The 90s brought arguably the biggest changes, pivoted by the launch of the mobile phone and the internet. In 1994 the first commercial website sold a clickable ad, or what we know today as a “banner ad”. Then social entered the landscape in 2006 and it’s been an explosion in interconnectivity ever since – a transformation from well-known, low data forms of advertising through traditional channels through to a multi-channel inter-connected network. Each consumer is accessing, consuming, and generating information through multiple forms of media and devices in a given day, creating an abundance of data.

The evolution of digital tracking brings empowerment to every marketer, and the capability to apply data and research gathered instantaneously so that they can talk to each of their consumers in a very relevant way. But how many are actually managing and implementing data strategy effectively?

The most valuable asset that the marketer owns and has the power to grow is their first party data. This is the data collected from web properties, mobile app properties, email campaigns, direct marketing efforts – it is all of the data owned both online and offline. Marketers need to gain insight and understanding of the data required, as well as how to source the technology to handle, process and provide meaningful information from it.

Today’s marketer typically lacks in-depth knowledge of their consumer onsite and the primary reason for this is that they have been outsourcing campaign elements that gather data to numerous vendors. A savvy advertiser that does a lot of tracking and knowledge gathering may know their consumer well once they are on their owned and operated properties and through direct marketing, however they can be blind to what their consumer does when they are not browsing their owned and operated pages, performing search or interacting with other brands. How powerful would it be for the advertiser to have that visibility, and the data all in one place?

This is all doable, with just a bit of help from technology. There are a number of methods of data collection to the marketer, as well as mechanisms to help collect and aggregate this valuable data in a secure way. Cookies for web tracking can be customised not to just track a particular action but to pass valuable information along such as items purchased, searches performed, etc. APIs allow us to be connected – linking online and offline data holistically.

Advertising is no longer about the pushing of the message, it’s a conversation. Marketers need to understand how they can use data as a tool to help them:

1. know how to listen
2. know where to listen
3. ensure that their consumer is protected
4. know how to process the information they hear
5. leverage the data to successfully meet specific campaign objective as well as to develop smart future campaigns

It is a new world of marketing and market research. We live in an era of constant change and we have the technology to enables us to continuously learn from what our customers are saying and doing. We no longer need surveys to find out what the consumers want or need, they tell these things to us in real time on their own. We just need to make sure that we’re listening and actioning on it in a closed loop real-time fashion.

Natalie Mazer is vice president strategy and development, AudienceScience

Source – TheGuardian.com