Sponsored feature – Data matters

James Gough and Leo Sharrock argue that you cant get the most out of data without a little human help.

Data has never had a great press. In the marketing world, it can seem as if copywriting and design once got together and created a devilish pact to leave poor data on the fringes. We feel things should change. Data is a fundamental tool in the marketing toolkit but, like all tools, you have to know how to use it properly to get the most from it.

Building knowledge

Conscious that an analogy from Star Trek could immediately place data back among the cagoules and Puffa jackets of the nerds, we ask you to stick with us and we hope the journey will be worth it. In Star Trek, Lieutenant Commander Data is a Soong-type android (isnt http://www.wikipedia.com useful?), his positronic brain allowing him impressive computational capabilities and the ability to perform most human activities.

However, he is unable to feel emotions and, even though he eventually discovers an emotion chip, his continual inability to understand aspects of human behaviour make his actions naïve and often misguided. Just as Lt Cmdr Data of Star Trek relies on his crew members to provide a context for him, so real data relies on human intervention.

Davis and Botkin1 put this in a clearer and simpler way: data arranged meaningfully for a purpose gives us information; information when put into a context becomes knowledge. It is in these two interventions of defining purpose and providing context that skilled marketers can work with data to great benefit. By arranging it meaningfully, and providing the all-important context for the information provided, data can be used to avoid naïve and misguided marketing decisions.

Segmentation

Data is unlimited but knowledge is harder to come by, so in which areas can we use data to help us gain knowledge? One area in which the arts are becoming more and more sophisticated is in using data to segment audiences and to target marketing activities.

Alan Tapp2 defined segmentation as splitting markets into discrete groups to be treated differently. In recent work, Stephen Cashman has gone on to refer to four areas of segmentation: socio-demographic, geographic, behavioural and attitudinal. Each of these areas of segmentation is reliant on a series of key pieces of data. Some of this data is primary (that is, data collected by your own systems on your own users) and some is secondary (generic data collected externally to your organisation).

Segmenting your audiences by socio-demographics may include examining age, gender, social grade or life stages.

Geographic segmentation  using postcodes is the simplest way of beginning to define your audience. Knowing where somebody lives in relation to your organisation will allow you to answer questions such as how far they travel, when the last bus/train home is, how long it takes to drive to you during peak/off peak travel times, what their neighbourhood is like in terms of local schools, crime figures, other leisure facilities  and the list could go on. (Just type your own postcode into the website neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination to see how much information you can find out.)

Behavioural segmentation looks at how a customer interacts with your organisation. Every ticketing system should be able to tell you about your customers last visit, how often they come, what they do and dont like (based on their previous purchases), how many tickets they buy, and how much they spend. Sharing one data set with another means you can compare and contrast all the above questions, giving you even greater information.

Finally, attitudinal segmentation  what do your customers think of your organisation, what do they think of the arts, do they like taking risks, have they come tonight for intellectual, social or spiritual reasons or simply for entertainment?

Increased understanding

To answer all the questions above, you need data  arranged meaningfully, providing you with information that (with the crucial input of experience and understanding of the context) will provide you with the answers: the knowledge. And to misquote Carl Jung: Your vision will become clear only when you look into your data. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens. With data potentially playing such an important role in segmentation alone, we need to understand it better.

And we are not alone in this desire. The Audience Data UK Project (ADUK) is working to set the record straight and place data back in its rightful position as one of the key tools available to all marketers. Funded by the UK Arts Councils, the project aims to enable people to process data successfully, to increase peoples understanding of data (and so increase understanding of audiences), to improve the use of data and to encourage the sharing of data. To find how ADUK is delivering this, and how you and your organisation can be involved in a series of forthcoming pilot studies, visit: http://www.aduk.org

James Gough is the Director and Leo Sharrock is the Market Intelligence Manager of amh. amh is currently leading, in association with members of Network, on the ADUK project to pilot The AZ of commonly used terms and protocols, written by Stephen Cashman.

About Audience Data UK

Audience Data UK (ADUK) is a joint initiative between the Arts Councils of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, aimed at helping people who work in the arts to make use of data and information about audiences.

Today, arts organisations of all sizes are increasingly engaged in collecting audience data. ADUK provides guidance and clarification on collecting, processing, analysing and interpreting all that data.

ADUK has commissioned a number of reports examining in detail various aspects of audience data and these are published on the ADUK website at http://www.aduk.org. Over the next few months, ADUK will be piloting the findings of the reports and collating feedback , gathered from individuals, arts organisations and industry bodies. This will inform a major training programme that is planned as part of the initiative.

ADUK is overseen by a Steering Group made up of representatives from each of the UK Arts Councils, and practitioners from a range of arts organisations.

For further information please contact the ADUK Project Management Team, Angela Tillcock ([email protected]) and Cathy Morris ([email protected])