EP17 - The artistry of analytics with Charlie Grinnell and Jeff Greenspoon

In part two of this episode arc on data-driven marketing, guest host Jeff Greenspoon - President of Global Solutions, CEO of Canada for Dentsu International and a member of the Board of Directors here at the Canadian Marketing Association is joined by Charlie Grinnell - CEO, Right Metric.

If you haven’t heard the first part, listen to episode 16 first.

Here’s some of what they discuss in this episode.

1. The art side of the marketing equation comes out of the shadows (0:46)

“We've come to a tech agnostic status for a lot of brands, where if you look at the platforms, whether they be Adobe, Salesforce or Amazon, every brand has won, and they're using it to the best of their abilities from a technology perspective, the differentiator and where likely we've stopped investing as much as we should be is in creativity. Ideas are what drive resonance and salience. Oftentimes, we think about data fueling channel decisions and media decisions and targeting, but not enough about the creative that we need to build and the production of that creative that needs to happen.” - Jeff Greenspoon

2. It's expensive to create content. Use data to validate your decision-making (4:20)

“What's so cool about the world that we're in now is there's so much data being churned out on the back-end of content that you can look at, whether that's engagement rate, watch time, video views, shares. There's such an opportunity to use that data to build into our understanding of what's working and what's not.” - Charlie Grinnell

3. The importance of brand purpose (7:21)

“Lush Fresh Made Cosmetics announced in November of 2021 that they were quitting Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok and Snapchat. This was their second time. In 2019, they came off some platforms, then COVID hit, reassessing all their priorities. Lush went back. Now they have come back to the issue. They will keep the social media handles, but will not actively publish on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok or Snapchat. “How much is that going to cost them? That's no small thing. Some say about 10 million in the short term, which is no small chunk of change. But then when you look at it, it was actually less than 1% of their total sales. I think it's like a great case study for all of us to be watching.” - Charlie Grinnell

4. Spend time building trust (17:23)

“Relationship is communication - whether it's with your spouse, your friends. The best relationships have a deep level of trust pretty quickly. When I was on the brand side, anytime we worked with an agency, I would go out of my way to spend a disproportionate amount of time upfront so that they had everything and more than they needed. I wanted to make sure that I was over communicating, because I wanted to give them all the context and nuance in my brain.” - Charlie Grinnell

5. Predicting trends - TikTok, the audio revolution, and more (19:39)

“TikTok. It's the wild west there. And, I think the brands that are going to be bold on that platform and test things will see success. You might fail, but even if you fail, you’ll learn. As we head into 2022, TikTok has already taken over the entertainment side, I think they're really going to focus on that commerce side. Running tests there and getting your feet wet on that platform is how I'd be thinking about it.” - Charlie Grinnell

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Learn more about Charlie and RightMetric here