There’s a funny saying circulating with marketers right now on the current state of Big Data:
“Big Data is like teenage sex: everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it.”
Gartner recently released a report that 64% of companies are deploying or planning to deploy a Big Data project, yet 56% struggle to know how to get value from their data. As Matt Asay wrote about the Gartner study, “it seems that they’ve allowed the hype around Big Data to both motivate them to start but also confuse them as to where they should go.”
The promise of Big Data is significant and many predict that 2014 will be a breakthrough year for Big Data marketing. Yet, I’ve seen many companies struggle with Small Data, let alone Big Data.
Big Data doesn’t replace Big Ideas. It’s what you do with the data that matters. As Big Data matures and starts to deliver on its promise, big marketing ideas to leverage the power of those Big Data insights will be needed more than ever.
I’d love to hear some of your favorite case studies on leveraging Big Data in marketing.
(Marketoonist Monday: I’m giving away a signed print of this week’s cartoon. Just share an insightful comment to this week’s post by 5:00 PST on Monday. Thanks!)