Beware Datalust

Data’s sudden ascendency is a good thing, but don’t let it overshadow creativity.

By Patrick Hainault 06/02/2009 -09:42 AM

These are horrible days for publishing. For months, followers of the industry have mostly been reading bad news, and published data invariably point to ugly trends. If that weren’t enough, every newly released unpleasantness is met with a chorus of one-upping pundits announcing greater and greater pain.

Amidst all this, many magazine folks, like extras in a bad apocalyptic movie, are running in all directions looking for the one thing that will save the day. In the process, they are elevating good but vaguely unfamiliar ideas to the status of saviors. One of them is the notion that “data is the new creative.”

That data would suddenly become fashionable should not be a surprise. When easy money recedes and profits are under unrelenting pressure, people at all levels take on a more defensive stance. In this kind of environment, there is a creeping skepticism about investments for which returns cannot be measured. That’s generally a good thing. Better yet, a newfound respect for facts, measurements and data is starting to take hold.

So three cheers for data’s ascendency. At the same time, for the sake of pricking a nascent data bubble, here are a few important aspects that new data converts should consider.

First, believing in data can’t just be a passing fad or a part-time pursuit. Rather, it requires an unwavering commitment, one that says, “nothing that can’t be measured will be undertaken.” More importantly, it requires a willingness to invest in the tools and assets needed to really embrace data as a competitive advantage.

The commitment cannot be over-emphasized. That’s because organizations who want to become data-centric are bound to encounter losses and frustrations. For starters, the data one already owns, if heretofore acquired and housed in a random and uncoordinated way, can’t deliver much insight. Getting one’s past data in order is a herculean task and, at least in the early stages, a speculative one. Until all is in order, there is no value to be extracted and one cannot readily discern the value that will be gained in the future.

Investment must also be made in tests that are bound to fail, because there is as much information to glean from failure as there is from success. Spending time and resources on such projects is a true sign of a commitment to data.

Beyond the tedious, mechanical tenacity required by a commitment to data, data-centric companies must also commit to a culture that will enable data to become the cornerstone of all decisions. Barring that, all the data discipline in the world won’t turn mounds of information into anything useful. This means a commitment to approaching all tasks with a marketer’s humility, being ready to devise tests and to let results guide future decisions. This also means that stakeholders must buy into the system. If only a few do, data-centrism will recede from consciousness the moment a few intuition-driven ideas find any traction. Luck? Genius? Law of average? In the face of success, people no longer care.

Worse, a company that invests in data without investing in training or committing to hiring seasoned data miners, runs the risk of falling into countless traps, making its investment less than useless, and potentially dangerous. If you have doubt about this, make sure to catch the latest Mini-Wheats ad campaign, which claims that “A clinical study showed kids who had a filling breakfast of Mini-Wheats cereal improved attentiveness by nearly 20 percent when compared to kids who missed out on breakfast.” It’s been running for months.

Data-evangelists must also understand that data alone provides little in terms of solutions. All that data, statistics, modeling and data mining can offer is some sort of exoskeletal boost to the creativity of marketers. Data-centrism does not replace creativity; it merely offers another tool to harness it. In fact, data management or analysis does require tremendous creativity. How one structures an inquiry, or chooses to analyze a problem is directly related to the creativity of the marketers involved (i.e., creativity isn’t confined to arts and letters).

So, no, data is not the new creative. It has been there all along, requiring a creativity of its own and serving as a powerful tool for creative folks who dare invest in it. What data is, is the new imperative, for when the recession ends, my hunch is that the bad old days of gut feelings and empty posturing won’t be allowed back in the room without a piece of supporting data or two.

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