In this issue: How first party data can help your brand grow. Why it takes a whole organization to build a data repertory. And what you can do if you overspent on digital infrastructure that isn’t delivering Value. (Hint: it isn’t ‘throw more money at the problem.

Experience

This week, I’ve been deep in the trenches with a billion-dollar brand, dissecting their data strategy – or lack of one. This brand, like many others during COVID, threw millions at what they’d been assured was a ‘plug and play’ solution. They bought a Customer Data Platform (CDP) from one of the usual big vendors. They thought they’d struck gold. Spoiler: they hadn’t.

Even worse, the marketing leader decided to fly solo on this one, bypassing the CFO and CTO in the selection process. Now the whole organization is suffering:

• The CDP isn’t performing because IT was left out of the loop. So they’re stuck with garbage in, garbage out data. (The technical data science term for that is ‘crap’. That’s how trustworthy and reliable it is.)
• The CDP is now seen as a money pit, not a Value-driver, because it wasn’t designed with the needs of the entire organization in mind. Because of that, it isn’t delivering any ROI worth talking about. And it’s difficult to see how it ever could.

Here’s the deal: none of us is an island. Creating an audience-centric marketing platform isn’t about going it alone. It’s not an opportunity for Marketers to become superheroes. It’s about collaboration.

That’s the conversation I’m having with the leaders of this organization now. They have to work together to find a solution that fits the whole firm, not just one silo. And they have to make sure that whatever it delivers is totally trustworthy and reliable.

What am I advising them to do? Ditch the third-party CDP. I’m telling the CFO to write it off as a sunk cost and move on. Instead, double down on building a proper first-party data repository with a plan. One that involves Marketing, IT, and Finance all pulling in the same direction.

Here’s the vision: not just another CDP, but a fully integrated first-party data strategy worth the investment. That delivers Value. And that aligns with a real, audience-centric marketing strategy:

Reflection

EWe all know ‘data is currency’. But, to me, what I shared above is NOT about data.

It’s about what Marketing is supposed to do: creating markets. Data is just a tool that helps us to do this.

Every Marketers’ job is to create markets for the brand of which they’re a steward. That’s true whether you’re a high-powered data scientist, a lowly intern or the CMO.

Even the smallest YouTube influencer realizes this. They focus on a tiny slice of their addressable market. They don’t try to talk to ‘everybody’. They find the niche that suits their message best. And then they grow it. Well, it’s the same for multi-billion dollar brands. Only bigger.

Every successful brand, and every successful Marketing team that supports that brand, has not just one, but probably tens or hundreds of ‘micro audiences’. These are that brand’s high-value ‘SuperFans’.

Your first-party data strategy will enable you to cut through the noise. It will give you the power to:

• identify the low-value distractors who aren’t worth your time
• nurture your core audience
• and double down on your SuperFans

It’s all about you, the Marketer, owning a bigger slice of the pie with your target “superfan” audiences. And yes, it’s especially about finding those who over-index as those Superfans, SuperDonors, or SuperCustomers.

A first-party data strategy is about having a laser-focused understanding of your brand’s product-market fit. It’s about knowing your SuperFans inside and out, and delivering them the Value they crave. (Which will deliver your organization the Value you need.)

References

During COVID, brands threw cash at their digital infrastructure because they needed to keep consumers glued to their screens. Case in point:

• The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) reported U.S. digital ad spend hit $139.8 billion in 2020, a 12.2% jump from the previous year. For the first time, digital ad spend outpaced traditional media.
• A Gartner survey found 67% of companies sped up their digital projects during the pandemic, with many shifting capital expenditures to support online channels.

But that’s history. And no one can change the past. It’s what you do now that matters.

If yours is one of the organizations that overspent on adtech and martech infrastructure which isn’t delivering, now’s the time to cut the dead weight. Say goodbye to expensive third-party adtech or martech that’s not driving Value. And say hello to a first-party data strategy built on

a) off-the-shelf & in-housed components (GCP, Azure, AWS + Salesforce + Google’s GMP + Meta + Amazon Ads + etc) and

b) collaboration between Marketing, Finance and Technology.

A strategy that leverages the expertise of your finance and tech teams to drive real, measurable success.

If you’d like to discuss your career journey with me one-to-one, please feel free to email me at Greg@moveupfaster.me or message me on LinkedIn.

Thank you for reading.

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