DATA, DATA AND MORE DATA!

It’s impossible not to eaves drop on phone conversations these days, as so many around us are constantly shouting into their mobiles.

The other day, the phrase I heard repeatedly from one such conversation was ‘Marketing is all about data. Nothing else!’

Having been in this game for more years than I care to mention, I was saddened by this current perception, which the caller was so emphatic about.

So many marketers love data. In fact, the whole business world seems infatuated with it. Dashboards, charts, analytics platforms. You can’t open a meeting without someone throwing up a chart covered in numbers.

Of course, data matters. It gives us a way to track, measure, and compare. But somewhere along the line, too much attention has been given to it, especially from senior teams who put pressure on marketers to deliver the numbers.

The truth? The best marketers know that while data is important, it’s not the be-all and end-all. Developing strategies and gauging the success of campaigns isn’t purely about numbers. It’s also about something far less tangible: feel.

Does a marketing campaign feel like it’s working? Are people leaning in, getting curious, engaging without being nudged? Are you seeing signs, not in the spreadsheet, but in the way people talk about your brand that momentum is building?

After all, marketing is not just a science. It’s also an art. And the effect art has on people is often immeasurable.

In their book ‘The Art of Business’, Stan Davis and David Macintosh talk about the duality of how business processes (which can be monitored through data) and an ‘artistic flow’ (something more subjective) need to work together. Artistic flow covers lots of elements, many of which start with the letter E - excitement, enjoyment, emotions, energy, entertainment and empathy.

The creative arts tap into many of these elements. And that’s how they connect with their audiences. Marketing should follow this principle too.

Think about the last truly great campaign you saw. Chances are, you didn’t admire it because the click-through rate was 2.3% above industry average. You admired it because it made you laugh, cry, or stop scrolling. It felt right.

This doesn’t mean abandoning data. It means recognising its limits. Numbers can tell you what happened, but they can’t always tell you why it happened. Or whether something could happen if you dared to try it.

Here’s one way to think about balancing data and feel:

Analysts. Those who live and breathe the numbers. They bring rigour, spot trends, and keep us grounded.

Feelers. They sense when something is resonating before the results are in. They trust their instincts and can often predict where the story is heading.

Synthesists. They bridge the gap and are comfortable with both the spreadsheets and the gut calls. They know when to let the data guide, and when to let intuition lead.

Just as in any form of skills segmentation, the goal isn’t to pit these groups against each other. It’s to create a productive tension between them. Let the Analysts keep us informed. Let the Feelers keep us human. And let the Synthesists orchestrate the dance between the two.

There’s also a danger in prematurely measuring. Some of the most powerful marketing effects take years to play out, far beyond the window of a quarterly report. That excitement you sparked today? You might not see the payoff for many months or even years.

So yes, keep your dashboards. Keep your KPIs. But don’t let them drown out the quiet, unmeasurable signs that something special is happening.

Because in the end, the campaigns that really move people don’t just add up. They lift up. And you don’t always need a spreadsheet to know when that’s happening.