• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, May 2, 2016

In a humorous but all-telling piece about the ad industry's obsession with data, Jeff Goodby ponders the recent spate of data-analysis firms by agency holding companies and suggests that maybe Goodby Silverstein & Partners should go out and acquire the Waffle House. His point being that perhaps the focus of ad agencies has shifted a bit too far from its central tenet: creativity.  

Of the data-centric acquisitions, Goodby wrote: "There was something about these announcements, though, that suggested that data would not just complement but actually take the place of the contributions of creativity in advertising. Instead of offering direction an affirmation to the creative process, it was as if data were suddenly a suitable replacement for humanity, humor and beauty." 

Goodby understands the importance of data and realizes that creativity does not occur in a vacuum, but at the same time, he argues that perhaps the obsession with data is distracting agencies from what should be their primary focus. Of the shift, Goodby writes, "Are we secretly admitting we don’t know how to make money in advertising anymore, and are thus aligning with distant businesses that are thriving?" 

Is he right? Have ad agencies lost their focus? Are they burying their heads in the proverbial sand by focusing so much on data and less on creativity?