The term big data is something to which all of us professionals working in the digital worldfor as much as it may seem like a trendis something that looks like it's going to stay. I myself was not aware of the impact that it could have on our business of the online advertising until an article in Sir Martin Sorrell opened my eyes: "Creativity in the age of the Maths Men". (I recommend googling and reading it).
In that text, Sorrell's point was simply logical (but perhaps not obvious to everyone): as the increasing importance of the big data and the technology impact on business, and how it was revolutionizing what companies were doing. agencies they could do for their clients. That's why he said that the future of advertising and marketing services is in marketing belonged to both the Mad Men as well as to the Maths Menmathematicians, analysts and data men were, and are, as important for business development as the creativethe men of the ideas.
These words of his, according to Sir Martin, were misinterpreted by some who understood that "creativity" was relegated to the minor leagues. But all he meant - the article elaborates - is that, although creativity will remain the heart that pumps the business, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas insights that sells advertising are the product of knowledge, those "pearls" that give value to customers, can come from designers, planners, art directors o strategic consultantsHe comments on how dangerous it would be to think that the "alchemists" of ideas are only a select few: creativity is not exclusive to one discipline or another; creativity is not exclusive to one discipline or another; creativity is not exclusive to one discipline or another; creativity is not exclusive to one discipline or another; creativity is not exclusive to one discipline or another. imagination, inventiveness, ingenuity and talent are everywhere, be it media, public relations, software development, data analysis or research.
The moral of this article is perhaps that ideas will never again come out on their own without data about their effectiveness, their influence, their return on investment or their impact on the different media that will be useful for clients, just as no one can conceive of carrying out a digital project without activating their analytics to collect all the data from the traffic that in their immense massiveness they can perhaps tell us such important things about the business that they could condition the strategies to manage them.
The datification of the world is a fact, we live in an increasingly digitized environment where everything is measured and collected automatically, and where the analysis of this data is increasingly valued to find patterns that give us clues about what is happening in this world. And advertising, which is part of it, will not be unaffected by the influence of big data on strategies, campaigns, approaches, and the research and, why not, even in ideas.
For all these reasons, a servant who considers himself publicist by profession even though he is a computer engineer by training, who considers that the innovation is one of the fundamental pillars for the future of the digital agency business, and who has only failed a single subject in his life, statistics, feels at the same time an immense concern and attraction towards the theory of massive data analysis and has decided to read everything he can get his hands on on the subject. Maybe I'm wrong and big data, in the end, has nothing to do with the future of online advertising. But just in case.
Daniel Megías
