The marketing industry may be going crazy for consumer data, but data is nothing without insight. Marketing company Y&R’s global CEO David Sable says the “digi-babble” and “BS” about data is missing something.
“Data’s not new,” Sable tells Beet.TV in this video interview. “Thirty years ago, we all grew up using data. Today, we have way more sales data available. The problem is, it is all about what I did 10 minutes ago. The trick is to turn it in to insight that might inform me what I’m about to do 10 minutes from now.”
In a recent LinkedIn post, Sable argued people often mistake applied technology for new technology, saying people tend to see everything that is new as never-before-seen. He says marketers need to know more than basic data about consumers.
“It’s not about Big Data – in our world, it’s about primal data,” Sable tells Beet.TV. “It’s about you as a person – I need to understand who you are and why you’ve done what you did. Otherwise, all I have is a record of what you did 10 seconds ago.
“I need to know more about you. We have more data about your health, we have more data about when you wake up in the morning, when you go to sleep at night, what you buy, where you’re walking. All of this adds to a picture of you as a person that we can use to give you more information.”
We interviewed him as part of the series The Road to Cannes, our lead-up to the Cannes Lions Festival presented by Coull. Please visit this page for additional segments.