Digital Marketer

Marketers understandably tend to obsess over purchases. Even if they know that there is an entire journey leading up to a purchase, the actual sale is the tangible result of all their efforts and the thing that puts money in the coffers. That means many end up focusing on where that purchase gets made, online or in-store.

With today’s complex consumer journey, it’s more important to know your customer than ever before. But knowing your customer has never been more difficult — partly due to the fact the customer journey has become fragmented, but also because most marketers organize their data around legacy systems, rather than the customer.

As consumer expectations grow for more personalized, relevant, and assistive experiences, machine learning is becoming an invaluable tool to help meet those demands. It’s helping marketers create smarter customer segmentations, deliver more relevant creative campaigns, and measure performance more effectively. In fact, 85% of executives believe AI will allow their companies to obtain or sustain a competitive advantage.¹

Data empowers marketers to make better decisions and take smarter risks, but sometimes the best intentions lead to the wrong solutions. Interpreting data isn’t always easy, and I’ve seen marketers come up short by not allowing themselves the space to learn, grow, fail, and improve from their collective experiences.

A campaign that falls short of its goal can teach just as much as one that succeeds. And marketers that wish to do the right thing, well, can learn from how they do the right thing, poorly.

This is the second in a regular series on Think with Google Canada, in which thought leaders share their insights and guidance on topics that are top of mind for marketers. In this installment, Leith Mellors, Senior Vice President of Talent, Canada at IPG Mediabrands, talks about how agencies can play a key role in fostering the next generation of digital marketers, and how to nurture and retain the best talent in a time of industry upheaval.