Determine Your Data Strategy

data-Driven
Marketing
Sponsored by:
8 Experts Tell You How to Transform
Your Marketing Organization
Part 1: Determine Your Data Strategy

foreword
Welcome Fellow Marketer:
Every day I encounter marketers who are working to create a data-driven
organization. Some are at the very early stages and just starting to scratch
the surface; others are many years into the process and leveraging advanced
techniques—and technologies—to help them achieve their goals.
At Visual IQ, we wanted to create a resource to which marketers could turn for
advice on this process from their peers who have already done it, whether at a
brand, an agency, or a solution provider. The result is Data-Driven Marketing: 29
Experts Tell You How to Transform Your Marketing Organization.
We asked each expert for the advice he or she would give a peer if that person
were seeking to make his or her marketing organization more data driven,
and I’m thrilled with the incredibly diverse advice these experts gave. The
insights range from internal change management and breaking down channel/
departmental silos to advice about technology and the implementation process.
Underlying these topics are insights around the need for marketing attribution
and a holistic view of your overall marketing ecosystem.
We think there’s something useful for everyone, and we hope you’ll find a few
specific gems within these pages that you can use at your organization.
Regards,
Manu Mathew
Co-Founder & CEO, Visual IQ
As a pioneer in the space, Visual IQ
has been producing the world’s most
powerful cross channel marketing
attribution software since 2006.
Its hosted IQ Intelligence Suite of
products combines a user-friendly
interface with advanced attribution
management and predictive
modeling functionality to provide
clear recommendations for marketing
optimization. Recognized as a leader
in cross channel attribution by a
leading market research firm in 2014,
Visual IQ won The Drum’s 2015 Digital
Trading Award for Best Attribution
Solution, won the 2014 ASPY Award
for Best Data or Analytics Solution,
and was a finalist in the Digital
Analytics Association’s Excellence
Awards in 2013, 2014 and 2015. For
more information, visit
www.visualiq.com.
2Sponsored by:

introduction
Content has long been king in marketing, but that king has now been dethroned. The new
king is data. With technologies making it possible to track individual actions, from first
contact to final transaction, in an omni-channel marketing environment, marketers are
able to shape and personalize content in near real–time so that it drives desired business
outcomes. New marketing analytics and automation tools are changing how companies
use their huge stores of data. All this progress is great, but many businesses still struggle to
realize the full potential of their marketing initiatives.
In this e-book, which is generously supported by Visual IQ, we have endeavored to discover
how companies use data to help ensure the success of their marketing strategies. We asked
marketing experts the following question:
I am confident you will find many rich and useful insights in these essays. Two key ideas
are the importance of a data-driven culture within the business and management allowing
the time needed for a new marketing strategy to prove itself. One cannot enter into this
process expecting instant results. Given the proper time, however, data-driven marketing
models can deliver impressive, game-changing results.
I hope you find these essays as informative as I have.
All the best,
David Rogelberg
Publisher © 2015 Mighty Guides, Inc. I 62 Nassau Drive I Great Neck, NY 11021 I 516-360-2622 I www.mightyguides.com
If you had to give someone advice on how to turn his or
her marketing organization into a data-driven marketing
organization, what advice would you give?
Mighty Guides make you stronger.
These authoritative and diverse
guides provide a full view of a topic.
They help you explore, compare,
and contrast a variety of viewpoints
so that you can determine what will
work best for you. Reading a Mighty
Guide is kind of like having your own
team of experts. Each heartfelt and
sincere piece of advice in this guide
sits right next to the contributor’s
name, biography, and links so that
you can learn more about their work.
This background information gives
you the proper context for each
expert’s independent perspective.
Credible advice from top experts
helps you make strong decisions.
Strong decisions make you mighty.
3Sponsored by:

Determine Your Data Strategy
Dustin Engel
PMG Worldwide............................15
Cesar Brea
Force Five Partners, LLC..........17
Paddy Freeman
Tesco PLC..........................................19
Alan Osetek
Resolution Media.......................21
Tim Bourgeois
East Coast Catalyst.......................6
Ryan Bonnici
HubSpot...............................................8
Jonathan Margulies
WinterberryGroup..............................10
Andy Zimmerman
Evergage.........................................................12
4Sponsored by:

Data-Driven Marketing: Still a Work in Progress
Even though many digital marketing businesses and software
tools are available to support sophisticated data-driven
marketing strategies, most companies operate with a mix of
digital and traditional marketing channels and tactics. Newer,
smaller companies tend to spend more of their marketing
resources on digital, while enterprises that have established
marketing organizations and practices spread their resources
across a broader mix of channels.
Part of the challenge of becoming a data-driven marketing
organization is balancing resources among these channels
and managing the continuous internal struggle for marketing budget. As digital strategies have
become more important to marketing, there has also been a trend for marketing to become more
independent of the IT department.
Tim
Bourgeois
Tim Bourgeois is a digital industry
veteran who has been active as
a founder, investor, executive,
publisher, and consultant since 1999.
He formally entered the business
in 1999, when he launched Pixel
Bridge, a full-service interactive
agency that was acquired in 2009. He
is currently a partner at East Coast
Catalyst, a Boston-based digital
consultancy, and founder and editor
of ChiefDigitalOfficer.net, a resource
for senior digital professionals.
Partner (East Coast Catalyst),
Founder
(ChiefDigitalOfficer.net)
Partofthechallengeofbecomingadata-driven
marketingorganizationisbalancingresources
amongchannelsandmanagingthecontinuous
internalstruggleformarketingbudget.
Most companies still operate
with a mix of digital and tra-
ditional marketing activities.
Attribution capabilities that
determine how online and
offline strategies affect one
another are great, but
data-driven processes need
to be in place so that action
can be taken on insights
before a company can have
the conversation about
attribution.
Key Lessons
1
2
Twitter I Website I Blog
b
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Download the full eBook:
DATA-DRIVEN MARKETING

This shift is driven in part by the availability of good marketing analytics tools and
digital marketing services. Yet tensions between IT folks and marketing still arise,
because these tools are not always so easy to use. They require training, ramp-up time,
and support, and marketing organizations are not always in the best position to assess
those aspects of the purchase.
Nevertheless, there is clear value in the insights companies can glean from digital strategies.
For example, I have a client who is an early-stage tech company launching a new product.
The company developed its plan based on understanding the market. When everything
was ready, it rolled out all its marketing assets, including a website and digital content. The
strategy involves both online and offline tactics to promote the product.
Within three to six months of launch, the company will be able to make decisions based on
a lot of empirical data, which means they will rely less on anecdotal evidence. For instance,
although it’s useful to know what a few people who stopped by the company’s booth at
a trade show had to say, the new digital strategy will tell the company that there were
300,000 searches on topics in their space, 20 percent of which were directly relevant to the
organization. Based on that information, the company can make specific adjustments to its
marketing assets to improve performance.
To become a data-driven marketing organization, companies must identify the problem
they’re trying to solve, and then decide what they need to do from a budgeting, staffing, and
business process perspective before jumping into the digital arms race. If they’re working
a multi-channel marketing strategy (as most companies are), attribution capabilities that
determine how online and offline strategies affect one another are great, but data-driven
processes need to be in place so that action can be taken on insights before a company can
have the conversation about attribution.
Data-Driven Marketing: Still a Work in Progress
There is clear
value in the
insights
companies can
glean from
digital strategies.
Sponsored by: 7

You Must Understand the Personas You’re Trying to Influence
In the world of inbound marketing, the entire strategy is based
on attracting potential customers and nurturing them toward
a decision. How effectively you execute this strategy depends
first on what you know about your customers, and then
measuring your prospects’ progress toward that decision.
Therefore, the first step in developing a data-driven marketing
strategy is defining buyer personas—understanding who they
are, what they’re interested in, what challenges them, how they
work, what they do on weekends, and many other aspects of
their lives. It is important to get to know them personally.
At HubSpot, we have three key personas that represent different aspects of our target market. A
company should have no more personas than it can service with distinct messaging strategies. For
instance, if one body of content can service two different personas, it makes sense to merge those
two personas into one.
Next, you must have a good understanding of how personas move through the buyer’s journey,
from awareness to consideration to making a decision or taking an action. In this way, you can
match content to the buyer’s decision process for each persona.
Ryan
Bonnici
Ryan Bonnici is the head of
marketing at HubSpot Asia Pacific
& Japan. He’s an experienced digital
marketing leader, having previously
held roles at Salesforce, ExactTarget,
Microsoft, and Qantas Airways.
Being a strong advocate for inbound
sales and marketing, he’s incredibly
passionate about educating brands
on leveraging new ways to connect
with their customers.
Head of Marketing,
Asia Pacific & Japan,
HubSpot
Acompanyshouldhavenomorepersonasthanit
canservicewithdistinctmessagingstrategies.
How effectively you execute
an inbound marketing
strategy depends first
on what you know about
your customers, and then
measuring their progress
toward a decision.
Companies need to
experiment to find an
attribution model that gives
them the insights they need
across all their points
of engagement.
Key Lessons
1
2
Twitter I Blog
b
Sponsored by: 8

Finally, you must align engagement and content strategies to the appropriate sales and
marketing funnel. Then, you will have the essential engagement touchpoints specifically
designed to move customers toward a decision or series of decisions, taking them deeper
into the sales funnel.
With these key pieces of your marketing strategy in place, along with tools that measure
the impact of each customer touchpoint, it becomes possible to monitor customer progress
through the sales funnel. It also becomes possible to identify sticking points. Is a particular
content item not resonating or moving people along as it should? Is something hanging
people up on a website or is an app stopping people rather than moving them down the
funnel? You can see all of this and make adjustments.
Good attribution models enable you to determine specifically whether points of engagement
such as content assets, websites, and apps are doing what they’re supposed to do. This
information gives you insights into how to optimize them for better performance. To use
attribution effectively, however, your systems must be sufficiently connected so that the
data they generate give you a view of how all your channels are working together. Many
companies are limited by the technology they use, which is one reason they never get past
last-click attribution. Companies must experiment to find a model that gives them they
insights they need.
You Must Understand the Personas You’re Trying to Influence
Sponsored by:
Touseattribution
effectively,your
systems must
be sufficiently
connected so
that the data
they generate
give you a
view of how all
your channels
are working
together.
9

To Build a Data-Driven Organization, Create a Long-Term Road Map
When moving toward a data-driven culture, the first step
is assessing the technology that you have at your disposal,
the data assets available to you, and the business strategies
and organizational objectives to which you’re trying to be
responsive. Many companies, even those that have highly
data-driven operating cultures, have a tough time actually
mapping, inventorying, or auditing their own data assets. If you
don’t know what you have to work with, it’s difficult to make
decisions about what you’re going to do down the road. Moreover, a lot of organizations rush to
launch initiatives without taking the time to tie them back to objectives that the company has laid
out at the senior levels. Going through this process is really the first order of business.
The second step is to map out a series of use cases. Do you want to grow revenue? Do you want to
bring more customers into the fold? Do you want to be more responsive to the needs of individual
customer segments? Those are distinct priorities, and they tend to call for different kinds of data
as well as different kinds of execution tactics and expertise. The secret to success comes in the
sequencing of the steps and the prioritization that comes along with them.
Jonathan
Margulies
With an extensive background in strategic
communications and executive-level
advocacy, Jonathan Margulies leads the
development of Winterberry Group’s
research and thought leadership
initiatives. Since joining Winterberry
Group in 2004, he has spearheaded the
development of more than 24 high-
profile research papers and led more
than 100 consulting engagements,
helping clients tackle an array of
challenges. He also sits on the Interactive
Advertising Bureau’s Data Council and
served as communications director for
the Sergeants Benevolent Association, a
10,000-member organization of New York
City police supervisors.
Managing Director,
Winterberry Group
Manycompanies,eventhosethathavehighly
data-drivenoperatingcultures,haveatoughtime
actuallymapping,inventorying,orauditingtheir
owndataassets.
Take the time to ensure that
your marketing initiatives
tie back to your company’s
strategic objectives.
Attribution is one of the
most critical capabilities to
address when adopting a
data-driven approach
to marketing.
Key Lessons
1
2
Sponsored by: 10
Twitter I Website

When you’ve done that, then you can begin to build a long-term road map for using your
data in a way that leverages the technology available to you as well as the supply chain
partners (agencies, database management companies, management consultancies) that are
bringing new ideas to the table and managing business processes for you. If you can get the
senior level buy-in you need to support that transformation, your chances of success will
be enhanced.
As you consider the role of data as an agent for change in marketing execution, attribution
will simultaneously represent one of your most important challenges and opportunities.
You’ll be looking to leverage data to support a range of strategic business purposes. You’ll
need to know more about addressable audiences to inform product development and
customer strategy. You’ll need to identify and segment those audiences in order to power
more relevant, engaging communications. And you’ll absolutely need to understand how
well your critical marketing initiatives—your investments in customer relationships—are
performing relative to each other, so that you can fine-tune your performance and put
your dollars where they’re positioned to do the most good. All three of these elements are
fundamental to data-driven marketing. All three are increasingly becoming central to the
design of next-generation marketing organizations.
To Build a Data-Driven Organization, Create a Long-Term Road Map
Sponsored by:
You’ll absolutely
need to
understand how
well your critical
marketing
initiatives—your
investments
in customer
relationships—
are performing
relative to each
other.
11

Never Be Satisfied
I started playing competitive golf when I was a kid. I would
read tips from the pros, observe what better players were
doing, and then tinker with my swing. My goal was always to
beat my own best score by adjusting and improving some part
of my game. (I still do this today, by the way!)
The point is, I was always iterating. I wasn’t so focused on
winning tournaments—though that would happen once in a
while—I just wanted to get better. This is the mindset modern
marketers need to have.
What can you do to improve your conversion rates? What
more can you do to attract potential customers? How might you drive a few more downloads or
sign-ups per month? How could you better engage users of your app?
To steer toward the path of constant, incremental improvement, it’s important to make sure
that you’re collecting data that are relevant, actionable, and measurable in relation to your
organization’s marketing objectives. To determine which data are relevant, ask yourself
this question:
What does marketing success look like, and has the management team bought into it?
Andy
Zimmerman
Andy Zimmerman is chief marketing
officer for Evergage, which delivers
real-time personalization to more than
500 million web visitors. A frequent
speaker at leading industry events, Andy
has more than 20 years of experience
helping software companies launch
products, drive demand, improve sales
productivity, and develop revenue-
generating content marketing programs.
You can follow Andy on Twitter at
@AHZimmerman or @Evergage.
CMO,
Evergage
Whatdoesmarketingsuccesslooklike,andhasthe
managementteamboughtintoit?
Continually analyze your
data, make adjustments,
experiment and test, and
never be satisfied, because
you can always do better.
To enable continual
improvement, it’s important
to make sure you’re
collecting data that are
relevant, actionable, and
measurable in relation
to your organization’s
marketing objectives.
Key Lessons
1
2
Sponsored by: 12
b

It seems straightforward, but you need to know the answer to this before you start collecting
any data. You can’t keep score if you don’t know what game you’re playing!
Once you know what data to collect, you need to make sure you have the right processes,
systems, and people in place to take prompt action—ideally, in real time. We often see
marketing systems that provide predictive analytics and automated actions based on data,
particularly in the cases of website and app users. Even if you have large amounts of data,
like web behavioral information, you need to be in a position to respond immediately to
noticeable patterns and trends. Tracking those metrics requires some level of automation—
generally, from multiple systems that include reporting, filtering, and trending capabilities.
A key piece to all of this is attribution. Be sure to experiment and test different programs
and approaches to find out which marketing channels and tactics drive the most and best
leads (and which ones don’t) as you work toward your marketing goals. For instance, if your
webinars generate more sales than Google AdWords campaigns, that knowledge will affect
how you invest and plan your marketing efforts.
Finally, keep iterating. Continually analyze your data, make adjustments, experiment and test,
and have fun along the way. Never be satisfied, though, because you can always do better. To
me, that is the secret sauce to becoming a data-driven marketing organization.
Never Be Satisfied
Sponsored by:
Even if you have
large amounts of
data...you need
to be in a position
to respond
immediately
to noticeable
patterns and
trends.
13

Don’t Let Them Eat Your Lunch
Becoming a data-driven marketing organization is a tall order if
you have never really been one. Here are some suggestions for
getting started:
• Establish clear priorities. It would be a logical first step to
inventory your existing data. Then, you can prioritize data
elements and move toward positive business change. Be
clear about the problems you’re trying to resolve before
you start down the path of becoming data driven.
• Integrate and blend. Advertisers usually have more data on hand than they know what to do
with, and the possibilities for using all these data aren’t always apparent when they are first
compiled. Integration helps reconnect disparate data elements so you can see what you have
and how it might prove useful. I probably spend most of my time with clients on this task.
• Invest in media. You will always need media to realize your goals. That’s why having a science-
based attribution platform is crucial. It can give you complete visibility into customer paths,
which will help you value your paid, earned, and owned media. That, in turn, will allow you to
close the loop on your media investments.
Dustin
Engel
Dustin Engel, the former head of product
and strategy for ClearSaleing (acquired
by eBay Enterprise) is an attribution
thought leader. Dustin currently leads
the analytics and audience science
teams and serves on the executive
team at PMG, one of the fastest-
growing digital agencies in the United
States. PMG is a 2014 Inc. 500 company
(number 61 on Inc. 500 and number 5
for Advertising and Marketing) and a
2015 Advertising Age Silver Medalist for
Small Agency of the Year.
Head of Analytics and
Data Activation,
PMG Worldwide
Akeyelementinswitchingfromalast-clickattribution
mentalitytoacompletelyholisticmeasurement
approachistounderstandthatsomechallenging
changemanagementissueslieahead.
Establish clear priorities,
and then integrate and
blend to reconnect your
existing data.
Successfully switching from
a last-click mentality to a
more holistic attribution
approach will require an
equally successful change
management program.
Key Lessons
1
2
Sponsored by: 15
b

A key element in switching from a last-click attribution mentality to a completely holistic
measurement approach is to understand that some challenging change management issues lie
ahead. Here are a few issues that I’m always warning my clients about:
• Latency. The true length of time from first ad exposure to purchase is a lot longer than most
marketers realize. I have seen, more often than not, latency windows greater than 40 days
from first ad exposure. This understanding will inevitably force you to change your game.
• Path fragmentation. Having true visibility into customer paths is a real eye-opener—there’s
a ton of fragmentation. Making your channels work together will not necessarily be a linear
process, nor will it necessarily be easy. So understanding the range of paths to purchase and
the most common paths help add clarity to the process.
• Consumer behavior. Behaviors that you may hope to exploit are often volatile and
extremely difficult to decipher. You need a wide footprint from a channel and placement
standpoint and you should be prepared to test channels and placements that at once
appeared to be not viable. This is one reason why a robust, algorithmic model for assigning
fractional value to conversion touchpoints is so essential.
I often see advertisers who decide to switch to a true, science-based attribution strategy, but
then fail to stay committed. I think they underestimate how daunting the change management
piece will be and they stop following through.
In other interesting situations where there has been follow-through, the dollar allocations
across media sometimes prove hugely consequential. When data are available and consumer behavior behind those data is
decipherable, the marketing mix tends to change radically.
If you aren’t interested in a more science-based approach to marketing, ponder this: your competitors probably are. Factor in the rise
of growth hacking, and you might well feel alarmed. Growth hacking is a complete rewrite of the marketing rules, and companies born
with the growth-hacker mentality are not traditional marketers. They can afford to ignore rules of the past and simply follow the data,
because they aren’t wedded to marketing’s past.
If you choose to remain a laggard, odds are that some disruptive competitor will eventually come along and eat your lunch.
Don’t Let Them Eat Your Lunch
Sponsored by:
If you aren’t
interested in a
more science-
based approach
to marketing,
ponder this: your
competitors
probably are.
16

Staying Focused on Your Outcomes
Six points will help you become a data-driven marketing
organization:
• Avoid confusing means for ends. A data-driven marketing
organization is a means. A marketing organization that’s
driving 10 percent more qualified leads, 10 percent more
efficiently (or whatever goals are most important to your
business) is an end that can help galvanize and focus your journey to become data driven.
• Work from the specific to the general. “Becoming data driven” is general. Identifying and
aligning a specific set of potential opportunities to investigate and realize with data and
analysis—and managing this set as a dynamic portfolio from which you expect returns—is
specific and accountable.
• Start simple. Manage increased sophistication (more data, more analysis) based on the
incremental value it provides. For example, a marketer can start the journey toward complex
attribution-based marketing by optimizing across two channels, such as search and online
display. Then, he or she can add more channels and their associated touchpoints. By starting
simple, not only do you avoid investing past the point of diminishing returns, but you also
increase your understanding and ability to communicate.
Cesar
A. Brea
Cesar Brea is the author of Marketing
and Sales Analytics and founder
and managing partner of Force Five
Partners, LLC. Force Five Partners works
with leading brands across multiple
industries to build their marketing
analytics capabilities through hands-
on solutions for real challenges and
opportunities. Having received his
MBA from Dartmouth University’s Tuck
School and his bachelor’s degree from
Harvard, Cesar has 30 years of business
experience as a senior executive,
entrepreneur, and advisor.
Founder and
Managing Partner,
Force Five Partners, LLC
Manageincreasedsophistication(moredata,more
analysis)basedontheincremental
valueitprovides.
Identify and align a
specific set of potential
opportunities to investigate
and realize with data
and analysis.
Work iteratively in 90-day
cycles.
Key Lessons
1
2
Sponsored by: 17
b

• Don’t work data and analysis in isolation. In my work with clients, I try to keep four
ecosystemic conditions working harmoniously: (1) ensuring that senior executives agree on
opportunities to pursue, (2) enabling practical and affordable access to data, (3) providing
operational flexibility to act on insights, and (4) cultivating “analytic marketers”—that
is, marketers and analysts who “get” each other and work well together rather than just
lobbing things over walls.
• Work iteratively in short cycles of no more than 90 days. If you can’t put some insight to
work within 90 days to see if it pays as expected, then your analytic investments are at risk
of collapsing on themselves. Reach for longer cycles only when you’ve got a healthy base of
results powering you along. It’s just like shifting up through a car’s gears!
• Don’t chase unicorns. Marketing analytics is a team sport, with lots of complementary
roles, such as acquiring, organizing, and analyzing data; communicating insights; and acting
on them. Good collaboration based on common understanding and accountable execution
among these roles will lead to better outcomes than seeking, rarely finding, and (if you do)
placing all your eggs in a rock star’s basket and abdicating your executive responsibility
for your business. You can hire some and partner for others, but however you proceed, stay
focused on outcomes.
Staying Focused on Your Outcomes
Sponsored by:
Marketing
analytics is a
team sport,
with lots of
complementary
roles.
18

Let the Data Drive (It’s a Long Journey)
It is essential that a data-driven marketing strategy serves its
company’s core purpose – which at Tesco, is serving Britain’s
shoppers a little better, every day. We could not do that
without a data-driven approach to marketing that makes us
totally accountable for the money we spend and the customer
loyalty we drive as a result of those expenditures.
For your marketing group to become data-driven, you must
look across and beyond the business to identify quality data
sources you can use for marketing purposes. Then, if you need
to convert any non-believers, you must map those data against
current marketing activities so that you can show how you are
using the data and how they improve marketing performance. The benefits must be clear to key
people throughout the organization. After all, the transition to a data-driven organization involves
changing people, processes, and technologies, so it is best to start small and build on successes.
Paddy
Freeman
Paddy Freeman has spent more than
15 years working across marketing
and technology, covering roles from
programming engineer through
program manager. Paddy currently
manages the processes and systems
required to create industry-leading
programmatic advertising and
personalized marketing capabilities
across the Tesco Group. Paddy is a
member of the Internet Advertising
Bureau (UK) Display Trading Council. He
graduated from Aston Business School
with a BSc (Hons) degree in 1994.
Digital Marketing Manager,
Tesco PLC
Foryourmarketinggrouptobecomedata-driven,
youmustlookacrossandbeyondthebusiness
toidentifyqualitydatasourcesyoucanusefor
marketingpurposes.
A data-driven approach
to marketing makes you
accountable for the money
you spend and the customer
loyalty you drive as a result
of those expenditures.
Attribution modeling can
be used to understand
the impact that different
channels can have on
customer activity. For those
that get it right, it’s data-
driven marketing at its best.
Key Lessons
1
2
Sponsored by: 19
Website

It takes time to turn a traditional marketing organization into a data-driven organization. The
work of using data to improve marketing activities never ends. For Tesco, it really began when
we launched the Clubcard loyalty scheme 20 years ago—a popular program that rewards
customers with points they can redeem in our stores or with our partners. The program was
(and still is) a significant investment, but it provided us with great insights into our customers.
Later, we launched our online store, beginning with groceries, and then expanding into clothing
and general goods.
Shoppers can use their Clubcard both online and in the brick-and-mortar stores, so it
provides a great bridge for data collection in those environments and has given us a rich set
of individualized data that enable us to pursue – amongst other things – a customer-first
programmatic advertising strategy. In programmatic advertising, we make real-time decisions
about the timing and content of advertising to maximize the return on our advertising spend.
This strategy places a premium on data-driven decision making, because in the time it takes for
a browser to load a Web page, the advertising inventory on that page is bought and sold. We
are able to bid in real time for advertising on third-party websites. The amount we bid and the
message we deliver can be based on a real-time overlay of our own customer data.
Since we have marketing activities that run on a number of channels simultaneously, we also
continue to explore attribution modeling to understand the impact that different channels can
have on customer activity. It’s not an easy thing to get right – but for those that do, it’s data-
driven marketing at its best.
Another area we are exploring is data discovery. We employ data scientists – people with
serious smarts - to look for patterns in the data that indicate new marketing opportunities. It’s
incredibly important to explore the data in this way and give the data its own voice, rather than
use it more-so to reinforce pre-conceived ideas. To misquote Andrew Lang, a great Scottish
writer – “It can be easy to use data as a drunken man uses lamp posts – for support rather than
for illumination.” When it comes to data-driven marketing, you never fully “get there” because
new tools and new data sources are always becoming available. Data-driven marketing is truly
an ongoing journey. To take the right path means putting the data itself in the driving seat.
Let the Data Drive (It’s a Long Journey)
Sponsored by: 20
This strategy
placesapremium
on data-driven
decision making,
because in the
time it takes
for a browser to
load a Web page,
the advertising
inventory on that
page is bought
and sold.

The Digital Ecosystem and Data-Based Decisioning
2015 has been the year of major media agency reviews, with
twelve major marketers reassessing their agencies – this
accounts to a total of over $25 billion in advertising dollars up
for grabs.
Why now? As someone who has participated in numerous
agency pitches recently, I have a theory – data shows
consumers are more active online and new media is being
created within the digital ecosystem to reach these consumers.
Marketers want to be more prevalent online to reach these consumers ahead of the curve. To do
this, marketers need to reassess both their current media mix and their media agencies. Media
is now more accountable and marketers are more data driven. Based on this new world digital
media order, the following are three immediate actions marketers can adopt to become more
digitally relevant:
• Define how you will measure success. This discussion often strays down a rabbit hole of
features, functions and technologies, with the conversation focused on everything needed to
build the digital marketing technology infrastructure. However, the real focus should be on
answering a few key questions: What result are you trying to accomplish? What is the data
implementation and collection strategy? How does that strategy sit with the marketing group’s
objectives? The answers to these questions can help you get started.
• Form a right-brain/left-brain culture. The ideal new hire should have a marketing background
with analytical skills and a creative mindset.
Alan
Osetek
Alan Osetek is the global president of
Resolution Media and oversees the
global growth of Omnicom Media
Group’s search, social, and digital
performance media unit. Prior to joining
Resolution, Alan was the managing
director for iProspect/Aegis and
responsible for the company’s east coast
operations. Before joining iProspect in
2008, he served as a board member
and CRO for Visual IQ. Alan holds a
bachelor’s degree in economics from
Skidmore College and an MBA from
Babson College.
Global President,
Resolution Media, An Omnicom
Media Group Company
Marketersneedtoreassessboththeircurrentmedia
mixandtheirmediaagencies.
As an industry, marketing is
moving closer to the end of
the last-click attribution
model.
It is possible to score quick
wins by implementing digital
attribution across a
few channels.
Key Lessons
1
2
Sponsored by: 21
b

This person should be able to analyze data and effectively tease out insights with tangible
next steps on how to activate on performance. Instead, many organizations trying to
become data-centric hire techies who have no marketing or creative abilities. Alternatively,
more traditionally-minded agencies bring in purely creative thinkers who have no analytical
chops. If you can’t find individuals who wear both hats, hire teams that collectively add up
to this kind of culture.
• Challenge the status quo with data-based decisioning. Look at your overall business
goals, and leverage new media to deliver on these objectives. If your objective is to drive
more revenue while focusing on in-store sales, then assess data collected from digital
media activities to achieve this. If in-store sales are a key success metric, use data-based
decisioning to inform new opportunities to drive success. For example, a mobile strategy
can drive local awareness that funnels in foot traffic and mobile offers and couponing
can all be new ways to drive in-store sales. Track marketing activities and collect data to
understand who your target consumers are and what works and what doesn’t with them.
Then optimize—do more of what is working and invest less on what doesn’t.
The good news is that cost-to-entry for digital media isn’t sky-high. There are many advertising
options and consumers are engaged. With a focus on data collection, marketers are moving beyond last-click attribution and marketing
technologies are developing capabilities to track the consumer engagement journey not just online, but also offline. Even TV is moving
towards online measurement and will eventually become fully digital and measurable. Technologies already exist that allow marketers
to run TV-sync-social and TV-sync-search campaigns.
Although easy to activate, drawing insights from attribution requires building history – history that shows consumer actions from
awareness to purchase. Leveraging data to solve a business problem by using a fully functional attribution platform typically takes
three to six months of ongoing data collection, analysis, and optimization. It will not always be easy to get budgeting approval for this
attribution investment when marketers need immediate ROI.
Attribution is key to real data-based decisioning. It is not enough to simply collect the data and act on it, attribution is necessary to truly
understand the digital ecosystem. Eventually, attribution will become the center of the marketing universe. To me, the only questions
are when and how.
The Digital Ecosystem and Data-Based Decisioning
Sponsored by:
Eventually,
attribution
will become
the center of
the marketing
universe.
22

Determine Your Data Strategy

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