Matt Oakley
Global Head of Data & Analytics
I had the privilege of attending this year’s AMEC summit held back in May and enjoyed time connecting and learning from fellow peers and thought leaders within the communications industry. During my time in Miami, I was intrigued how many of us have been navigating the perpetual challenge in using data to demonstrate a true value to our clients. A challenge ever present within our industry, and discussed in almost every initial consultation, it was only fitting that the theme of this year’s summit was “From Vanity to Value”.
Using data across communications campaigns is often limited to just a means to measure that is implemented at the end of a campaign. As a data leader with over a decade of experience in the industry, a key focus for me was understanding how data was being used to impact the entire lifecycle of a campaign, affecting strategies as well as measurement.
During the event, it was energizing to see this central theme throughout many of the sessions I attended, beginning with Matt Neale’s (Golin) keynote message highlighting how communications professionals should shift our focus from measuring executional impact to establishing strategic leadership. He continued to emphasize that it was time for PR to “move upstream” and seen as a strategic growth driver for businesses. Across two days of programming, many sessions drove this point home, which left me with a positive outlook on the direction our industry is headed. The value of data can be shown through smart measurement but also in how we integrate it to mine audience intelligence insights and key for clients to excel beyond baseline business objectives. Overall, I was able to gather a handful of takeaways that include:
- Measurement and Evaluation: Data and analytics is not only about post-campaign evaluation. If limited to this, the impact demonstrated by PR programs will almost always be minimized.
- Be audience centric, not media centric: In his talk, leading specialist in evaluation Professor Jim McNamara, stated that when evaluating the effectiveness of communications “Communications is about what arrives with our audiences, not what we send out.”
- Elevating PR to the top table: We should be offering our clients a seat at the table and prove the value of earned media in brand building. We need to analyze the data for strategy development, optimizations and learnings, and how it impacts future actions – not just to evaluate past performance
As the Global Head of Data and Analytics here at Hotwire Global, our team recently launched our new IQ solutions offering our deep expertise to clients in making informed decisions, optimizing their resources, enhance customer experiences, and ultimately drive successful campaign outcomes. Are you ready to harness the incredible power of intelligent data in your business? We’re ready to help! Contact us to learn more on how Hotwire can help scale your efforts.