The document discusses how big data is transforming marketing by enabling more targeted and creative campaigns. It argues that while big data helps marketers precisely target specific customer groups, it also provides opportunities for more engaging creative messaging. The blending of data and marketing allows companies to deliver effective and accountable campaigns. By understanding customer segments in depth, creative teams can develop messages that truly resonate. Overall, big data is presented as enhancing both the strategic and creative aspects of marketing.

1. How Big Data Stimulates Creative
Marketing
Nov 3, 2015
Jessica Hawthorne |inShare21
http://www.adotas.com/2015/11/how-big-data-stimulates-creative-marketing/
Authors Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier say
in their book Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think,
that Big Data is “about extracting new insights or creating new forms of value in ways that
change markets, organizations, the relationship between citizens and governments, and
more.”
No matter how comfortable (or uncomfortable) you and your company are with using Big
Data, it has undeniably transformed business–and will continue to do so. Marketing is
especially affected, as access to more accurate data is driving marketers to consider the
ROI of campaigns in terms of revenue and company growth metrics. Marketers that best
leverage this data are earning higher ROIs and working more efficiently. Their data-based
decisions allow them to spot new opportunities and customer targets and better serve
existing customers’ needs.
But are marketers still allowed to be creative?
At Hawthorne Direct we view the coming together of data and marketing as powerful
combination that enables companies to deliver effective, engaging and creative campaigns
that are also accountable for results. True, Big Data has helped blur the line between
marketing’s bottom line and creative, which have historically been seen as separate but
equal. But that turns out to be a good thing.
While Big Data helps you accurately target a specific consumer group with precise
definitions of their demographic, the regions where those consumers reside, and the best
possible TV, digital, or other media placement opportunities, that information also gives the
creative side exciting new ways to shape their message.
If the audience is Midwestern business women or Southern California single moms, data
means you can build creative that really connects to the target market. Big data essentially
makes you “smarter” and allows you to get even more granular with your creative

2. messaging which, in a lot of cases, could benefit from better pinpointing and direction. Big
Data analytics means you don’t have to hit everyone in the country with a general
advertising blitz, you can instead target specific groups. This shifts your media, creative,
and distribution decisions, moving you from guesswork to informed decision-making based
on real information.
Factoring in creative decisions on the front end minimizes waste. Creative teams can focus
on more important tasks, instead of tripping over ideas on the cutting room floor. They can
put their brilliant brains to work coming up with approaches that truly engage audiences
across the spectrum – from TV to print to digital to social, and everything in-between. This
in turn frees up marketers to strongly push for maximum effectiveness because it’s
operating at a lowered margin of error.
So whether you’re a startup or an established firm that’s dumped cash into Super Bowl ads,
using creative for smaller and more focused campaigns is both a more affordable and far
more effective approach. Marketers should embrace data and share it with the creative
teams so that together they can create messages that precisely target audiences’ wants
and desires. This new dynamic ensures marketers that their message is powered by finely-
honed creative ideas that help them hit ROI goals.
Jessica Hawthorne-Castro is the CEO and Chairman of Hawthorne Direct, an analytics and
technology-based agency that specializes in Accountable Brand Advertising. Hawthorne Direct
has been a leader in the Direct Response industry that was pioneered by Founder and
Strategic Advisor Tim Hawthorne nearly 30 years ago. Jessica’s leadership role involves
innovations in analytics and accountable advertising accompanied with service-oriented
relationships with the company’s high profile clients, helping them to envision, create, and
execute powerful advertising campaigns that build brands and ignite consumers. To date,
Jessica’s clients have included 3M (Command, Post-it, Scotch-Brite), Armor All, Audible, Black
& Decker, Brother, Carbonite, Dyson, Fellowes, Gerber, Hamilton Beach, Home Advisor,
Hoover, L'Oreal, Neat, PETA, Remington, Transamerica, United Healthcare, zulily.com and
more. She can be reached at (310) 248-3972 or via email at
jessica.hawthorne@hawthornedirect.com.