Marketers need fresh data to ensure their campaign efforts are successful, but can there ever be too much of a good thing? Currently, 90% of the ever-growing pool of data that marketers sift through has been generated in the past two years, according to trend forecasting tool Exploding Topics.
Once marketers decide which data is usable and trustworthy, they have to piece together campaigns across the multiple platforms that today’s consumers use. At the same time, stricter data-privacy laws and growing consumer interest in data protection can limit the data marketers can access, making the whole experience both time-consuming and inefficient.
The current state of data availability is messy, but focusing on the right data means it doesn’t have to be that complicated, said Joel Quadracci, CEO of marketing experience (MX) company Quad. “Marketing is about having the right product in front of the right person at the right price, and in the right combination of channels,” he said. And the best place to find the data needed to optimize that combination is right in the consumer’s household.
There’s no place like home
A consumer’s home is a consistent data source that connects the worlds of online and offline behavior to bring marketers deeper audience insight that isn’t subject to the headwinds of third-party cookie deprecation.
As Joshua Lowcock, Quad’s president of media, notes, almost every purchase a person makes is taken to their home, consumed at home or otherwise involves their home. “Household data is resilient, because most consumers only have one place that we call home,” Lowcock said. “You tell me where someone lives, I’ll tell you a lot about them, because home is where you build your values, your community and everything else you do in life.”
Quad’s history as a provider of direct mail solutions means that it has deep expertise in reaching consumers where they (literally) live. “Everything we put in the mail stream we know has to be delivered to a household. You don’t print and send something unless you know it’s going to be delivered,” said Lowcock.
By contrast, some digital data sets—which are often the core source of data stacks—can be of questionable quality. For example, “When you take someone’s visit to a website and drop them into an audience segment,” Lowcock said, “it doesn’t actually mean they have an interest or intent.”
The home has long been seen as the true source of consumer identity at Quad, whose reach extends to 92% of U.S. households. Since its 1971 start as a tech-driven commercial printing company, Quad has evolved to offer marketing services—including not only direct mail, but in-store, digital marketing and more—to 2,500 marketers, from CPG to retail to financial services brands. “We have been able to create a data set that allows us to really help marketers find the right audiences,” said Quadracci.
AI and data lakes
Through a new partnership with Google Cloud, Quad can now help marketers bring more personalization to their data-driven campaigns with a boost from artificial intelligence. “AI can quickly enable a marketer to gain insights and build content, segments and strategy using our proprietary data stack,” said George Forge, Quad’s senior VP of client technology and product development. “That’s an unlock that allows us to optimize media across every channel and reach consumers in unique ways.”
It comes down to building a data lake of information that is both accessible and usable. “We deal with a lot of disorganized data as an industry,” said Forge, “and AI is really good at sifting through messy data and making it all more standard.”
The right strategy based on the right location
Leveraging Quad’s household-centric data also means that marketers don’t have to do extra legwork to figure out how to combine the right creative with the right strategy based on the right location. “As a marketing experience company, we take all that pain away from clients,” Lowcock added.
To put that another way, marketers get the greatest ROI from their data spend by not sending campaigns to the wrong people at the wrong place at the wrong time.
“At the end of the day, everyone lives somewhere, and that can’t be deprecated. The household is the key to an important data set as we navigate the audience space,” said Quadracci. “We want to be true to the work we’re doing for marketers and let the data tell us where to tell you to spend your money.”
About Quad
Quad (NYSE: QUAD) is a marketing experience, or MX, company that helps brands make direct consumer connections, from household to in-store to online. The company does this through its MX Solutions Suite, a comprehensive range of marketing and print services that seamlessly integrate creative, production and media solutions across online and offline channels. Supported by state-of-the-art technology and data-driven intelligence, Quad simplifies the complexities of marketing by removing friction wherever it occurs along the marketing journey. The company tailors its uniquely flexible, scalable and connected solutions to each clients’ objectives, driving cost efficiencies, improving speed-to-market, strengthening marketing effectiveness and delivering value on client investments.
Quad employs more than 12,000 people in 14 countries and serves approximately 2,500 clients including industry leading blue-chip companies that serve both businesses and consumers in multiple industry verticals, with a particular focus on commerce, including retail, consumer packaged goods and direct-to-consumer; financial services; and health. Quad is ranked among the largest agency companies in the U.S. by Ad Age, buoyed by its full-service media agency, Rise, and creative agency, Betty. Quad is also one of the largest commercial printers in North America, according to Printing Impressions. For more information about Quad, including its commitment to operating responsibly, intentional innovation and values-driven culture, visit quad.com.
Ad Age Studio 30
Ad Age Studio 30 is the creative content arm of Ad Age. Built on the same bedrock of journalistic integrity, Ad Age Studio 30 specializes in custom and sponsored content that resonates with our audience. To partner with Ad Age Studio 30, email James Palma at jpalma@adage.com.
