I last touched base with Jim Sterne back in 2021. He’s the Founder of Marketing Analytics Summit (formerly eMetrics Summit), Director Emeritus of the Digital Analytics Association, author of 12 books, and an accomplished public speaker. We discussed many issues relevant to marketing and marketing analytics, including mistakes made by junior and senior marketers with respect to analytics, and how marketers should respond to losing targeting granularity and resolution.
A lot of water has passed under the bridge in the world of analytics since 2021. 3rd-party tracking cookies are finally sunsetting, we’ve lost Universal Analytics but gained generative AI – a technology with great analytics potential. We’ve also seen the resurgence of IRL (“in real life”) events, now that COVID is in the rear-view mirror, and the emergence of digitally-enabled direct mail and QR as vital marketing tools (a trend that my new venture, Inceptor, hopes to capitalize on).
I wanted to check back in with Jim to discuss these and other relevant developments, including:
- The potential of AI to analyze data, generate reports, and provide insights, with a focus on creative applications and advisory roles.
- The impact of the pandemic on event planning, including the increased use of QR codes.
- Common mistakes made when creating QR codes, such as encoding a full URL instead of shortening it, and not understanding the mechanics behind them.
- How personalized QR codes can reduce friction in direct mail marketing by pre-filling landing page information.
- Creative use of direct mail, including interactive elements like scratch-offs and pop-up books.
- The importance of personalization in marketing, using the example of a wrapped box with a cellphone inside that rings when opened.
- The potential for hyper-personalization through AI-generated content.
- The importance of data literacy and generative AI literacy in analytics, highlighting the challenges of working with probabilistic data.
- Observations on analysts’ acceptance (and lack thereof) of Google Analytics 4.
- Jim’s hopes and expectations for the upcoming Market Analytics Summit.
