Weave Data Sets Together And Deliver Real Insights

Brands need to recognise how to use data effectively to get closer to customers, says Laurent Faracci, senior VP of global marketing at Reckitt Benckiser.

Creativity 2.0 is storytelling, powered by data and fuelled by technology, claimed Nick O’Brien, CEO of iCrossing, at the Dmexco Exposition and Conference in Cologne.

He explained that for too long the focus on data had been on media, but the industry needed to shift the emphasis towards using it to influence both ideas and creativity.

Laurent Faracci, senior vice-president of global marketing at consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser, felt that some brands had been slow to recognise how they could use data themselves to get closer to customers.

Reckitt Benckiser put data at the heart of its strategy for a recent initiative for the Mucinex Expectorant brand in the U.S. It used location-based customer data, as well as information from doctors and chemists, to deliver a valuable data-driven utility that acts as an early warning system for consumers, alerting them to a new cold bug or epidemic within their area. The campaign helped turn the brand into the market leader in its sector.

Brands also need to learn how to use data to better react to customer needs and wants. As O’Brien pointed out, “the marketing mentality can’t just be about the sale, it needs to be about the relationship. We need to be highly adaptive and responsive.”

This, he claimed, would be key in better understanding the path to purchase and owning that from an experience point of view, especially as we look to weave data from AR, VR, and the Internet of Things into the mix. By mashing together these data sets effectively, it will deliver real insights that give brands a competitive advantage.

However, for global brands like Reckitt Benckiser, the challenge has been to integrate over 350 data sets from around the world into one customer database that can be used to help the brand to better understand their consumers and develop universal metrics that can be used to evaluate success.

Faracci claims that by building their own internal trading desk, which is now responsible for a third of their digital media spend, the brand not only has a better understanding of the media ecosystem, but is also better placed to leverage the data that exists across the business.

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