Commentary

Rebalancing Big Data and Creativity in Digital Marketing

In recent years, our relationship with data has deepened. Data has allowed the digital advertising industry to evolve rapidly, bring us closer to consumers, and give us a higher level of control and testability. As our ties with data have strengthened, however, concerns about privacy, security and data health have proliferated. 

Both government initiatives (such as the California Consumer Privacy Act and General Data Protection Regulation) and private entities (such as Apple and Google) have made moves recently to place guardrails around how companies can use consumer data. One of the most recent examples is Apple’s rollout of new privacy protections for its iOS 15.0 update, which makes it easier for users to stop being served with targeted advertising. Additionally, the upcoming cookie deprecation will have implications for brands’ data strategy. 

Although these restrictions could be seen by marketers as a hindrance to their most lucrative tactics such as website retargeting, others might actually feel freed up from a recent overreliance on vanity metrics. 

These moves have sent a clear signal to those working with marketing data: They will need to focus more on their creatives and the metrics that matter most to keep engaging core and target customers while showcasing campaign impact.

Have Agencies Lost Their Ability to Be Creative? 

Data marketing began as a way to fuel creative campaigns and make business objectives measurable, and big data marketing brought insight into every stage of the funnel. But some industry experts now believe that leaning so heavily on data for solutions has actually stripped marketers of their ability to be creative. 

New consumer-centric restrictions mean that marketers will need to get closer to consumers in a markedly different way. They might need to adopt more people-first tactics, glean more context from their data and approach their data-driven marketing through a renewed lens.

After all, there are ways to balance data analytics in marketing with people’s need for privacy. Tools are available that measure what matters most and ensure data health. This can help marketers craft engaging campaigns inspired by the numbers rather than taking a shot in the dark.

Why Is Rebalancing Big Data and Creativity Critical for Consumers?

Studies into the effectiveness of different types of digital advertising show that “creative quality” determines 75% of ad impact. This makes sense: Machine learning has become a vital way of targeting and honing ads’ reach, but once an ad reaches a customer’s screen, it’s the engaging, meaningful and relevant content that will lead the customer to react positively. 

This kind of creativity, which is clearly beneficial to cultivate, can be blended with data-driven marketing to boost performance. If marketers can obtain consent and educate customers honestly on how they plan to use data, they can then use creative strategies to target digital ads in a way that doesn’t offend or intrude, but rather delights and ultimately drive business outcomes. 

Data isn’t going anywhere. It will continue to play an important role in digital advertising intelligence, but we’ll need to forge a more sustainable balance between the precision of big data marketing and consumers’ growing desire for more privacy.

The Future of Big Data Is Creative and Ethical 

Failure to listen to consumer privacy concerns could spell disaster for brands. In fact, 55% of consumers would abandon a brand’s products if it shared their data without consent. The best way forward will be a new kind of value exchange: marketers giving consumers a choice and allowing them to entrust their data in return for high-value content. 

This next decade will see data and creativity building a synergistic relationship that will elevate advertising and marketing. If the last decade was about using data to reach people, this next decade will be about using it to move people.

 

 

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