3 innovative ways you can use data in marketing and advertising

The tendency to think of data as little more than numbers is tempting. There are, in fact, a number of innovative ways you can use data creatively in advertising. 

It can do more than simply monitor progress and be used to inform strategy going forwards. Using data to actively engage with audiences and as a focal point of attention can transform it from a tool into a showpiece. This week we have three innovative uses of data to get your outside the box ideas flowing.

Turn heads

Data can be ugly and difficult to consume. But, when data is presented creatively it doesn’t have to be kept in the background.  

This is exactly the takeaway that marketers should learn from Spotify’s latest marketing campaign. You may have noticed their adverts adorned across billboards from New York to London to Paris. They combined data with Out Of Home (OOH) advertising to give a humorous, topical and regionally-focused twist to their insights.

Some of the best have included witty lines such as “Dear Person who played “Sorry” 42 times on Valentines’ Day, what did you do?” In the UK, one board proclaimed “Dear 3,749 people who streamed “It’s the End Of The World As We Know It” the day of the Brexit vote, hang in there”.

Spotify are using the tag line “Thanks 2016. It’s been weird.” The brand has cleverly tapped into the sense of this a turbulent year coming to an end. This is a trend which has played out on social media through memes in recent weeks.

For AdWeek, the strategy ‘is a clever, engaging way to use data to humanise technology. And it works particularly well for music, since people do have such a passionate emotional connection to it—which does lead to some quirky data points indeed.’

Share and share alike

Much is said about the sharing economy. Companies like AirBnB and Uber leading the way towards a more open and cooperative economy based on the communication opportunities offered by the internet. 

Back in 2013, The Economist reported that almost everything is for hire. It is easier than ever to rent a room or boat or dog walker in almost any part of the world. For The Economist ‘the big change is the availability of more data about people and things, which allows physical assets to be disaggregated and consumed as services.’

Now in 2016, Signal has reported that as the seemingly unstoppable trend towards ever more integration and sharing continues. They say that ‘marketers will be joining the collaborative economy as they seek ways to maximise one of their most valuable assets: first-party data.’

It is argued that this modern version of mailing list data-sharing allows marketers to reach their audiences at an increasingly specific point in their journey as a customer. We’re moving beyond social media giants such as Facebook as the only way to draw cross-platform data. Now, we’re looking towards strategically sharing first party data with other organisations. It’s possible to increase the scale and reach of your campaigns and reduce the gaps in your organisation’s knowledge of the holistic customer experience.

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