You have enough data, start investing in people: IAB Singapore

SINGAPORE - The industry is overinvesting in technology and underinvesting in people. That was one of the findings from a recently concluded roundtable session by the newly formed Measurement & Standards (M&S) Committee under the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) Singapore.

The session sought to investigate why companies are not harnessing the power of data and remain stuck in traditional organisational structures. One challenge raised was breaking the hype around data while finding effective ways to train a workforce on how to use it.

Miranda Dimopoulos, CEO of IAB Singapore said that the committee’s establishment will enable increased participation from companies such as Google, LinkedIn, ComScore, SapientNitro, Yahoo, Xaxis and HP.

“It also means that they can teach the region how to be more successful when it comes to leveraging their data,” she added.

The roundtable also highlighted the biggest problem facing marketing professionals: that they don’t ask the right questions. Tim Kelsall, chief client officer at Kantar, said the real issue is people understanding the fundamental business questions they’re trying to solve.

“It’s often the case that you’ve got the technology and data but it’s not intelligently applied back to solve the actual business issue,” he added.

Findings from the roundtable discussion have been published in a whitepaper outlining problems and suggested solutions.

Key takeaways:

• Don’t let traditional silos constrain the way you articulate and solve problems.
• Make people your No. 1 priority.
• Nurture data-driven culture through openness, curiosity and collaboration.
• Ask the right questions.
• Build your foundation.

Suggested solutions to businesses include advising companies to not constrain their research and analytics teams to investigating data and churning out insight for other parts of the business to action on.

Suzanne Claassen, APAC agency business development at Google, and Peter Hubert, head of Insights at LinkedIn, co-chaired the roundtable.

The committee specifically explored two domains during the session: primary research and platform analytics. These have evolved immensely in recent years, and unleashing them from their silos to inform business decisions is proving critical for success today, the IAB reported.

“The IAB M&S Committee is continuing to explore, define and share best practices in the data-measurement realm. We'll have additional insight and actions to share later this year,” said Claassen.

The committee is now working with marketers to create a “data taxonomy” around what metrics can be used to answer which business questions. It will also work on establishing “talent standards” by defining a common language for key domains, functions, roles and skills required for digital marketing.