“From the ‘Mad Men’ era until now, advertising has been about a catchy tagline, an arresting image, the Big Idea. But Mr. Herman and his competitors are bringing some Wall Street-like analysis to Madison Avenue, exploiting the huge amounts of data produced by the Internet to adjust strategy almost instantly,” gushed the New York Times a couple of days ago. But are marketing analytics news? Haven’t we been doing this for quite awhile now? Erik Sherman took umbrage at the idea over at BNET:
“Ever wonder why Reader’s Digest had developed into the powerhouse title it is, or at least once was? Direct marketing techniques. Why Sears was once the Wal-Mart of its heyday? Direct marketing techniques. Pick an industry, and you can find a giant that grew on regular doses of direct marketing and its accompanying analytics,” says Sherman.
Of course enormous advances have been made in analytics in recent years — a traditional direct marketer would likely feel like a stranger in a strange land looking at the array of tools available with which to conduct analysis. But she would certainly appreciate the continued drive toward more and more data-driven decision making in both strategic and tactical settings. Still, Sherman has a point — looking at the data is hardly a novel idea. Maybe Varick Media Management simply has a great PR firm.
The Times article, however, points out a larger issue: the “invisibility” of much of the work of analytics professionals. Perhaps this is because companies don’t want to broadcast news about what they consider to be proprietary information and processes from which they derive competitive advantage. Perhaps they are afraid that consumers wouldn’t be comfortable if they knew how much firms know and how they use that information (see earlier posts on this topic). Perhaps analytics professionals aren’t generally headline seekers.
What do you think? Should the profession have a higher profile so that analytics isn’t big news? Should it keep things quiet — much like accounting news stories are rarely sought? If you were hiring a PR firm for the profession, what charge would you give them?
