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1 White Paper | © 2016 Webtrends, Inc.
Is Big Data the Future of Marketing?
White Paper
The Evolution of Marketing DataMarketing data is evolving – from the generic to the specific; beyond
market trends to individual habits; and from historic actions to real-time
engagement.
Previously, we knew that millennials age 25 to 30 replaced their mobile
phones on average every two and a half years. We now can determine
that William replaces his phone three months after new major features
are released, keeping a general eye on new developments and looking
for upgrade deals from his service provider. We also know that Claire
preorders the new iPhone as soon as the availability date for a new model
is announced and has a Google Alert for any mention of Apple iPhones.
It’s not just the richness of data that is changing – it’s the amount and types
of data that are changing, too. A recent report from IBM stated that in just
the last two years, 90 percent of the world’s data had been created. That’s
a staggering statistic, but when you consider the proliferation of mobile
devices and the growth of social channels, it’s not that surprising after
all. Mobile and social channels have also changed the type of data that is
being created because more and more ‘conversations’ are being generated
on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, etc.
While traditional behavioral data based on consumers’ buying habits,
brand preferences and product usage can be easily stored in traditional
databases, this new data is ‘unstructured’ and doesn’t reside in traditional
row-column relational databases. It includes email messages, word
processing documents, videos, photos, audio files, presentations,
webpages and many other kinds of business documents. Today, it’s
estimated that unstructured data makes up 90 percent of all data
generated and it’s much more challenging to harness and extract the
information and insights that are useful to marketing.
According to Brandwatch,
statistics clearly show the
changing volume and
nature of collectable data:
• There are 3.17 billion internet users
• 2.3 billion active social media users
• 1 million new active mobile social
users added every day
• 6 billion searches a day processed by
• 500 million tweets made each day
• 4 million hours of YouTube content
created each day
• 4.3 billion Facebook likes every day
2 White Paper | © 2016 Webtrends, Inc.
So what will our data-saturated world look like two years from now?
Certainly, this data explosion will continue, fueled in part by the increasing
demands for personalized content and the continued increase in social
conversations. More impactful, however, will be the fast expanding growth of
connected devices, known as the Internet of Things (IoT). Gartner Research
estimates that 5.5 million IoT devices are being connected every day – from
fridges, cars and home thermostats to washing machines and TVs.
These devices can enrich the data set available to the marketer but will
only be useful if it is captured, stored, analyzed and understood. This will
challenge even the best data analyst, let alone the marketer, who has to
utilize it effectively to drive future programs and campaigns.
Back to today, where the fact remains that within marketing the only
constant is change. We’ve moved from traditional marketing to digital
marketing and the avalanche of data for marketers has been rapidly
expanding. Most corporations, challenged by these increasing levels of data,
have turned to technology for help. And where they are looking is toward
tools and technologies built for big data.
What is Big Data?Simply put, big data technology can collect, store and manipulate extremely
large data sets, including unstructured data. Unlike traditional databases, it
does not conform to tables of rows and columns or a hierarchical structure.
It is less rigid and allows for flexibility.
Big data technologies provides scalability and performance, with multiple
processors that handle volume, velocity and variety to enable data to be
added and extracted at the same time. This is the basic concept of software
and systems such as Hadoop, Spark, Kafka and Teradata.
Big data has been around for 10 years, but for the marketer, it is only now
becoming the answer they are looking for to corral larger and larger data
sets into a cohesive system. We are finally able to manipulate that data
for specific marketing uses and benefits. Today it’s being harnessed by a
number of enterprises and brands, either in-house or in the cloud, and it is
increasingly an essential part of the corporate ecosystem.
WHAT IS THE IOT?
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a rapidly expanding network of internet-connected sensors attached to ‘things,’ which can be any object with an on and off switch to the internet. Mobile phones, wearable devices, refrigerators and even components of machines are examples of things in the IoT.
The chart shows that in small
volume requirements, traditional
relational databases are very
efficient, but as volumes increase,
big data comes into its own.
LOW
Traditional Relational Database
Big Data Systems with NoSQL
VOLUME OF DATA HIGH
SLO
WFA
ST
3 White Paper | © 2016 Webtrends, Inc.
Leveraging Big Data for MarketingMarketing analytics rely on the feed of information from many sources – websites, market research, social media, etc.
– which needs to be processed and brought together for evaluation in the minimum amount of time. Big data is a
paradigm shift in how this can be done more effectively and efficiently.
Four main areas that represent the characteristics of big data:
Value
VolumeVelocity
VarietyVeracity
1. VolumeThe volume of data that is being accumulated has
grown, and will continue to grow, exponentially.
2. VelocityThe speed at which data continues to grow is now
measured in millions of terabytes per day.
3. VarietyThe types of data are changing rapidly with more than
90 percent of data created being unstructured and
difficult to analyze.
4. VeracityThis is the quality and trustworthiness of the data that is
being used and the interpretation produced.
Value is more ambiguous as the value of big data
is more aligned to individual circumstances, but
nevertheless it should be quantifiable.
4 White Paper | © 2016 Webtrends, Inc.
Why is Big Data Valuable to Marketing?By its very nature, big data technology can provide an infinitely scalable
architecture – you can simply keep adding servers, processors and memory.
For the marketer, utilizing a big data-based analytics platform provides the
surety that, as the level of data increases, there is no latency when large data
sets are being analyzed.
Furthermore, using a big data digital analytics solution can eradicate many of
the frustrations that marketers currently face and will enable them to move:
From To
Yesterday’s data today Real-time reporting everywhere
Aggregate reports Individual-level detail
Analysed/pre-processed/static On the fly/ad hoc
Volume and variable limits Collect whatever you need
Trade-off between scale and accuracy High levels of accuracy at scale
You’ll future-proof your marketing.With the continuing growth of data certain to explode further, especially
around the IoT, there will be increasing pressure to select which data to
capture and which will be relevant. The desire to capture everything may
not always be the answer, but you cannot predict which data today is or
isn’t going to useful in a year or two. Today’s limitations with regard to the
amount of data you can capture, as well as in most cases the number of
variables you can actually report on, restricts marketers from gaining a
complete view of consumer behavior. The ability to scale without limit,
within a big data analytics solution, frees these restrictions and allows for
unlimited data capacity and an unlimited number of variables, giving you
the capability to capture and record anything you believe may be of value
now and in the future.
5 White Paper | © 2016 Webtrends, Inc.
You’ll be more responsive to your business.Utilizing big data technology enables large volumes of data to be
interrogated and analyzed on the fly. And, because you can now access
all your data in real time, you know as much as you want to — by
every model color, style, outlet, promotion and customer. Couple this
immediate knowledge with historic data and you can make the most
informed decisions to keep your brand nimble and relevant.
You’ll be able to take action on your data.Capturing all the data you need in a big data analytics solution is
important but what you do with it is far more powerful. Getting the most
from the available data is not restricted to delivering campaigns. You now
have the ability to extract that data and integrate it with other elements of
marketing: feed behavioral information to or from your mobile app, your
email service provider or your corporate CRM in real time. By bringing
these different elements together, you will be one step closer to a single
customer view – the Holy Grail for marketers.
The data doesn’t have to stop at marketing. Many companies are utilizing
behavioral data to provide other business insights. An online retailer, for
example, can use data of web pages that have been viewed to provide
insight into potential purchase figures, thereby allowing stock controllers
to ensure the correct levels of stock are available, in the right place and
on order from their suppliers.
With such large and rich data within your digital analytics system, you
gain important insights that can be layered across the organization. The
retail example above may link into ERP systems or be of value to business
analysts that use tools such as Tableau or PowerBI.
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Your data will be accurate at scale.With the predicted increase in data and the requirement for more
personalized consumer experiences, the need for data accuracy becomes
paramount. Many traditional analytics solutions rely on sampling when
processing historical reports. Sampling leads to inconsistent results and
pre-processing data into reports limits the instantaneous insight that is
needed for improving the customer experience. When marketers have
to rely on sampled data, they are making a trade off with the level of
accuracy that the results provide. Low accuracy and data inconsistencies
make delivering a quality personalized experience impossible.
One way to describe sampling is to think of a marine biologist who has
to look at the water quality in a lake. The lake is a vast body of water with
many different ecosystems, different depths, areas of shade and sunlight
and different mineral deposits on its floor. To dip a glass beaker in the
middle of the lake and declare that this is representative of the water
quality throughout the whole lake would be foolish. Well that’s similar to
sampling data in your database. Some would say that database sampling
takes many more samples but if you are trying to deliver a cohesive,
personalized experience then the data that falls outside of those multiple
samples would potentially never get targeted.
So how can a big data analytics solution do better? It can with technology
that allows significantly more processors to work together to allow for
ad hoc, real-time reports can be generated on the fly, returning accurate
results faster, without the need for sampling.
7 White Paper | © 2016 Webtrends, Inc.
The Future is Now for Big Data MarketingThe challenge to make sense of the data you capture is going to become
increasingly difficult. As marketers, the starting point for planning the future
is to understand where your organization is in the transition to big data
processing and who are the champions and gatekeepers.
You then need to look at the supply side of your analytical data, internally
and externally, and plan the move to these all being based on big data
platforms that can readily process the volume, velocity and variety of data
available now and in the future. The new generation of analytical tools are
being built on powerful big data platforms that offer streaming collection,
unlimited scalability, reliable data accuracy and full connectivity to your in-
house systems.
Big data technology is the enabler for marketing success in the digital
age. It gives you the ability to interrogate all the data, mine it for both
immediate actions and to predict individual habits, market movements
or global trends. Technological advances are ensuring that the marketing
team can deliver a better end-to-end experience for the customer in more
cost effective manner.
The future is now with us, advancing in minutes, hours and days rather
than weeks, months and years. It’s time to future-proof your marketing,
using the right platforms to take advantage of what’s possible.
To learn more about big data technology that can power your marketing, visit webtrends.com
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