It's all about Data and Content

June 17

Day 3 of the Cannes Lion Festival consists of data, data, data. Oh and also content, content and did I mention data? Decoded and Exponential, two companies dedicated to analyzing market research, began the day by expanding on the word advertisers have been throwing around "data." 

Bryan Melmed, director of insights at Exponential, says to stop stereotyping people and genres. 

"When a client comes to me and asks me to reach 'millennials' I ask them what they mean. You've only given me an age group, there is so much more." He goes on to discuss that the generation referred to as millennials is the first generation not defined by a war, a movement or a collectiveness. The internet drove this age group to branch out into thousands of groups and communities that can no longer be stereotyped...but it can be analyzed. In fact, the internet made every age group branch out into little niche communities. What Bryan and Decoded are proposing is that data aid the way of marketing. 

Bryan insists that robots are not taking marketing, advertising and PR jobs, they are helping them. One interesting thing he discovered is that machines are horrible at two things: picking up patterns and emotion. The data is still so human. The context can change at any moment and a machine cannot detect that by itself. 

"We don't want to give you a robot, we want to give you the robot suit." -Bryan Melmed

Not only can data enhance the way marketing, or even any practice will be done in the future, the reach will lead creatives to the content that users want: case in point YouTube. 

It's already common knowledge that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, next to its parent Google, so it's only natural that marketers and advertisers should listen to what it's doing. Famous YouTube star KassemG discusses the power YouTube has when it comes to making a voice. YouTube connects with audiences and provides content people want to watch. He states that most of his early stuff on YouTube was just for fun and half of the audience shaped his content like his comedy shorts "California On." 

I have always been a strong advocate of YouTube. If advertisers want meaningful connections and stories, YouTube is the poster boy. Hundreds of talented YouTubers have a large fan base that connects with them daily about larger social issues and even what to eat for breakfast.  But instead if going in and trying to "help" the YouTubers get better at marketing...we should let them do it their own way. We can't argue because they have the data to prove it. So the correct line would be - Robots aren't stealing our jobs, YouTubers are. So we can learn from them!