One of our own marketing highlights this year has been all the collaborations we have done with industry leaders. We have considerably expanded our network of contacts to produce: guest blogs, interviews, (virtual) events and podcasts. We have always aimed to share the most valuable information, fresh ideas and perspectives from the most talented professionals within the sector.
We have selected the most insightful contributions of 2020 (by topic) to inspire you in the upcoming year. We hope you find it useful!
“Audience intelligence is the process of architecting audiences, dissecting them into smaller clusters, and then analyzing patterns, habits and behavior. The result is actionable and defendable insights that you can use to make data-informed decisions.” (original article) | Michael Brito, EVP of Digital & Analytics at Zeno Group
“Audience intelligence is essential and should sit in the heart of any media planning strategy. It is the foundational layer to any successful media plan.
“Audience intelligence is probably the most important data you can use to break through the noise and really make an impact. It puts you in the same environment, the same mindset, and the same playing field as your customers. It takes you from the zoo, straight to the jungle.” (original article) | Michael Brito, EVP of Digital & Analytics at Zeno Group
“A few clicks of a button and a semiautomatic process can give you insights rich enough to set up your whole strategy. That’s bloody remarkable! Not
“The vast majority of an audience are lurkers, people that don't engage
“Why would you be looking for performance indicators? If you're carrying out audience research your KPIs apply to your own organisation, they don't apply to you. If you approach a problem thinking that you need KPIs you're building a brick wall for yourself." (original article) | Edward Bass, Creative Digital Strategist
“When planning a successful campaign we ask ourselves questions like: where is our audience spending time online? Do they read and engage with certain news publishers, social media platforms etc? And which websites are they more likely to visit based off the accounts they follow? This is important for cross-channel optimisation and creating niche advanced whitelists.” (original article) | Danielle Johns, Senior Audience Strategist at Encore Digital Media
“Audience intelligence isn't a new approach, but a great way to dive into the data that is available today to better understand audiences beyond demographics and what we’ve been relying on for so long (broad assumptions and predetermined segments), to then understand our audiences through who they truly are.” (original article) | India White, Founder & Chief Strategist at Port Tack
“Communication has always been about society, facing into the world rather than into the business and a focus on people is what makes social intelligence what it is. You don’t need to be a data scientist to use data. In fact, some of the leaders in social intelligence started out in comms roles.” (original article) | Jillian Ney, Founder of The Social Intelligence Lab
“Personalisation is a wonderful thing. But not when it comes at the cost of strategic understanding. As discovery, trial and consumption race towards digital channels across every industry, companies face unprecedented opportunities to personalise every consumer experience. However, many companies invest in tactical personalisation at the expense of the strategic guidance that an audience strategy offers.” (original article) | David Boyle, audiencestrategies.com
“Consumers want relevance in the marketing messages they receive from brands. So whether it’s on a personal, persona or broader segment level
“Persona marketing, done well, groups our target audiences based on common interests or characteristics to create customer-centric strategies and experiences that will resonate with each group in a personalized manner. We need to be sure our personas are accurate and reflect consumer fragmentation. We all like to feel unique and receive individual messages, but as I said, leaving sensitive information outside of the equation.” (original article) | Tamara Lucas, Associate director at Convosphere
“From informing creative executions based on audience insights, to planning how to best build cross-media campaigns programmatically that enable multi-channel messaging, and finally through to the execution, where learnings can be applied during the campaign to enable in-flight optimisation across channels, data should be utilised throughout the whole campaign process." (original article) | Jean-Christophe Conti, CEO of VIOOH
“Too often marketers see a conflict between data and creativity, with the former typically seen as stymying the latter. This perceived incompatibility is a version of C. P. Snow’s ‘The two cultures’ all over again. Snow made his complaint about arts versus sciences back in the 1950s - can’t we move on? If the system’s working properly, data doesn’t stymy creativity. It does the very opposite: it helps to unlock its potential by making creative assets more customisable, adaptable, relevant, fleet-of-foot and nuanced in the delivery. As an industry, we might not quite be there yet when it comes to a seamless intermeshing of the two, but the future possibilities are endless and exciting.” (original article) | Geoff Copps, Managing partner, head of data at Kinesso - an IPG company
“Data has the capacity to inform a host of decisions and strategies for brands. However, there should always be room for surprise too. As such, creativity that is informed by data leaves room for human interventions and interpretation.” (original article) | Tim Bond, Head of Insight and PR at Data & Marketing Association
“Great creatives informed by data are only half of the formula to achieving memorable advertising; ensuring that the execution is relevant, seen in the right context, and by the right audience is just as critical”. (original article) | Jean-Christophe Conti, CEO of VIOOH
“The data and learnings need to flow across different channels, not just the departments. The creative output should be informed by each channel’s performance and engagement, not treated ‘in-silo’ or judged independently if the goal is sequential storytelling or driving an action.” (original article) | Mike Gray, Head of Client Strategy & Engagement at MiQ
“More brands will be able to stay true to who they really are vs chasing
“The need to get insights from advertising and social networks will not stop growing and it will not change in the future. Let's hope that the depreciation of third-party cookies does not further fragment the vision that we have of users online, generating even more silos.” (original article) | Oscar López Cuesta, Audience Chapter Leader at Orange
“The main challenge in programmatic advertising is addressing the slow demise of the third-party cookie. Privacy regulations and changes in tracking mechanisms means there has been a drop off in the number and range of third-party data segments programmatic marketers use and have relied on for over a decade. In response to this shift, we have become more creative in the way we start to understand and target audiences.” (original article) | Danielle Johns, Senior Audience Strategist at Encore Digital Media
“Hopefully it (the end of 3rd-party cookies) will allow creativity to thrive again. Cookie's only helped us influence audiences and drive a form of digital direct marketing. Now we can get back to developing great ideas and targeting them through understanding what media channels they consume and creating relevant and engaging ideas. The creative industry will not be affected by this only the tech companies and media agencies driving programmatic advertising will suffer. (original article) | Mike White, CEO and founding partner at Lively Worldwide
“Moving to a cookie-less world shouldn't be considered as losing any personalization capabilities, but as an open door to explore and innovate. As marketers, we may lose the ability to hit a potential buyer with the last
“In this extraordinary time, we underline more than ever that decision-makers should take decisions based on solid, unbiased and fact-based
“Understanding what the key dynamics are, and acting on them, will be critical for business success in the recovery stage. Times of crisis create a sense of flux for consumer behaviour and we need to be engaged and empathetic to the new realities many will find themselves in. Against this backdrop we should also be enthused, as the coming months – probably years – will be the most interesting times for new audience understanding and insights for a generation.” (original article) | Peter White, Exec Director, Marketing Intelligence at OMD EMEA
“The current situation will help marketers to use social data to understand their audiences better. I hope also that brands will get more clarity on their role in peoples' lives and take more responsibility for it. As a consequence of lockdown, conversations at all levels are being channelled through social. People are telling us about their feelings and reactions to adversity, often at a profound level. Some brands may be openly discussed less, but the customers of all brands are talking about themselves more. We are learning what really matters and far-sighted marketers will apply this knowledge as part of the 'new normal'.” (original article) | Philip Lynch, Independent consultant & lecturer at University of Westminster
“We’re living in a world where we now understand that media audiences are
"At the time when we every part of our lives is being disrupted hugely by the confinement measures, everything from our family lives to our ability to earn a living, the socio-economic impact of that is tremendous. Through social
“Your consumers are likely to have changed significantly based on their experiences over the past few months. It’s crucial that all brands systematically assess their current approach to audiences and targeting to understand whether it’s designed for a transformed consumer landscape.” (original article) | Peter White, Exec Director, Marketing Intelligence at OMD EMEA
“Listening is always an important skill in insights, but at the moment it is the key skill. In order to ask questions, you need to know what the right questions are. At the moment, while we are all flying blind, we are less sure that we know the questions – so listening is key. Find out what people are saying to each other, decode what they mean, and analyse what it means for your business.” (original article) | Ray Poynter, Founder of NewMR
“Social media data is essential to keeping abreast with the changing communication landscape at the moment. While qualitative research is
Audiense is committed to having a more diverse and inclusive selection of contributors and industry thought leaders in our articles. If you’re interested in collaborating with us, please emailleticia@audiense.comand include your specialist areas of expertise, and/or preferred subjects for commentary.