2014 was the year when marketers recognised the creative potential inherent in the vast data streams available.Despite this, there are still a number of barriers to overcome.
Last year, new technology, data storage and analytics required marketers to invest in new tools and skill sets and at the same time, the age old-barrier of building long-term effective relationships with consumers remained. Indeed, after the current gold rush mining of consumer insight and data is over, there will be a need to build sustainable sources of consumer insight built on open and transparent value exchanges. This move will coincide with an increasingly data savvy consumer, empowered by data and technology to navigate their daily life. In 2015, it is the brands that fit into this space that will prosper; offering real value to consumers and being rewarded in return. The best in 2014 pointed towards this future.
British Airways "Magic of Flying" Billboard
It’s not all about personalisation! Yes personalisation holds huge potential but as this Cannes winning BA example shows, real time broadcast messaging can use data to create new inspiring experiences for consumers. The outdoor billboard video reacted every time a BA plane flew overhead, broadcasting the plane’s destination and flight numbers.
This campaign repeated the BA use of real time data to shape creative messaging, enabling them to use the oldest trick in the book and producing creative that is so good everyone welcomes the message and sees the value.
But if we’re going to talk personalisation then Coke showed that classic feel-good brands can use simple personalisation techniques to do what they do best, build long-term emotional bonds. In this case, with 4oD data and a continuation of the share a bottle campaign creative to personalise the coke bottle for each 4oD viewer.
Technically not a new campaign! Still they show how data-led personalisation drives sales and revenue, and in 2014 ASOS continued to do this brilliantly. Creating journeys with real value, retargeting visitors on Facebook with bespoke messages related to the brands they were looking at, as well as celebrity creative and seasonal messaging. Showing that retargeting doesn’t need to damage your brand by nagging consumers for action; it can nudge and deliver value for consumers at the same time.
Meanwhile Facebook isn’t just a standalone platform, but a brilliant data-set to integrate with your own data and other DMPs. This campaign created real time lookalike models of site visitors and targeted them on Facebook and Twitter, showing how creativity with data is as much about orchestration of datasets as it is anything else.
The Sun Fantasy Football League
Again not an obvious choice, and technically not a new campaign but The Sun runs a great Fantasy Football programme, using data simply but effectively. Most impressive is the combination of mailings, tweets and emails that are timely and relevant, showing how success with data is often about keeping it simple.
Nivea Sun Kids – “The Protection Ad’
And back to a Cannes winner! Brilliant for many reasons but none more so than showing the future is linking offline and online to create new brand experiences that create value in places that brands have never been able to before. In this world print isn’t dead, it’s a stepping stone! Here consumers were empowered to use data to help better their beach experience.
What do these examples all have in common? While the impact of data will continue to be disruptive to business models and markets, for businesses to be successful, the impact on the consumer needs to be the opposite of this – it needs to be sustainable, welcoming and life-assisting. Doing this though doesn’t mean playing safe, it means innovation and creativity; using data to build journeys that generate long-term relationships between consumers and brands, and ultimately driving long-term growth.
By Jamie Cregan, Research and Planning Director at MC&C.
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