The local marketing industry is becoming too focused on data, instead of viewing it as supplementary to creativity and using it to inform it is beginning to dictate.
Data helps companies and brands make informed decisions but Lucio Ribeiro, lead strategist at Online Circle and co-founder of SocialPulse, feels marketers are beginning to become too focused on data.
“Clearly data cannot make every decision. As in any industry there are the two sides and there is the middle. There are the aggressive ones who say data is going to replace everything,” Ribeiro told B&T.
“Honestly, they are wrong. It will not. The reality is nothing replaces our own creativity. Analytics and data can give insights so we can run better businesses and present a superior offering.
“But nothing replaces our own gut feeling or understanding of the industry, shaking hands and business relationships. Data supports, it doesn’t replace.”
Ribeiro, who has also worked at Ogilvy & Mather and other agencies in Brazil, is an advocate of social media analytics for brands. At a Social Data Week event this evening Ribeiro will argue that social data helps to structure unstructured data and build benchmarks, that it give brands a competitive advantage and helps companies avoid embarrassing social media blunders.
He has also discovered through interviews with marketers of numerous big-name brands that they want to know how their category – and not just their direct competitors – fare in social media.
The insight gave life to Online Circle’s reports which map out the country’s most liked categories, brands and brand Facebook pages. In its June report Online Circle discovered travel to be the most liked category.
