Data knowhow is going backwards. Marketers are less prepared for the reality of data now than they were three years ago. Meanwhile, those that do get the data - the data scientists - don't always speak marketers language and can get "passive aggressive" when communication fails.
According to IBM’s CMO study, three years ago, 71% of marketers said they were unprepared to deal with the “explosion” of data. Now, it's 82%, so worryingly things are actually getting worse rather than better, said Jodie Sangster, CEO of ADMA, hosting a panel debate around data and customer centricity at IBM's Business Connect forum yesterday (14 May).
There a number of reasons for that, she reckons, including that three years ago, marketers didn't realise how significant a part of business data would be. And that now the reach is so broad there is more to deal with. Another is that marketers are hitting the second wave of data, beyond the collection and analytics side, and aren't equipped to deal with it.
“You can get number crunchers and data scientists – but finding someone who can take a business problem, look at the data and find a solution is becoming increasingly difficult,” said Sangster.
Jason Hill, head of strategy at Ogilvy One, said while there is still a shortage of data analytics talent, the greater issue is the lack of people who have the ability to "humanise" data.
"The hard thing form a creative point of view is that it's one thing to find the data it's something altogether difficult entirely to humanise the data. There is a dearth in data analytics skills but there is a greater dearth of people who are comfortable with data and can turn that into something genuinely engaging. In the same way that there's a dearth of data analysts, there’s a greater dearth of people who understand how to translate data into a creative conversation.”
The agency has created its Data@Ogilvy business to pull together different skill sets across its agency group to understand all the aspects of the customer journey to make data relevant.
BT Finance was also present on the panel. The financial services firm said it was spending money on internal training for its data teams so that they are more able to connect the number crunching with the stor. The aim is to change the data mindset from that of procedure to engagement.
“It's hard when data scientists are the smartest people in the room and in the conversation but they can't get their message out," said Greg Nichelsen, head of customer insight and analytics at BT Financial Group. "It gets frustrating, they get passive aggressive. We're helping with those consultancy and stakeholder management skills to make sure that the right massages are getting out where there are really good insights [from data] we make sure the messages and stories don't get lost.”
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