• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, June 1, 2015

Likely you've heard of the Bizo ad network. It was recently sold to LinkedIn. Bizo Founder Russell Glass never had much interest in going to Cannes. After all, it's where all those creative types go, right? It's even tagged Festival of Creativity. But in recent years, data -- and everyone behind it -- has emerged from the back room and taken a seat at the table with the big boys.

This year, Glass is going to Cannes. Because data actually matters now. Of his pending trip, Glass writes: "I'm going to Cannes because it's where top marketers and agency execs go to think through how they're going to build their brands. I want to be in the middle of those conversations, especially now that I'm beginning to see a convergence of the pure creative world, which still reigns supreme at Cannes, and the pure data world, which used to be siloed in Silicon Valley. I think the blurring of those lines will have an outsized impact on the practice of marketing and how it's measured."

Oh, and he's also going because he wants to sit on the Carlton Terrace and sip Rose. Hey, it's not all business in Cannes.

But, seriously, research and data has always helped formulate great creative. Yes, there are plenty of seemingly stand-alone "big ideas" that find fame minus any serious footing in data but those are few and far between.

Data is increasingly driving everything. Why? Because it's there. It's available. And it can lend tremendous insight to the particular direction a campaign takes. This is not to say the Big Data types should be handed the keys to the kingdom. Not at all. But if all of this data, much of it real-time, is available and can improve the creative product then by all means the data types should have a seat at the table. And a seat on the Carlton Terrace sipping Rose.

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