How time flies. It doesn’t seem 12 months since the last ADMA
Forum, yet here I am again reflecting on another successful conference.
Last year I took time
out to identify what I had learnt from my time at the ADMA Forum 2011 and
decided it was worthwhile doing so again.
ADMA 2012 was an event of many discussions, some interesting debates and
a new focus for ADMA who launched their new brand and strategic intent.
This year at the Forum I
ran a MasterClass on Data Integration and was very fortunate to have a great
bunch of attendees from quite a diverse range of industries at varying levels on
the Customer Data Integration journey.
My key take outs from the session (additional to my Forum learnings)
were:
1.
While Big Data is
capturing lots of attention, businesses still see significant opportunity in
leveraging the data they’ve already got.
2.
Businesses are looking
for insights from their data that they can use to create a better customer
experience.
3.
Many businesses talk more
about Lifetime Value of a customer than Social Media sentiment analysis.
4.
Integrating disparate
data sources is the first step to being able to gain a single view of the
customer.
5.
Customer centricity is
the holy grail.
To quote Carly Fiorina,
former Executive and President of Hewlett Packard Co from 1999:
"The
goal is to transform data into information, and information into insight"
This goal cannot be
achieved without first solving the Customer Data Integration challenge.
So what were my Top Ten
learnings from ADMA Forum 2012? Glad you asked.
1.
Behavioural economics
whilst incredibly interesting will add no value other than interesting dinner
party anecdotes until it provides predictive insights that are actionable.
2.
Last year Social media
was the most hotly discussed channel, presenting significant opportunity and
risk for marketers –12 months on it would appear that many businesses have not
finalized a strategy and there are still questions about the ROI of Social
Media.
3.
Thanks to the
presentation from Guga Ketzer from Loducca in Brazil I learned:
a) In
Brazil they aren’t born in the “box” so always think outside
the “box”.
the “box”.
b) Saying
blah, blah, blah is an incredibly effective way of emphasizing a point.
c) Print
is still a very effective interactive medium – especially when you think outside the “box”.
d) Response
rates are what matters.
4.
Having a coffee hut at
your stand will draw a crowd – well done Australia Post!
5. Multichannel is passé and Omnichannel is
everything.
6. Overtly pitching your business when you are a
guest speaker or panelist brought on as a thought leader is poor form.
7. Measuring ROI remains one of the most important
issues facing marketers and marketing attribution across all channels is
challenging.
8. Portuguese Custard Tarts are still freaking awesome
– good to see them back again. J
9. No matter how much you think you know; there is
always something new to learn.
10.
ADMA is no longer the
direct marketing association but the Association for Data-driven Marketing &
Advertising. The winds of change have arrived.
Thanks to the team at ADMA, the presenters, the tweeters, the
questioners and all the sponsors who contributed to putting on a good
conference.
See you next year!
GP
