Harvard Business Review: Advertising's Big Data Dilemma

TechnologyConsumer Goods
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By Christian Madsbjerg and Mikkel B. Rasmussen

The proposed merger of ad industry giants Omnicom and Publicis, forming the world’s largest advertising firm, promises to change the face of Madison Avenue forever.

So long, Don Draper. Hello, Hal 9000.

It’s understandable why two giants of traditional advertising would pursue such a consolidation — to better do battle against Google and Facebook, relative newcomers to the ad game but already upending the entire business dynamic by using Big Data analytics to create highly targeted ads.

But an algorithm can never truly master the art of persuasion.

“Great marketing and advertising campaigns are exquisitely attuned, not to past behavior or to individualized needs and desires, but to the larger cultural zeitgeist. Great advertising speaks to our deepest fears and desires; it answers to our nascent yearnings.”

Read the full article in the Harvard Business Review here.

[Banner image by Tânia Mousinho, via Unsplash]

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