Super Strategist by Lesley Bielby

Author:Lesley Bielby [Bielby, Lesley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Figure 1 Publishing
Published: 2021-05-04T00:00:00+00:00

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Data and the Science of Strategic Planning

In the early days of advertising, until about a decade or so ago, the “art” of advertising was felt to be enough. An ad would win awards if it looked like a 60-second movie. That ad may have looked and felt amazing, but it didn’t always move the needle, and if it did, it was often by chance. Those days are over.

The single biggest shift in the use of research in our industry over the last decade is the sheer proliferation and use of data. All clients talk about today is data: the importance of data. The need for data. Data-infused insights. Data-informed solutions. The mantra “digital or die” has become “data or die.” If today’s planners and agencies are not data literate, they will not survive.

All this data can be incredibly overwhelming. When abused, it can hurt. When used properly, it is a beautiful thing.

The ability to form a complete data loop is a critical part of the success of any modern agency. At my company, pulling D&A into the core agency from its origins as a media-only function has been a very, very successful change for us. It demonstrated that the role of data extends well beyond media monitoring and optimization. Modern strategic planners, with their data analyst partners, need to help our clients understand the key role data can play in identifying business and consumer opportunities, through testing and learning and performance analytics. Planners need to navigate the whole data loop across the entire customer experience, without killing great ideas.

Why is this so important? Clients do not pay agencies a huge amount of money to think and approach problems in the same way that they do. They pay us to challenge them and think differently. They pay us for creative excellence. They want us to suggest new ideas and solutions by using the less analytical right side of our brains. But the stakes have never been higher (think of the average tenure of a CMO or CEO), and the tolerance for trial and error shrinks every quarter. The role of agencies today, and particularly strategic planners, is to strike the right balance of inspiring creative and reassuring data. Data is critical to support creative, but we can’t overcorrect and stifle new ideas. Data must provide insight and evidence that helps new ideas survive and thrive, so that the art and science of our craft are both represented throughout the process of creating advertising.

Creative is still king. And ad agencies still attract the best creative talent, despite the competition from in-house agencies; or consulting firms like Accenture, which provide rigor (and that have even gobbled up ad agencies); or big tech Alpha brands like Google, Apple, and Facebook. Why? Creative people want to work in a creative environment, with people who share a purpose, passion, and vision, which is to make amazing, effective work that they can be proud of. Also, brilliant creative people, who generally have short attention spans, do not want to spend all of their time working on one brand.

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