I think it’s great news that Rory Sutherland has been made the flag-flyer at the IPA. This is for two reasons. Firstly he’s a direct marketer through and through. And whilst the traditional mass-analogue advertising model still has a big role to play in marketing communications, times have changed with the advent of the internet, mobile and ipods. One-to-one communciation is becoming an increasingly important, if not dominant model. As a direct marketer with a broad mind, Rory is a great choice to be the standard bearer of this change in the advertising community. His appointment marks a coming of age for direct marketing.
Secondly, anyone in advertising, and particularly anyone with a creative pedigree who is broad-minded enough to say, “I eccentrically believe data analysis and really good statistical modelling can be immensely creative - because, just like a good creative team, well-worked data can reveal wonderfully unexpected, unasked for truths” automatically gets a vote from me. As David Ogilvy once said, in advertising it pays to be unorthodox.
However, it’s a shame that Rory has to feel ‘eccentric’ when it comes to promoting the benefits of using hard data. Advertising does seem fixated on basing its decisions on what people say they might do in some given situation rather than looking at what people have actually done in a known situation.
Data doubters in advertising argue that data analysis can only provide ‘rear view’ insight and therefore has only limited application in the creative process. But the past is a repository of great learning and there should be no doubting how this can help us better manage the future. The reality is that all intellectual development and economic progress is a product of the past. If you don’t believe me, ask Barack Obama what he’s learnt from FDR or look at what the Beatles learnt from skiffle. So, if looking backwards can help us solve the current global economic crisis, or create some of the greatest popular music of all time, then surely it can certainly help us sell cars, cereals and holidays.
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Rory Sutherland as new IPA President
I think it’s great news that Rory Sutherland has been made the flag-flyer at the IPA. This is for two reasons. Firstly he’s a direct marketer through and through. And whilst the traditional mass-analogue advertising model still has a big role to play in marketing communications, times have changed with the advent of the internet, mobile and ipods. One-to-one communciation is becoming an increasingly important, if not dominant model. As a direct marketer with a broad mind, Rory is a great choice to be the standard bearer of this change in the advertising community. His appointment marks a coming of age for direct marketing.
Secondly, anyone in advertising, and particularly anyone with a creative pedigree who is broad-minded enough to say, “I eccentrically believe data analysis and really good statistical modelling can be immensely creative - because, just like a good creative team, well-worked data can reveal wonderfully unexpected, unasked for truths” automatically gets a vote from me. As David Ogilvy once said, in advertising it pays to be unorthodox.
However, it’s a shame that Rory has to feel ‘eccentric’ when it comes to promoting the benefits of using hard data. Advertising does seem fixated on basing its decisions on what people say they might do in some given situation rather than looking at what people have actually done in a known situation.
Data doubters in advertising argue that data analysis can only provide ‘rear view’ insight and therefore has only limited application in the creative process. But the past is a repository of great learning and there should be no doubting how this can help us better manage the future. The reality is that all intellectual development and economic progress is a product of the past. If you don’t believe me, ask Barack Obama what he’s learnt from FDR or look at what the Beatles learnt from skiffle. So, if looking backwards can help us solve the current global economic crisis, or create some of the greatest popular music of all time, then surely it can certainly help us sell cars, cereals and holidays.