Advertising in 2016: Big Data Puts Your Gut Feeling to the Test

By Boaz Amidor, CMO, WalkMeElvis has entered the building. Growing number of reports are indicating that video ads are coming to Google search results, and that Google has been testing out new ways of embedding video ads in its SERP (Search Engine Results Pages), alongside traditional text-based ads. It is highly probable that sometime in 2016, when you search in Google, instead of just textual based results, you will see video streaming advertisements.What is This so Big?Well because big data tells us it is. Already today 77% of consumers believe that companies who create online ads are more engaged with their customers and 58% believe that companies are more trustworthy when producing video content. Actually Bing and Yahoo have already been testing this for a while. However, with Google implementing video advertising in SERP, this is surely going to take off in a big way. It’s kind of like Beyonce retweeting your comment on her new hit song.  As the largest search engine, Google jumping on the band wagon is validating the importance of this tool. Not to mention that it’s a clear indicator of consumers becoming accustomed to visual mediaBig Data allows you to dream big and advertise like Madmen. Big Data is revolutionizing advertising the same way the Internet did, with 79% of companies agreeing that those companies that do not embrace Big Data will, not only lose their competitive edge, but cease to exist. Yikes.Geoffrey Moore, management consultant and theorist, explained it with the following analogy, “Without Big Data, you are blind and deaf in the middle of the freeway.” Double yikes. Without this tool, your company cannot fully comprehend the needs of your customers on a deep enough level to keep them happy, let alone keep up with competitors.The Big Data phenomenon impacts various aspects of business operations. The top 3 being, impacting customer relationships, redefining product development and changing the way the company operates on an organizational level.For a business, information on customers is gathered, retained and applied through Big Data. Applied being the key factor here. It’s crucial that relationship building is done properly. Using the data to throw suggested messaging in your audiences’ faces aka spam is a big marketing faux pas. Rather, approach your audience in a way that tells them ‘we’ve done our homework’, we know what you want. After all, 90% of consumers find custom content useful, while 78% percent believe that custom content is the company’s way of showing their customers that they care about the relationship and are committed to building it.Behavior-driven data enables us to give customers exactly what they want. Although this will require an even greater investment in advertising production, market spending will become significantly more precise since leveraging insights from big data to accurately targeting prospects will include providing exactly the right message in the most appealing format. However this will render an improved return on investment since the strategies will be much more precise based on the specific and effective information retrieved.Netflix, is a prime example of this. They invested $100 million in House of Cards before even seeing the pilot! That's how confident they were in their data collection. Not only did they use data to generate content but they then customized the content for several audiences through the creation of 10 different trailers of House of Cards, ensuring that all their demographics saw it and wanted to watch it. A diverse and dynamic audience was born.  Thus giving new meaning to Must-See-Tv.Netflix used Big Data to know the likes and dislikes of their customers. They knew which clientele preferred shows with strong female characters and thereafter created a trailer highlighting the female roles. Same goes for fans of Kevin Spacey.The simplicity of it is rather genius. Creating a unique experience for each user according to the user’s preferences.The algorithms used are your resources of inspiration. They are the tools providing you with the knowledge. All you have to do is apply it. Being the visionary that you are, that’s the fun part.Go big or go home, right?[author]About the Author: Boaz Amidor is a Marketing Communications and Public Relations expert with over 14 years of experience representing the high-tech industry's leading corporations, start-ups and VCs. Boaz is currently the Head of Corporate & Marketing Communications at WalkMe and has been working with the company since 2012.  [/author]