• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, May 6, 2015

How did a "hard-working schmo in consulting" just write down words that sound funny and turn it into a memoir? Not only turn it into a memoir, but sell it to Showtime, which in turn turned it into a hit television show called "House of Lies"?

In fact, Gartner analyst Martin Kihn wrote three memoirs. "The secret is, I had information no one else had," he said. "I had a point of view that I worked hard to gather. It was unique first-party data," related to consulting speak.

The most powerful data brand marketers have is something no one else has, Kihn said at Gartner's first marketing conference in San Diego, Calif., Tuesday. Consumers are unforgiving and brands are being judged on their ignorance because they have mounds of data in which to make them smarter that they don't know how to use, he said.

All that data makes consumers expect better personalization. After working for Delta's ad agency, Kihn estimates the airline spent at least $150 million on infrastructure four years ago to personalize the Web experience for consumers. On one flight, Kihn checked in on Delta's mobile app, which served him an ad for a Sky Club day pass. He had just spent $450 for a year-long Sky Club pass -- and the Delta app didn't know that.

Hollywood has begun to use data to determine the potential success of screenplays, Kihn said. "There's a company in Hollywood that takes option screenplays owned by the studios that go through a rewrite process," he said. "They will analyze the story, just the plot points in the story … and run it through an algorithm, set of models, taking notes to determine how to change the screenplay."

The models are based on what was successful in the past, the movies that did well. The company tells the studio what will make the story better based on data.