AMEC Virtual Summit 2020 session presented by Megan Tweed, US Head of Data and Intelligence Strategy, Edelman

Megan Tween realised the power of data over 20 years ago. In presenting ideas for marketing and communications activities to clients, she recognised the way data-led recommendations gained more support from C-suite decision makers, created accountability, and focused the energy and work of teams around her.

Data unlocks the potential for positive opportunities, risk mitigation, performance learning, innovation, shared understanding and more. But, above all, it drives change.

Not everyone is equally accepting of change and, if we want to lead organisations into accepting data-led recommendations, we need to understand their attitude to it, both personally and culturally. Often, observes Megan, a resistance to data is more attached to feelings about change than recognition of the opportunities it can offer.

Digital marketers have always embraced data, using it to prove the performance of activity, ask questions and get answers of their work, and also scale budgets because of accountability. They didn’t need big, impactful creative ideas, they just needed data.

Culturally, Megan suggests, this has increased the separation between marketing and communications, with ‘earned’ communications siloed from ‘paid’ and ‘owned’, and creative professionals leaving marketing to join communications where they can be more free-thinking and less accountable.

Yet communications must also deliver performance transparency if it is to validate its work and continue to secure budget. It must be able to move on from what Megan calls “a celebration of impressions and headlines” to extracting nuggets of data that show what action drove the most impact and where to focus next.

This is illustrated by Edelman’s performance-orientated approach, a measurement framework for data-driven creativity. It is founded on modern communications metrics and KPIs that demonstrate value – both in return for the business and contribution to business objectives.

Overall, Megan presents a compelling case for data to be the catalyst behind a new opportunity for the two functions, communications and marketing, to be integrated and collaborate. In embracing data, we don’t have to entirely change what communications is or does, but we can use the audience insights available through digital marketing to deliver more impactful, value-driven communications.