Making Stories at Advertising Week

It’s Advertising Week. This year we continue to find ourselves at the crossroads of technology and the consumer. Advertising is being placed, measured, and to an extent, created by technology: algorithms replacing human judgment, programs replacing media plans. Even the role of the creative message and the creatives that manage those messages are under pressure.

When I look at the agenda for the week, there’s a lot of content based on AI, machine learning and other technologies. And then there’s a lot of content based on the most important person who will not be at Advertising Week, the consumer. Striking the right balance between data-driven, tech-driven, and consumer-centered marketing needs to be top of mind for us all. It’s an ongoing journey and quite frankly an ongoing debate as to where we should focus our attention. While it seems self-evident, achieving that right balance remains one of the most important challenges we face today.

Let me explain. At Mastercard, I am responsible for driving both brand health and business impact. I rely on data and technology – heavily. Our team has been mastering the integration of data, technology and marketing. We’re leveraging and learning from our pilots every day. Is our Priceless Cities platform working from a brand preference and consumer engagement standpoint? Data will tell me. What about our activation around Rugby World Cup or The GRAMMYs? You know the answer. While we’re executing our digital strategies, we must not overlook the most important part of marketing – the emotion and the human experience it creates. Yes, the data and insights will inform us and help us to be more timely and precise, and technology will bring it all to life in an unprecedented fashion, but at the end of the day, it’s the human side that will generate the most resonance for our brand with all our stakeholders. 

Experiences are neither data nor technology. Emotions and passions are likewise not data, not technology. Data helps to focus and inform us. Technology helps us to connect and deliver. But when a die-hard Red Sox’s fan who is also a cancer survivor meets “Big Papi,” the look on his face and the experience he shares with his family becomes the story. When a Mastercard cardholder experiences a sensational light show at night in Mexico at the Teotihuacan pyramids or an exclusive Priceless table dining experience at Ellis Island in New York, those scenes – the photos, videos and commentary – they share across their social media channels is the story.

You’ve heard me talk about storytelling being dead, and that we need to enable story making – this is the essence of what we are trying to inspire. By letting consumers make their own stories, we’re seeing a creative renaissance in marketing. It’s our job to give them opportunities to connect with their passion points. And that’s not data or screens. It’s music, sports, travel, food and shopping.

By letting the consumers be the story makers, we let them run the show. They’re the brand ambassadors. As marketing and advertising professionals, we need to continue to strike the right balance between the data-driven science that we’ve created and the emotion that conjures up the magic. And when done right, the experience will be priceless.

See you in NYC.