At the MediaPost Brand Marketers Summit on Thursday, a panel on all things data-driven marketing is beginning. It may not be the most sexy topic, but it's critical any panelist will tell you. The engine room at companies -- both with logistics and analytics -- is becoming all the more crucial.

Sears social and mobile marketing vice president Adriana Llames Kogelis says marketing with big events as an anchor will only be successful if it's not looked at as a one-time effort. A comprehensive campaign must be in effect. Sears "Ship My Pants" effort didn't launch with a blue-chip TV program, but proved to be a success anyway.

  A future big data grab for marketers  -- and data companies -- is in collecting off-line data for advertisers.  As an industry, "we are just scratching the surface,"  says Chris Scoggins, senior vp and general manager, DLX Platform for Datalogix, in speaking on a OMMA Data Driven Marketing panel. In this regard, Scoggins says many of clients he works with  -- automotive and consumer products -- are changing their thinking. For those traditionally big TV marketers, "everyone now is a direct marketer." Eoin Townsend, chief strategy officer of MediaMath, said: "There …

Beware of baloney KPIs -- and Facebook "likes" in particular! So stressed experts on an afternoon panel at OMMA DDB. "They know [a 'like'] doesn't matter -- They know it!" said Jon Bond, "Chief Tomorroist" at quasi holding company Tomorro LLC, and Kirshenbaum and Bond co-founder. Regarding KPIs in general, Bond warned: "They're generic; they're non-strategic." For brands, how they make money should be unique, "customized" -- and, thus, lead to competitive advantages -- Bond emphasized. Using the same KPIs as everyone else makes that virtually impossible, he said. Moreover, just because you can measure something doesn't mean you should …

The Internet standards group World Wide Web Consortium has been trying for two years to figure out how to interpret do-not-track signals sent by browsers.

If you're not aware, flavor company McCormick relaunched its Web site earlier this year. Trying to drive demand for its various spice, herb, and seasoning products, McCormick's site put the spotlight on food recipes. The result? The site experienced a 60% increase in "recipe views" year-over-year, according to Jennifer LaFrance, senior manager of digital marketing and social media at McCormick. Graciously, LaFrance told those in attendance at OMMA DDB that McCormick's digital agency, RGA, deserved more than a pinch of the credit. And, McCormick could use all the exposure it can get considering the company rolled out 250 new products …

Marcus Tewksbury, Global Vice President of Product Strategy, Experian Marketing Services, said the split between offline and online data and across channels is becoming a "more transparent view." Understanding the customer from things like summarized credit information or other variables, “we’re looking at making that information seamless or frictionless from how you’re going to deploy it from a marketing purpose,” he said. W. Bryan Smith, director, data science and analytics, at Sapient pointed out that from an internal perspective, merging online and offline data, isn’t necessarily so easy. …

Richard Frankel, president, Rocket Fuel, argues there won’t be a standard for evaluating the value of data any time soon because the very lack of marketplace information around data creates opportunity for smart people to exploit. Even the sellers of data have little understanding of the data they’re offering, he observed, speaking on a panel at OMMA Data-Driven Marketing. Rocket Fuel and other companies on the panel like Experian, DataXu and Sapient have different approaches to assessing and applying data, and they don’t share them with each other …

How do you come up with the right campaign metric for measuring success? "Does it impact your relationship with long term customers?" asked Marcus Tewksbury, Global Vice President of Product Strategy at Experian Marketing Services. If not, then forget it, Tewksbury told OMMA DDB attendees on Thursday. Tewksbury also addressed how data should be valued more broadly. "Data is based on perceived value," he said -- a somewhat less scientific, quantifiable explanation than we were expecting. Another problem with differentiating good data from bad -- at least for those in attendance at OMM DDB -- is that the more valuable …

Speaking at OMMA DDM in New York this afternoon, John Simpson, managing director, Blue State Digital, said, "...It'll be the year of big data for 10 more years." He commented that if you can't answer the question of what you want to do with data, it becomes meaningless. It's all about context. We've heard that before.