Julie Bernard, Group VP, Consumer Centricity, Direct Marketing and Loyalty at Macy's, told MediaPost attendees at the OMMA DDM: Data Driven Marketing conference Wednesday, we have been customizing print, running a large-scale print campaign for 7 million, thousands of unique versions and customized for the customer. She said it's very expensive in print and digital to customize on a personalize level, so expensive that the company abandoned the really custom versions. Macy's went back to traditional methods for another reason, too, believing too relevant pieces becomes boring. Sometimes customers look at the marketing pieces for fashion inspiration. If it's too …

That's what Macy's Julie Bernard seemed to suggest Big Data analysis, indicating that in some cases, it is actually harming brands by making them "too relevant."

In the day’s first panel featuring brand marketers, Grazia Ochoa, Director, Global Digital Marketing, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, warned against getting too caught up in possibilities opened up by Big Data. She said marketers can lured into creating and trakcking peripheral kpis instead of focusing on traditional ones. At Starwood, the bottom line is that “We’re there to put heads in beds. I can try to prove brand goals all day but those goals must trickle down,” said Ochoa. She also noted that incorporating more data into marketing is expensive and can end up cost more than it’s worth …

The flexibility of modern messaging mediums, via the Web and mobile devices, makes it necessary for brands to embrace data. So said Steven Ireland, Executive Director and Head of Advertising Strategy & Platforms at JP Morgan Chase. In other words, now that marketers can tailor their messages to an individual customer level, they are obliged to do so.

Julie Bernard, group VP, consumer centricity, direct marketing & loyalty for Macy's Corp, explained three ways in which data-driven marketing is different today. Bernard is speaking on the "Teaching Big Data To Market Engagement: The Brand Perspective" panel at today's OMMA DDM in New York. First, Bernard says a big difference today is "the explosion of the availability of data." There is no doubt that we will hear that phrase again today. Bernard also says that even with all of the data available, we are better at reducing it to "simplicity" today.

That's more or less what the opening "brand perspective" panel at OMMA DMM seems to be starting off. Both Macy's loyalty marketing exec Julie Bernard and Hearst Magazines marketing analyst Charlie Swift suggested it's not about the data, but about what it's enabling marketers to understand about their consumers.

In the context of big data, "What's different now?" Stephanie Miller -- VP of Member Relations and Chief Listening Officer at the Direct Marketing Association -- asks a morning panel at OMMA DDB. For starters, "The explosion of the available of data ... and understanding what data counts," according to Julie Bernard, Group VP of Consumer Centricity at Direct Marketing & Loyalty at Macy's Corp.

Paul Marcum, GE’s digital marketing chief, sees a big role for agencies in Big Data. “I’m going to be outsourcing to agencies for as long as I can foresee,” he said. He pointed out that agencies have a chance to lead the way as long as their compensation models don’t don’t stand in the way of that effort. Marcum also said agencies have to recognize clients are always going to have to own the data.  

In the morning keynote for OMMA Data Driven Marketing event Paul Marcum, global digital director marketing & programming, GE, warned audience members not to be seduced by the promises of social data/Big Data vendors. In connection with the company’s “Brilliant Machines” campaign launched in November, he said GE was a little frustrated with the vendor hired to analyze social data coming from the campaign launch, providing recommendations three days after the project manager had already started making adjustments to the campaign. If the insights you’re getting aren’t faster and cheaper than common sense conclusions, then it’s not worth it. Otherwise, …

Kicking off OMMA DDB, Paul Marcum, Global Digital Director of Marketing & Programming at GE, is giving attendees a "fairly open-kimono look" at the brand, and its bullishness on big data. "We believe in big data's potential," said Marcum. Simply put, when you're operating at GE's scale, a 1% or 2% increase in productivity through the use of data can have a huge impact on the bottom line, according to Marcum. Bullish on the industry at large, Marcum predicts that the audience at OMMA DDB will be three times the size, this time next year. That said, how can companies …