A new article in Fortune spotlights the new power that analytics is gaining in advertising:
Unearthing a coherent story out of a pile of numbers was exactly the quantative marketing challenge that BF Goodrich faced when, in 2006, it solicited help from the Martin Agency, a creative shop based in Richmond, Va. Like most agencies, Martin had previously relied on a research department staffed by former account executives. But more recently, Martin had begun hiring Ph.D.s who specialized in statistical regression modeling. BF Goodrich had identified 47 million potential customers, but because of a limited advertising budget, didn’t have the resources to go after them all. The tire-maker wanted Martin to help identify “the big fish,” those who were most likely to buy its products.
“We had a ton of data,” says Tom Jupena, a BF Goodrich brand communications manager. “But we needed help translating it into something we could act on.”
I think that last quote is the key. All the data in the world isn’t of much use if you can’t interpret it correctly and create something great using it. But as you’ll see in the article, analytics is a large part of what clients these days get excited about.
