The document discusses the history and current state of big data in marketing automation. It provides a historical overview from the 1970s to present day, noting how marketing channels, targeting, cycle times, and data availability have changed over time. Today's state of the art incorporates real-time cloud technologies, vast data sources, and highly personalized targeting. The document projects that opportunities in precision targeting will increase but also new skills around privacy and integration. Consumer control and expectations around privacy are also rising while innovation in products and services continues rapidly.

1. Marketing Automation
and Big Data
From Lotus Marketplace
to Acxiom’s Aboutthedata.com and Beyond
Peter O’Kelly
Chief Data Officer, ShopAdvisor
12/2/2014

2. Agenda
• Context setting
• A historical recap of big data in marketing
automation
• Today’s state-of-the-art
• Some projections
• Discussion
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3. Context Setting
• Marketing automation
– “The term ‘marketing automation’ has grown
from referring to simple workflow tools to help
companies and their partners manage campaigns
to being used to cover a much broader and more
amorphous set of capabilities.”
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4. Context Setting
• Big data
– Weirdly, there is no industry consensus on a detailed
“big data” definition
– The overall significance of big data market dynamics
• Many data management technologies that used to be
complex, expensive, and scarce are now almost absurdly
accessible, affordable, and abundant
– Unfortunately, “big data” as a meme has also probably
been over-hyped into meaninglessness
– For marketing automation concerns, just think of data
– default big – and legacy data
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5. Agenda
• Context setting
• A historical recap of big data in marketing
automation
• Today’s state-of-the-art
• Some projections
• Discussion
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6. Snapshot: c1970
• Marketing
– Channels: print, radio, TV, out-of-home ads
– Targeting: geographic, demographic…
– Cycle times: often seasonal and campaign-based
– Automation: not so much…
• Data
– Mainstream information technology: mainframes
– Data sources: limited and expensive
– Data scope and analytics: limited
• Consumer perspectives: marketing seen as a mix of mostly
mass market advertising and in-person sales engagements
– With a high degree of information asymmetry
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7. Tech Snapshot: Nielsen
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8. Snapshot: c1990
• Marketing
– Channels: business as usual, for the most part
– Targeting: still often geographic, demographic…
– Cycle times: also mostly business as usual
– Automation: expanding use of workflow tools
• Data
– Mainstream IT: mainframes, minicomputers, database machines, PCs
– Data sources: expanding, and becoming more accessible and
affordable
– Data scope and analytics: PC-based tools augmenting traditional
techniques
• Consumer perspectives: some privacy concerns and growing
awareness of data aggregators and brokers
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9. Tech Snapshot: Lotus Marketplace
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10. Snapshot: c2010
• Marketing
– Channels: major emphasis on Web and email
– Targeting: geographic, demographic, psychographic, content profile-based,
Web cookies…
– Cycle times: more interactive and dynamic, extensive A/B tests
– Automation: increasingly Web-centric and programmatic
• Data
– Mainstream IT: Web-centric, with the SaaS shift gaining momentum
– Data sources: on the fast track to “big data”; also rapid expansion of
data aggregators and brokers, and explosive social media growth
– Data scope and analytics: rapidly expanding scope; powerful and
predictive Web analytics
• Consumer perspectives: many people annoyed by spam and
ubiquitous ads; growing concerns about privacy and security
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11. 11

12. Agenda
• Context setting
• A historical recap of big data in marketing
automation
• Today’s state-of-the-art
• Some projections
• Discussion
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13. Today’s State of the Art
• As if things weren’t already moving fast enough…
recent enablers/drivers include
– Commodity hardware
– Cloud platforms and services
– Smartphones and other mobile devices
– Social media
– Open source
– Open data
– Data services
– Beacon and other proximity-related technologies
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14. Today’s State of the Art
• Some trends with significant momentum
– Programmatic marketing
• With ad markets now resembling high-frequency trading modus
operandi
– Native advertising
• In content, apps, social media streams, …
– Combining on-line and off-line profiles and activity data
– Proximity-based mobile marketing
• Back to the future trend: major focus on driving consumer traffic
to physical stores
– “Internet of Things”
– “Digital anthropology”
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15. Another Big Data Twist
• Google, Facebook, and other service providers
are strongly rewarding quality and relevant
content
– As rated by their criteria, based on their analysis of
user and content activity patterns
• Within ad marketplaces they increasingly dominate
• Examples
– Google organic search results and stringent quality
criteria for ad placement bids
– Facebook’s policy (starting 1/2015) for “reducing
overly promotional page posts in news feed”
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16. Consumer-Related Reactions
• Many consumers likely annoyed by retargeting
• Calls for expanded privacy and security regulation
• Some vendors making consumer privacy a top
priority and competitive differentiator
– Especially Apple
• And yet some paradoxical dimensions, e.g., a
recent Pew Research Center survey summarized
in the New York Times as “Americans say they
want privacy, but act as if they don’t”
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17. Consumer-Related Reactions
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18. Recap: Today’s State of the Art
• Marketing
– Channels: everything… with a major focus on mobile and social
– Targeting: a cumulative build, adding retargeting, social graph models,
proximity, and much more…
– Cycle times: ad auctions measured in milliseconds; proximity-based
offers made in real-time
– Automation: full-spectrum and mission-critical
• Data
– Mainstream IT: real-time, omni-channel, and cloud-centric
– Data sources: aggregators/brokers and on-line leaders partnering for
“onboarding”
– Data scope and analytics: in some respects perhaps leading the NSA…
• Consumer perspectives:
– Likely to dread “Minority Report” scenarios on mobile devices
– Consumer privacy control is now a competitive differentiator
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19. Agenda
• Context setting
• A historical recap of big data in marketing
automation
• Today’s state-of-the-art
• Some projections
• Discussion
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20. Projections
• New opportunities and imperatives
• Incredible innovation in related products and
services
• Consumer information symmetry and
personal information control
• Back to data basics
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21. New Opportunities and Imperatives
• William Gibson: “The future is already here – it’s just not
evenly distributed”
• Opportunities
– Incredible precision in targeting and customer journey/funnel
phase tracking
– Database technology and services making it possible to maintain
360-degree perspectives
• But also new critical success factors – competitive
imperatives
– New perspectives and skills required
– Unprecedented degrees of integration and coordination
– Privacy and security done wrong can be job (or company) killers
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22. New Opportunities and Imperatives
• Also key to add value with content, products, and
services – relevant, timely, focused, competitive…
• And to clearly and purposefully communicate core value
propositions
• Google and Facebook modus operandi are
important leading indicators
– Qualified/filtered presentation – based on what they
determine is most likely to be relevant and useful
• Assessed by a huge number of metrics
– Many of which you don’t directly control
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23. Product/Service Innovation
• Reduced barriers to entry, in combination with
cloud, open data, and other market dynamics,
have led to incredible product/service
innovation
• But this can be a mixed blessing, with
significant disruption and churn, along with
new opportunities
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24. Innovation in Products and Services

25. Today’s State of the Art
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26. Today’s State of the Art
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27. But Wait, There’s More…

28. Consumer Info Symmetry and Control
• Consumers have unprecedented access to high
quality and timely information resources
– Making it simpler to find the best offerings and deals
• In almost any context
• New and increasingly elaborate privacy and
security expectations
– With personal information management now a
mainstream competitive differentiator
• And new advertising id models potentially supplanting Web
cookies and other identity schemes, over time
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29. Back to Data Basics
• Fundamental price/performance improvements
and new capabilities
– And lots of room for continued innovation ahead
• Making it more important than ever before to
develop skills in
– Data modeling
– Query formulation
– Data analytics – increasingly “democratized”
• Overall: a paradox of abundance in related
products and services, but only helpful if used
effectively
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30. Agenda
• Context setting
• A historical recap of big data in marketing
automation
• Today’s state-of-the-art
• Some projections
• Discussion
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31. Discussion
• This presentation can be downloaded from
the conference Web site
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