Dear Don,
You are fired. Maybe this comes as a shock, or maybe after reading Avi Dan’s article you’ve been expecting this. To be honest you were not yet on the CMO’s hit list. You have been on ours for a while and we convinced her it was time to take you out. Hurt? Betrayed? Angry? Yeah, you are probably feeling all of those things. You have no one to blame but yourself. We told you repeatedly that you had to change or our relationship would end.
You are angry now, but when you calm down I hope that you take the time to read the rest of this letter. We appreciate our history with you and we want you to understand why we are firing you. I hope that you really hear what we are saying and use it to change. It’s too late for us, but maybe you can learn from this experience and do better in your next relationship.
It all stems from Big Data. You didn’t recognize the impact it would have on us as marketers and you didn’t adapt how your agency operates. Let me explain.
Big Data: Do you know what Big Data means to marketers? As marketers we love Big Data because it gives us exponentially more information about our customers and prospects. Big Data allows us to better segment our customers. Relatively speaking, five years ago we had x customer segments and today we have 10x (or 100x or 1000x).
24/7 Data Feed: You know all of that Big Data I just mentioned? Well it’s coming in almost instantly after it’s recorded. In the old days data about what prospects and customers were doing was coming in over a period of days, weeks and months. Today it’s instant and constant.
And this has created a huge, Everest-like opportunity for us and for all marketers.
Big Data = Right Message for Bob, Raj, Susan, Suma, and All The Rest: Remember when we used to knock back a couple of Canadian Club and talk about Don Peppers and Martha Rogers and their idea of the 1:1 marketing world? Silly Don and Martha you used to say. Not so silly anymore is it? All of that Big Data allows us to better segment our customers and do a better job of delivering the right message to the right audience. The more data we have the closer we get to the marketer’s dream state of The Market of One.
24/7 Data Feed = Right Message at Right Time: All that Big Data is coming in now, right now. Bob, Raj, Susan and Suma are doing things (clicking something, interacting with an advertising experience, putting things in their cart, abandoning their cart, purchasing something, etc.). And I find out almost right away. Or I should say my store of Big Data finds out right away. That creates the opportunity to tailor and then deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time.
Doesn’t that sound awesome? (Yes, I realize I sound a little gushy). But it is awesome! We live in a world where we can do what marketers have always wanted to do. Be relevant. All the time.
BUT there is a flip side to this opportunity. We have more data. We are able to better segment our customers. We have the ability to deliver relevant messages within a relevant window of time.
And now we have to execute against this opportunity. Here are some harsh realities of executing against the opportunity of Big Data.
Big Data = More Customer Segments = More Campaigns & More Content: All of that Big Data gives us an opportunity to deliver the right message to the right audience. That ends up translating into more campaigns (or more variations of them) and more content (landing pages, display ads, email marketing, etc.) that we have to get in front of them. If we don’t then we are not taking advantage of the core opportunity that Big Data gives us.
24/7 Feed = Real-Time Marketing = Real-Time Competition: All of that data is coming in instantly and constantly. And because we live in a world saturated with content, Bob, Raj, Susan and Suma have increasingly limited spans of attention and interest. I need to get to them quicker. I can’t sit on that data. It gets stale. Really fast. And you know my competitors that used to be a car ride away. Now they are a click away. I can’t wait. I need to operate at a quicker pace or my messages are not going to be timely. And that means they are not going to be relevant. And that means I just threw away our Big Data advantage.
Do you get it now? Lets bring this full circle and back to you. And why we are firing you today. It comes down to ONE BIG THING.
Great Creative vs. Operational Effectiveness: The world that we live in, that we compete in is one where the winners and losers are increasingly going to be determined by who has a higher operational IQ. Fancy term. Basically it means the winners will be the ones that operate smarter, faster, and better. In today’s environment we have to produce more and produce quicker. You are not setup to operate in this world. You still move at the pace of “2 great ideas a year.” And that used to make you a rock star. And we still want that. In fact we need and want more great ideas. But great ideas and the great create that comes with it is no longer good enough. Today operational effectiveness is just as important as good ideas and jaw dropping creative. This lack (or perhaps disregard) of operational effectiveness is a point that Avi hammered you on. You didn’t listen.
So you are fired and I found someone new. Yes, I already found someone new. And I don’t want to rub salt in the wound, but in the interest of helping you grow let me tell you how they are better than you.
To Be Continued …
Sincerely,
VP Marketing Operations / VP Creative Operations