Truly Data Driven: Should You be Data Driven or Data Conscious? (And a load of useful data resources)

Welcome back to Truly Data Driven!

Today, you’ll find an interesting study (via the Martech Show video podcast) on the Marketing Technology Landscape—who are the biggest category winners and losers?

In addition, we cover a very practical Gartner webinar that’s useful for all who run or work in a data analytics organization (whether for marketing, or not). Also highlighted is a thought-provoking article on acknowledging issues surrounding the overall data analysis process. Then, we have a marketing analytics mega-post, a very detailed CMO survey, and a link to the recent Data.world summit!

As always, reach out if you have other useful resources for future newsletters! With that, let’s proceed.

Which Martech Categories Are Growing the Most? (Video Interview)

Martech Wars: Martech Show (Episode 12) 

Scott Brinker hosts Oren Greenberg, founder of growth marketing consultancy Kurve. Oren has done very detailed analysis on the categories from the Marketing Technology Landscape based on website traffic from SimilarWeb.

In it he analyzes the fastest growing categories in the landscape (as measured by traffic)—Governance, Compliance and Privacy (+569%), ABM (+232%) and CDPs (+165%)—and discusses the methodology, potential reasons, and takeaways.

He also covers the biggest decliners, including the DMP category (very related to the gain in the CDP category mentioned above). It’s a very interesting discussion and well worth the time!

Source: Marketing Technology Landscape via ChiefMartec.com; Slide via Oren Greenberg on Martech Show (Episode 12)

The 4 Elements that Make Marketing Analytics More Impactful (Webinar)

Gartner: Lizzy Foo Kune and Jason McNellis 

Available on-demand, this webinar discusses how companies use marketing analytics (including specific case studies) and four useful lessons that all companies, large or small, can take away and use immediately. It provides ways to avoid common pitfalls of analytics, how to incite action based on data, how to do more experiments and spread that knowledge throughout the organization, and how to have a mindset of improvement.

Source: Gartner webinar, The 4 Elements That Make Marketing Analytics More Impactful 

Why we should be data-conscious, not data driven (Article)

This thought-provoking essay by Michael Hoole of the FT (Financial Times) explores the potential biases or motivations that can surround the whole data process (gathering, analysis, presentation, etc.). And why we shouldn’t treat data as neutral or “apolitical.”

“The problem with the phrase ‘data-driven’ is that it treats data as an apolitical entity that informs value judgements rather than being subjected to them—when we know this isn’t the case in our lived experience. Who collects the data, what data gets collected and which data is valued most highly are big, complex, morally ambiguous questions that we shouldn’t (and can’t) shy away from.” —Michael Hoole

Image Source: Medium, Michael Hoole of the FT (Financial Times)

Coronavirus Impact on Marketing Mega-post

Stats roundup: the impact of Covid-19 on marketing & advertising 

eConsultancy pulled together a great mega-post on stats related to the coronavirus and marketing. The areas covered include stats related to the impact on advertising, social media, customer experience, workplace, entertainment, employment and retail/FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods). Highly recommended post to review and bookmark.

Source: eConsultancy, Stats roundup: the impact of Covid-19 on marketing & advertising 

CMO Survey: Latest Marketing Survey Results Available

The CMO Survey released their latest results in February. It’s full of insight about marketing— especially how marketing, advertising, and digital investment changed during the pandemic. One highlight—less than 50% of companies use quantitative metrics to demonstrate the long-term impact of marketing.

Source: CMOSurvey.org

Data.world Summit

For those looking to learn from other data practitioners, a replay of the data.world summit is available for free. Learn from Wenjing Zhang of LinkedIn, Kirk Borne, Ph.D. of Booz Allen, Pablos Holman, Hacker and Inventor, Claire Look, VP of Data at The Zebra, and many more. Gain access here.

Source: data.world

Editor’s note: This is Edition 2 of the Truly Data Driven newsletter, published biweekly on LinkedIn. Subscribe to the series here. If you have a tip on a great resource to include in a future edition of Truly Data Driven, drop a line to Tom Treanor!