Ashton Media
Marketing & Customer Experience Hub

Your data – Threading relevant and active customer conversations

Richard McLaren-Tipstone CEO

Data Strategy Symposium 2014

The  Data Strategy Symposium 2014  run by  Ashton Media  will be held in the Hunter Valley, NSW, Australia, on the 17-19 November, where the leading minds in online and offline marketing and advertising will converge to share best practices and insights.

Keynote speaker

Richard McLaren, CEO, Tipstone (Mi9), is one of the keynote speakers at the Data Strategy Symposium and will present ‘Your Data – Threading Relevant and Active Customer Conversations‘.

Richard McLaren-Tipstone CEO

Richard has direct experience of internet businesses, mobile development, financial services and energy trading. His areas of focus include technology driven market opportunities, IT leadership development, organisation effectiveness, business transformation and software development, in particular with agile methods.

About the presentation

In this presentation, Richard will demystify ‘Big Data’ Offline to Online, how to close the multi-channel customer communication loop, and designing and measuring digital communication effectiveness. Richard will also delve into the question – if your customers are engaging you in conversation, are you listening and how are you responding?

In today’s post, Mark Abay of Ashton Media asks Richard McLaren 3 questions about data challenges and how to overcome them, the challenges of traditional marketing and IT departments, the companies that are setting the benchmark when it comes to data driven communications.

Mark:

When working with your clients, what are the key data challenges they face and how does Tipstone help them overcome those challenges?

Richard:

We are working in a world where now, or very soon, we will be able to:

1. Understand what experiences lead up to a purchase, and how experiences lead to brand loyalty over time. We can do this for individuals, not age groups, genders or other segments.

2. Deliver different content and experiences to different individuals in real time.

3. Deliver and measure across almost all media and distribution channels. This reach is extending to TV, outdoor, radio, and also to stores, branches and contact centres.

4. Test the effectiveness of different communications and touchpoints continuously, optimising for sales, loyalty or other real economic goals. We can test product selection, promoted product features, and communication effectiveness. We can do this not for everyone once and for always, but at a fine-grained level, continuously, evolving with our customers.

So this is an extraordinary time and we’re very excited to be working in this space. Getting on the journey to success requires technology, data and creativity; tied together by a new but increasingly important set of skills and know how. We (Tipstone) provide services with data and technology to get clients started, as well as advice on pulling it all together.

Mark:

In your experience, has the conversation around the challenge and opportunity of data truly reached the board room table, or is it still the preserve of the marketing and IT departments?

Richard:

The future as always is unevenly distributed. Some boards get it and we see a lot of investment and sponsorship, others are maybe working on other things.

One of the challenges is that there are still IT and marketing silos – and there is a new, data driven marketing tech stack emerging which has little to do with how many traditional IT departments think about their roles.

I think this is starting to change, even to the point of combining traditional CMO and CTO functions. I believe this can only drive a deeper understanding at board level.

Mark:

In your opinion, which companies (here or overseas) are setting the benchmark when it comes to data driven communications?

Richard:

The really interesting thread for me is where we see the possibility of linking communication to real economic outcomes; sales and purchase behaviour over time.

Communication itself isn’t enough if we can’t prove it’s effective. I think the recently announced Red Planet initiative by Qantas Loyalty is therefore really interesting, as is the recent announcement of a partnership between Quantium and MCN.

I’d expect to see more about businesses able to link communication to purchase activity in the next twelve months.

Don’t miss Tipstone CEO, Richard McLaren  at the  Data Strategy Symposium 2014  on the 17th-19th November at Cypress Lakes Resort, Hunter Valley. His presentation titled  Your Data – Threading Relevant And Active Customer Conversations  will take place at 09:30hrs on Tuesday 18th November, 2014.

Mark Abay - Content Director, Ashton Media About Mark Abay - Content Director, Ashton Media
Mark is Content Director at Ashton Media. It's his job to create interesting and engaging conference programs that stretch the thinking of our attendees. Mark works closely with our industry advisors to ensure the conference content is aligned with the needs and interests of our audiences.