Week 1 – MBA6101 – Surfing the Tsunami

The first chapter of Surfing the Tsunami (Kelsey, 2018) really hit home. In particular, the following three things:

1. "You can't really take anything for granted, including continued employment...follow the money trail". I, too, didn't hit the realization early on in my career. I was so focused on output that I lost sight of 5-10-15 year trends or outlooks.
• How I closed the gap/reset: I started to look at the trades, which for advertising is Adweek. On LinkedIn, I started following brands I admire/use, and learned what they are doing, how they are innovating, what they are prioritizing (read Annual Reports and crunch the numbers). At work, I started enrolling in Webinars my company provides and reading (OK, skimming) trends reports that the Leo Burnett team of librarians put together for agency employees.
2. "The better data that a business has, the more profitable you can be, when you are armed with the power that comes from data". This is 1000% true. My first account in advertising/marketing in 1999 was for Walt Disney Resorts and I was on the database marketing team that managed the 800# for the lead generation effort whose ultimate output was fulfillment of vacation planning videos via direct mail.
• How I used this know-how to be where I am today: database marketing was the genesis for Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM), which evolved to digital marketing. Back then, it was about personalization (I learned that doing it wrong is worse than not doing it at all) and data integrity (how standardized/clean the data was/is impacts the experience the customer gets). I was on the least sexy team at the turn of the century; trust me when I say that there was no sizzle video for the work I was doing. Fast forward to the present and I work with programmers, engineers, UX designers, vendors, Data & Analytics (named DNA for short--so very clever!) team that crunches numbers for us, etc. in a highly collaborative way, so I understand each touchpoint. This intel helps my help my clients connect the dots, see/feel our value, and push their comfort level with the safety net that is "test and learn". I believe my dbase marketing roots benefits me, my team, and my clients, to clearly see the interconnectedness of each cog in the wheel.
3. "Think of artificial intelligence as the brain behind either hardware or software...it is increasing automation...and is poised to increase in [its] impact [to the world]." This point is what ties points one and two above. It's the convergence of offline (machining) and online (software) with the software potentially redefining not only a step here or there but entire processes, making things happen faster because of the ability to automate the collection, and subsequently analyze and visualize the data. Formulas can be created to quickly take data inputs and convert them into insights to drive business.
• What I must do: In digesting this content, I gathered from the text that one must have a tremendous sense of urgency. I don't have that yet for AI. It's still very much a concept, theoretical in my head, and I hope to get on board the wagon or risk being left behind. I am not technocozy, to borrow a Guerrilla Marketing concept; I am very much a technophobe so this class is forcing me to face that head-on and work to close the gap.

In a nutshell, this is a data driven world and data driven marketing is a tool to impact a business' bottom line. There's a really great article I encourage you to read, that while a little dated (looks like it's from 2015 or 2016-ish), it was a trend identified then, so we have the benefit of hindsight today to validate the points made. This screenshot sums it up nicely:

References:

i-SCOOP. (n.d.). Data-driven marketing: state, benefits and drivers. Retrieved May 9, 2022, from https://www.i-scoop.eu/data-driven-marketing-the-state-benefits-and-drivers-of-data-marketing/ 

Kelsey, T. (2018). Surfing the Tsunami: An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Options for Responding.