On Monday it was announced that Australian incubator Pollenizer will work with the federal government to boost data-driven innovation in Australia through an initiative called DataStart. Backed by Google and Optus, the programme is designed to find and accelerate ideas to leverage available data from the federal government into new innovative solutions, with the winner working with Pollenizer for nine months to develop the idea into a startup eligible for $200,000 in seed funding.
Anything that advances innovation (in whatever sector) of the data and analytics industry is to be applauded, particularly one like this that has a real focus on finding a winning idea that answers an actual customer need versus a more abstract technical concept. Future data-driven marketing practices will emerge from the minds of the type of entrepreneurs that this sort of programme will target, and I’m one of the many voices in business that would like to see more done to encourage STEM funding and support in Australia.
Last week, for example, the city of Tel Aviv announced that they were offering a new class of startup visas to allow entrepreneurs from around the world to live and work there to develop innovative projects. Entrepreneurs who then stay in Israel to found a startup company would be granted a specialist visa. It is invite only at this stage but with an exchange programme with the cities of Paris and Berlin, and with Israel one of the most successful startup incubators in the world, it is worth Australia sitting up and taking notice of.
The data-driven marketing and advertising industry also needs to find speedier ways of incorporating the types of data and analytics innovation that STEM and innovation initiatives develop into day to day practice. That data capabilities have exponentially advanced in the last few years is not in question.
However, translating those innovative capabilities into the way we do business both from a people and process perspective can be extremely challenging. I know from talking with marketers every day of the week that many are desperate to find agencies and individuals that are good at data analytics. The reality is that those that possess these types of skills are currently few and far between which is why third parties with decent data credentials are being snapped up and paid a significant premium as soon as they hit the market.
Individually, there are incredibly smart data analytics and incredibly smart marketers out there but we need to do more to encourage their ‘marriage’. By this I mean making either collaborative teams or individuals approach things from a more whole brain or whole of business perspective.
In last week’s ADMA AC&E Awards for example, the Data Analytics category - despite attracting some commendable entries - was one of the categories we chose not to award because they didn’t represent the quality of work that we felt represented the best of the best. Notwithstanding there could have been other macro reasons for the paucity of entries, I’m confident in saying that there are serious issues surrounding finding the right assistance to drive forward insights from data in our market.
From ADMA’s perspective, we are addressing this by having spent the majority of 2015 consulting, auditing and revising our own training offer to better reflect and support new and emerging data-driven practices. This has been a huge focus for us in 2015 and we’ll be rolling out a significantly revised offer in the next few months. We are also ramping up our informal meet-up’s to look at how best to approach a certain discipline or area as we have seen unprecedented volume in terms of demand and actual attendees who are hungry to learn from their peers – and often competitors – how best to improve performance.
It is this sort of collaborative and agile thinking that even the largest of marketing teams and agencies need to adopt as our universe continues to evolve and expand. In many respects teams have to work a little like startups themselves in order to effectively apply the latest innovative data-driven practices to their brand or business. Because it will ultimately only be those that are quick, adaptive, ready for change and on the lookout for new ways of doing things that will successfully ride the tide of innovation that is yet to come.
Jodie Sangster
CEO
ADMA