Data, Data And More Data
August 13, 2009 – 7:34 pm | by Daryl TayIn the last 10 days or so, I’ve come to learn a few things about data.
1) Data tells stories
It tells you what people are interested in, what people are talking about, and that can sometimes be a polar opposite from what your brand would like them to talk about. Dorothy, who works at a similarly data-driven company, Brandtology, tells the tale of brand mentions and searches telling the financial sector that they should sit up and pay attention. Everything is data, data, data. If you’re not plugged in, you’re losing out.
2) Data is imperfect
Dorothy and I have said this before on The GennY Podcast. As much as existing web analytics does not report statistics in the depth that people are (unreasonably) demanding, it’s still miles galaxies ahead of “faith based initiatives” as Avinash puts it:
How do you measure the effectiveness of your magazine ad? Now compare that to the data you have from doubleclick. How about measuring the ability of your TV ad to reach the right audience? Compare that with measuring reach through Paid Search (or Affiliate Marketing or …..). Do you think you get better data from Neilsen’s TV panel of between 15k – 30k US residents to represent the diversity of TV content consumption of 200 million tv watching Americans?
There is simply no comparison. So why waste our life trying to get perfect data from our web sites and online marketing campaigns? Why does unsound, incomplete, and faith based data from TV, Magazines, Radio get a pass? Why be so harsh to your web channel? Just because you can collect data here means you won’t do anything because it is imperfect?
Lesson? Give me half-sound data over guesswork any day.
3) Data Surprises
One of the data related posts I read early on came from Avinash, telling us how gun websites and car rental sites can be platforms for targeting older men who have performed searches on Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian. I took a long time reconciling that fact. And maybe at some level I still haven’t. It’s going to be one of those things I need to do, test and see the results to believe. But I do believe data doesn’t lie – but it will surprise.
Does data have a place right now?
Frankly, I’m of the personal opinion that a data-driven, results/strategy-focused mentality has yet to be the norm in organisations. It’s not always going to be this way. Sooner rather than later, people are going to tire of experimenting with the “shiny new object” and wonder just how much traction their Facebook, blog, email, search, Twitter efforts are getting for them, which they need to invest more money in and which need to go.
And the only thing that will deliver those results, is data.
Tags: affiliate marketing, avinash kaushik, blog, brand mentions, brandtology, data, data tells stories, data trends, data-driven, dorothypoon, email, facebook, faith based initiatives, genny podcast, nielsen, paid search, results focused, ROI, Search, SEO, strategy focused, tv ad, twitter, web analytics
6 Responses to “Data, Data And More Data”
By Dor on Aug 14, 2009 | Reply
Wrt to the last comment response, yes, all posts are liked, but some are liked more than others.
“In the last 10 days or so, I’ve come to learn a few things about data.” – only 10 days?
comm215? haha.
By Daryl Tay on Aug 14, 2009 | Reply
@Dor: Comm 215 was different. Comm 215 was just about FINDING and reporting data… not really looking at it closely and what insights you could draw from it. (Though of course classes like even 201 and marketing research with SPSS or CAT were quite data heavy)
By Kelly Choo on Aug 17, 2009 | Reply
Hi Daryl,
Good insights there about data (no punt intended).
And thanks for the link to Brandtology.
-Kelly
By Walter on Aug 17, 2009 | Reply
I think data has to be carefully interpreted in order to generate value, and its results have to be studied in the broader context to make sense. For example, it would be great for client-side marketers like myself to have an agency that is able to generate the overall impact of a campaign not only in social media terms – facebook fans, Twitter follower, links, mentions, sentiment analysis etc – but also offline outcomes like actual physical visitorship, sales generated, promotional responses and so on. Having data is useful only if it can eventually lead to a heightened and positive brand affinity which ultimately leads to greater sales, higher profits, superior customer service, and better retention.
By weekee on Aug 27, 2009 | Reply
I strongly agree with Walter. Sometimes it is not the data that is not useful but rather the assumption made behind it that is questionable.
I think most organization to a certain extent are data driven, just that it might not be possible for all functions.
I remember been involved in a marketing campaign for a mouthwash on the client side. The agency B was able to provide details like conversion rate, number of people who sign up for trial pack, edm response, etc. But to link it directly to offline sales, it is still pretty challenging.
Even if sales improve, it is also hard to know which media contribute to it. It could be the outdoor displays, etc.
To cut the story short, I think that organizations need to adopt a more long term approach to measurement if they want to understand their marketing efforts rather than measuring on a per campaign basis.
By Daryl Tay on Aug 27, 2009 | Reply
@Weekee: Of course you and Walter are right. I’m comparing between people who go with “gut feel” and people who go with data, assuming all else is equal. Quality of data and collection aside.
So indeed making the connection is pretty challenging, but I think it has always been the case. I don’t think marketers have ever been able to tell that this radio ad or this tv spot or this print ad drove X number of sales. At least we’re getting a little there in terms of accountability….