• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, May 23, 2013

We’re at the very early stages of Big Data, according to Chris McCann, president, 1-800-Flowers.com. Keynoting OMMA Data-Driven Marketing on Thursday, McCann said the Big Data explosion can be used by businesses in many ways including reducing costs an enhancing productivity. For marketers, it can be used to grow the top line in two ways: finding new markets and deepen customer relationships. 1-800-Flowers does both.

To enhance customer relationships, one of the keys is to understand relationships between sender of flowers or gifts and the recipient, said McCann. Tapping into social data allows the company to prompt customers’ about friends’ upcoming birthdays, for example, and gain marketing insights from how people interact in social media. Social gifting is also emerging as a new area with initiatives like Facebook Gifts.

Local is extremely important for 1-800-Flowers and you can tie mobile data into local. “The best marketing vehicle we have that can drive traffic into stores is mobile advertising,” said McCann. E-commerce is moving to m-commerce. The ability to stay connected to the "always addressable" consumer is an opportunity like we’ve never seen before, he said.