pure creativity. Could it be though that our best chance of ‘cutting through’ might come down to the impact of our storytelling, our creative, our human connection?
The challenge may be this - what if data and analytics represent the true opposite of human instinct? A creative spark that means something, that stands out from the noise and ignites brand-love… probably didn’t come from a datapoint. Or did it?
As we modern marketers face these challenges every day, perhaps a new strength could be discovered in balance. If we strive to preserve value in good, old fashioned "gut feel" and challenge ourselves not to rely solely on analytics or reporting for the answers, yet still draw down on intelligence found in past results (data) - then maybe we can unlock a newfound source of creativity?
Ideas.
- License space to focus on creative - protective SLAs, innovation resource, senior support.
- Acknowledge any limitations of analytics - kill any items that will drag out projects or may be unlikely to pay back.
- Set parameters upfront for when and how data can feed the ideas engine - outside of this it's the creative process that needs to shine.
Many of the most memorable creative executions we’ve ever seen came from a place of passion and spirit. But these could be enriched further with new technologies that personalise, fit whatever device we're using in the moment and take the story even further. What do you think...
Can we find a harmony, or does data rule?
My personal views and musings only, follow for more.
I like data. I like creativity. The two can - and do - work together.
Analytics alone does not give you the full picture. It tells you What happened, but not Why it happened. Making decisions with analytics alone stiffles creative solutions.
Any product or service is very successful when it has a strong reason to emotional connect with customers and clients. It is about clear and simple picture that prospects can understand. Creativity is about thinking about very simple steps/concepts that competitors have not picked up.People can understand that data presented in simple and understandable manner is connecting to a bigger picture that is valuable to their strong needs. Humans' strong to connect with others and validation was the main success reason for Facebook ( in simple words i say)
I think sadly we don’t value creativity as much as we should. It’s a fallacy that data doesn’t lie. It can be as flawed as misguided creativity. And too often we’re buried under the data rather than liberated by the creative.
Love this free-thinking Will! It’s gone straight into Elevate :)