Data is Changing Basketball as Much as it is Advertising
Shooting corner 3's, getting lay ups, dunks, and being sent to the charity stripe are the hallmarks of a modern, efficient basketball offense. This is the blueprint for the Houston Rockets as well as the recent success of the Golden State Warriors led by Steph Curry and his Splash Brother; Klay Thompson.
This stylistic change has been ushered in by the mass adoption of basketball analytics. In the same way that Sabermetrics revolutionized baseball, basketball is being reimagined at the laptop as much as on the gym floor.
It’s no understatement to say that data has given management, coaches and current as well as aspiring players tools to model their success around. Data is even changing the composition of teams. Centers are now expected to be able to shoot from range and the offices of organizations are now littered with MBA qualified analysts.
Data is even changing the way that people view the past. For many Michael Jordan is the G.O.A.T., but through the lens of basketball analytics, MJ was recklessly inefficient shooting far too many mid range 2s, which are now seen as nearly criminal on some teams.
But despite the feats of Steph Curry and James Harden and the increase in 3s shot per game, there are still some influential naysayers. 11 time Championship winning coach Phil Jackson infamously goaded statisticians during the 2014/15 season just before Golden State ran away with the title shooting from downtown.
But what does any of this have to do with advertising, I hear you say?
Everything.
Just like basketball, our industry is being inundated by data. We have real time data, social data, behavioral data, reported data, inferred data — you name it, we’ve got it.
And for the most part we have a willing industry. No longer are just awarding creativity and effectiveness at awards shows, but we’re also awarding use of data at awards shows as prestigious as Cannes.
However, we also seem to have our fair share of (healthy) dissent too.
Recently, David Golding; Group Chief Strategy Officer, wrote about a divide between agencies that create culture and those that create collateral. He seemed to bucket data on the side of the collateral creators and suggested that data may not even be able to help in the creation of the type of work that he rightly lauded.
Reading it left me feeling confused and deflated. Is my commitment to data being an enabler misguided?
I don’t think so.
Few would deny that watching today’s best 3 point shooters isn’t a joy. That their movement, mechanics and the work of their team mates to get them open isn’t a marvel. Advertising agencies are the same. We still need our superstar talent as much as ever and like with basketball, data is here to offer a better chance of scoring more points and collecting more wins.
Data isn’t replacing creativity, it’s giving it new tools to express itself with.
