By David Jenkin

It was a morning of insights at the MediaCom office auditorium where dozens of industry professionals gathered for a series of presentations on the theme of “the truth about data sets”.

Ryan Smit, chief strategic officer at MaxAxion, was the first to take the podium and spoke on the topic of using the power of first party data to create contextual engagement and valuable consumer experiences, and how data assets can be used to optimise media strategies to improve ROI. Data-driven marketing, he explained, puts data at the centre of any strategy, learning from every campaign and building on the next with the knowledge acquired.

He spoke about communicating with the known customer and the unknown customer, where the former has signed up and provided some information on who they are, which has typically been the centre-piece of CRM strategies and still is today. That information is often segmented so as not to spam every opt-in customer and instead target individuals who may be interested in particular products. The unknown customer, however, who has touched on a touchpoint but hasn’t signed up, can now be engaged in a different way using the power of a data management platform (DMP) – a tool for aggregating and analysing huge amounts of data from different online and offline sources. A DMP allows the chief marketing officer to centralise data to plan and automate marketing campaigns.

He explained that a DMP is a central point for tracking digital media, bringing first, second and third party data together. “Once you have that data in the system you can identify and segment that data, creating segments based on behaviour, and also in how they’re engaging with your touchpoints which is very important. Now this is becoming crucial for both marketers and publishers.” Publishers, he said, use a DMP to understand more about their audiences, information advertisers can use to more accurately target the types of consumers to whom they’re looking to deliver their ads. “Marketers also have a very strong relational for having their own DMP and controlling their own data.”

Next up, Mike Carter, special projects director at MaxAxion, spoke about how data is used in some of their campaigns in what is termed ‘moment targeting’. He explained how much the media landscape has changed, so that now when media is purchased, data is a critical part of that recipe. He spoke about Rocket Fuel, an advanced programmatic marketing platform for media buying. “The technology that we have is able to work out where you are, do you commute to work, how often do you fly to Cape Town International, all these kinds of data points. It’s made up from something like nine billion data points.” He explained the more that is known about a customer, the more wastage is reduced. Rocket Fuel’s artificial intelligence can work out when the best time is to talk to customers, and even what device to talk to them on.

Nicolle Harding, SSA lead at Effective Measure, spoke on the value of measurement, the challenges – such as cross-channel measurement in the digital space, and conflicting research collection methodologies – and key considerations when evaluating data. Some tips she offered for using data included ensuring that sources were credible, understanding the methodology used for collecting data and how its relevant to specific needs, understanding the audience being measured, understanding the business value of technology and data layers and the impact they have on cost of sale, and not being afraid to admit ignorance.

The last speaker was Andrew Fulton, director at Eighty20, who spoke about the most significant recent development on the global stage, Donald Trump’s election victory, and how big data got it so wrong. “They completely and utterly misread the people with tons of data. And what worries me is you’re spending R500 000 or a R1-million to figure out your data, they threw hundreds of millions of dollars at this problem and couldn’t get it right.” The predictive modelling, he said, was too focused on the numbers and wasn’t actually listening to the signals or the noise.

“We got led astray with this whole idea of algorithms … unfortunately, sometimes that algorithm is just a sledgehammer with not a whole lot of accuracy or thought-process that goes into it,” he said. He noted that he has seen many companies spending fortunes on tech and data solutions but not on human resources. “Big data needs to be complemented with big judgement, and big judgement comes from human beings … computers can’t hypothesise.” He advised matching tech with talent, because technology won’t make a business more efficient if it isn’t used properly.

In response to a question from the floor about intelligent data, he said, “I think we’ll move to that as long as we keep focusing on individuals. You can’t just have big and small data and get intelligence, you’ve got to have someone actually thinking behind that. For me intelligence is when you merge those two together with human understanding.”

For more information, visit www.mediacom.com/za. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook, Twitter or on LinkedIn.