Will the Publicis-Omnicom merger solve the riddle of Big Data?

There was recently some ginormous news in the ad industry where the Publicis and Omnicom holding companies announced a $35 billion mega-merger. But perhaps most surprising wasn’t that the merger took place, but how it was positioned. As reported by the online pub Digiday:

(Omnicom) CEO John Wren explained the merger, saying that gathering, sorting and using data had become a fundamental part of agency work, and combining would help the two agencies do the job better. The new mega agency…would be able to use data at a scale that would put them on par with data rich companies such as Facebook and Google.

Which raises the question: will the merger of a bunch of ad agencies really result in a better use of big data? Not everyone, yours truly included, is convinced that bigger means better. Dave Morgan, the CEO of Simulmedia and a leading voice in the ad technology sector, remarked: “I think it’s a total misdirection to think that you can leverage the scale and advantages of big data if you’re bigger. Quite the opposite.”

Doubts about the effectiveness of big agencies getting a handle on big data were also expressed by Jon Morris, founder and CEO of independent digital marketing agency Rise Interactive, on the pages of DMNews. I think Morris nailed it when he questioned whether the mega-merger portends that anything different will be happening in the future:

Both of them already have access to so much data that they’re not leveraging. So how is merging and becoming a larger enterprise going to help them out more? It’s basically two identical companies merging together. Not one person can point to the technology that Omnicom has or the technology that Publicis has that would speak to how this makes sense from a Big Data standpoint.

Meanwhile, I continue to be surrounded by dumb data.

Personally, what I’m seeing most frequently on my computer screen lately isn’t the much ballyhooed big data, but what I like to call “dumb data”. While some of the banner ads I see may be aiming for the new digital nirvana of showing ‘the right message to the right person at the right time”, what I most often notice are the stalking ads.

I wrote here a few months ago about various companies following me around the Web after I had visited their sites, from a sneaker company to an online MBA school. For instance, back in February I visited the Web site for the Broadway show Pippin. I bought tickets to the show at the theater’s ticketing site and saw it in back in March. Several months later, I am still seeing Pippin banners popping up everywhere I go.

As the online pub Digiday recently opined, these follow-you-everywhere banners are becoming the new equivalent of the pop-up ad. They’re mildly annoying, but judging by their widespread and continued use, they seem to be working. The only danger, Digiday correctly points out, is their overuse:

The industry just needs to hope that consumers don’t become so frustrated with seeing the same pair of shoes for two weeks that they decide to do something about it. Otherwise it’ll only have itself to blame.

Will the new Publicis-Omnicom entity be able to better figure out how to put big data to use—not just to attract new customers but retain and grow existing ones? Personally, I’ll believe it when I see it. And with a new set of banner ads from a hotel chain starting to follow me around the Web, I’ll be glad when they do.

How about you? Do you think there are any agencies, companies or brands who have a real handle on effectively using big data? Can you cite any examples?

This post originally appeared on Loyalty Truth, August 2, 2013.

Whatever happened to the promise of big data?

In a recent DM News article titled “Big Data Must Create Big Experiences”, direct marketing vet Ernan Roman pointed out that for all the data that’s apparently being collected, marketers don’t seem to be doing much with it. And judging by my e-mail inbox, I couldn’t agree more.

An appraisal of the brand and loyalty marketing e-mails I’m receiving reveals scant few that mention my relationship with the company or that address my past buying behavior. That’s a serious omission, because research shows that if a company provides me with personally relevant information, I’m much more likely to make a purchase.

The unfulfilled promise of big data also came up during a recent DM News roundtable. While there were a few on the panel who paid lip service to combining “research, analytics, and transaction data…to produce more tailored communications”, the conversation was long on talk and short on examples.

However, there was one roundtable statement that rang true, and I think it sums up the current state of big data. It came from a straight-shooter by the name of Ilana Rabinowitz, the CMO at a company called Lion Brand Yarns, who said:

“I think that for most small and midsize companies Big Data is irrelevant. It’s like the Wild, Wild West of information. You can’t use it, you don’t have people who can analyze it, and if it’s there, you don’t know how to get to it.”

A damning but, I believe, true claim. And the concerns about big data extend into the loyalty marketing business, as well. A recent report in Retail Wire asks the pointed question: “Why Aren't More Companies Connecting Big Data Dots for Loyalty Programs?” The online pub cited a serious lack of effort on the part of marketers, coming to the conclusion that:

“While most respondents feel the need to engage customers based on their needs and expectations, they're not leveraging the data in a way that maximizes the potential loyalty offered by customers.”

To use a football analogy, big data feels like the first round draft pick who has tremendous potential—but who hasn’t yet proven himself on the field. The coach isn’t quite sure how and when to use him, so for now he’s relegated to the bench. He may play in the future, but when is anyone’s guess.

Is there a better way to personalize customer communications?

Since it appears a lot of marketers haven’t yet gotten a handle on how to use the voluminous amount of data they’re collecting, maybe it’s time to go old-school. I again quote DM sage Ernan Roman who made this astute observation:

Customers, both B2B and B2C, are sophisticated enough to recognize that to receive increasingly relevant offers, they must share detailed preference information.

And if you’re not able to leverage big data, the best way to compile accurate customer preference data is through surveys, both online and off. With this approach, you start a dialogue with customers asking them to share their wants, needs and expectations. This allows you to continue the dialogue by serving up relevant, personalized communications featuring the products, services and benefits that interest your customers most.

For me, this idea is an e-mail blast from the past. Several years ago, my former employer Frequency Marketing had a major client who committed the time and dollars to collect customer information via surveys—and it allowed us to send out personalized, relevant e-mails. The result was a sharp increase in incremental sales and customer share-of-wallet.

Are customer preference surveys the sexiest, most cutting edge way to personalize customer communications? Probably not. But until big data gets its act together, it may be all we’ve got.

This post previously appeared on Loyalty Truth, May 29, 2013.

Dialogue and Social Media: playing Offense instead of Defense.

Do you remember when Seth Godin first released Permission Marketing? At the time I had just joined Frequency Marketing and I can recall my boss Pat LaPointe handing me the book and telling me it was a must-read. I gobbled it up and soon after helped the company build permission and dialogue into its communications offerings.

Back then, our goal was to make every piece of loyalty communications as relevant as possible, striving for the holy grail of one-to-one marketing. But limited to direct mail and e-mail, our messaging wasn’t so much one-to-one as it was one-to-many. It was just too cost prohibitive to personalize every mailing, so we had to “bucket” customers into specific messaging streams.

Of course, with the advent of social media, achieving a true dialogue with customers through one-to-one communications has actually become doable. Via leading social sites like Facebook and Twitter, you now have the opportunity to truly engage with customers in real-time. In fact, most of your customers expect it.

Yet it recently struck me that most marketers play social media on defense. When it comes to engaging with customers in a true customer dialogue, they’re in a reactionary mode, not a proactive one. So the company-customer dialogue works like this:

A company has a person or team assigned to monitor the social space. They search for tweets or posts that call out the brand or product by name, and when they spot one, they spring into action. Most of the time it’s to address a problem or customer care issue that has surfaced. Sometimes it’s to say thanks for a compliment. But either way, it’s all about playing defense.

When it comes to offense, for most marketers the social media game plan is to blast out Facebook posts and tweets with promo hashtags, then wait for customers to respond. But there’s a vital piece missing. The one-to-one interaction or dialogue that recognizes me as a valued customer.

I believe there’s a huge missed opportunity here, and it’s the chance to proactively engage with best customers via social media—not because something is wrong, or because you have a new promotion or product to push—but because you want to engage them in a relevant dialogue to show these customers you really care about them.

For example, what if American Airlines reached out to me after a flight and asked me how things went? Or if my local Bonefish seafood restaurant let me know my favorite fresh seafood dish was now available? Or the Doubletree hotel let me know they were glad my family was visiting again and I could have a late check-out?

It would be possible—if these chains had made the effort to collect my personal social media information and had it on file. They could then use their massive databases to cross-reference my activities and personal preferences to proactively reach out to me via Facebook and Twitter.

I was recently reminded why this was so important by the godfather of permission marketing and dialogue himself, Seth Godin. In one of his recent blog posts he wrote:

Dialogue leads to connection, which leads to trust which leads to engagement.

Godin also points out that “in today’s over-saturated communications world” it can be exceedingly difficult to hold a dialogue, yet the attempt to engage with a customer is “demonstrably better than the alternative”. Because the alternative is still the mass-blasting of communications, even if the vehicles have changed from on-air media to social media.

So what’s holding you up? Are you using social media to hold a relevant dialogue and engage with your most valued customers? If not, why not?

This post was written by Tom Rapsas and originally appeared on Loyalty Truth, April 15, 2013.

What’s your brand’s story?

I was recently sifting through some marketing trade articles I had collected and came across this compelling quote from Edward Boches, the chief creative guru at the Mullen agency. It’s about the difference between good advertising and great advertising:

Good advertising tells you what a product does and why you should buy it. Great advertising expresses what a brand stands for and invites you to share in its beliefs.

On the same day while reading DMNews, I noticed this strategic insight from Aimia Vice President of Knowledge Development Rick Ferguson:

There’s a difference between capturing a customer’s wallet and capturing his heart…brands that integrate emotional components into their loyalty strategy have more opportunities for retaining their customers and expanding their value.

It struck me that these were really two versions of the same idea: whether you’re trying to attract or retain customers, you need to strike an emotional chord—you need a message that customers can relate to and believe in. You need a good story. 

Every product, service and loyalty program has a story to tell.

The film director John Sayles once said that he believed his purpose in life was “finding and telling the stories that move me”. He believed that the stories that moved him also had the power to move others. I believe that’s part of our job as marketers—to find the story inherent in the brands we work for—stories that we believe in and can tell to others.

It’s easy to see that some brands, often by the nature of their product, have great stories to tell. Take Nike and last year’s TV spot called “Find Your Greatness”, which showcases the efforts of a pudgy lad jogging down a country road. The message: if he can do it, I can do it (with the help of a pair of Nike running shoes, of course).

As Boche points out Nike’s “advertising doesn’t push shoes; it encourages, inspires and promises individual achievement.” And for years, even decades now they’ve been doing this with the stories they tell. But what about the “less interesting” verticals and brands? Or loyalty programs? Do they really have stories to tell?

Well, here is a recent brand example that really stood out to me, from a category I didn’t expect it from: beer. With the market so flooded with craft brews these days, it can be difficult to separate one beer from the other. And even though I’m a self-proclaimed beer connoisseur, I’m often stumped by the sheer variety of choices at my local beer market, often choosing beers on the attractiveness of their label or their geographic location.

But while doing a little research, I recently stumbled upon the Web site of one of my favorite craft brews, Sierra Nevada, and found they had an amazing tale to tell. Now the key to a good story is the telling and Sierra Nevada has a beauty about their rich heritage. It’s featured in a short online video on their home page and if they gave out Academy Awards for this kind of thing, it would get the best short in the brand storytelling category.

Another example is the excellent story told by the leading loyalty program…wait a second…I can’t think of a single good example of a loyalty program with a really good story behind it. So let me put the question to you: does your loyalty program or a program you know about have a good story to tell? If yes, let me know.

This post, by Tom Rapsas, originally appeared on Loyalty Truth.