Navigating the Data Divide: A Day in the Life of a Media and Entertainment Leader
Follow this true-to-life narrative of a CMO at a leading media and entertainment company as she uses a Modern Culture of Data to achieve significant business outcomes.
This is Sarah
Sarah’s team at Noumenal Media has been amassing a wealth of data on its audience. Her aim is to dominate the increasingly competitive attention economy by creating personalized and targeted marketing campaigns that generate high-quality leads and quantitatively increase customer engagement.
With millions of data points pouring in each day and a vast array of ad formats to choose from, Sarah is tasked with making sense of a seemingly endless stream of information.
Despite the best efforts of her team, Noumenal Media’s ad campaigns are falling short of their revenue targets. Navigating the turbulent challenges of data management and advertising optimization at a media giant like Noumenal Media isn’t easy, but Sarah’s a fiercely competitive data nerd (her words, not ours).
Let’s see if she can help Noumenal Media succeed in this constantly shifting landscape, hit her quarterly targets, and thrive in turbulence.
Morning: A new day, a new data challenge
As Sarah rushes to the office, she checks her email and sees a report on Noumenal Media’s latest ad campaigns. “Yeah, lots of impressions and likes, but we all know the truth about those.”
And Sarah’s not wrong. Impressions and surface-level data won’t increase revenue or stand out in a world oversaturated with messaging.
Cut to the conference room. Sarah reviews the latest KPIs and campaign data with the data analytics team. Topics covered include: the current data landscape (it’s constantly evolving), incomplete customer profiles (it’s a hard-to-predict behavior), and disjointed data services (it’s difficult to get a complete picture of the audience).
“The best rule in writing is to ‘know your audience,’ which is more than I can say about our capabilities right now,” senior data analyst Kevin McDowell says.
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Sarah replies.
“Okay, I will,” says Kevin. “Did you know that our audience is 60% more likely to engage with our ads on Tuesday evenings?”
“No kidding,” Sarah says. “But we need to know why our audience engages more with our ads on Tuesday evenings.”
The team discusses potential solutions. They need to uncover hidden patterns in data, conduct deeper audience research, and leverage new innovation around machine learning to their advantage.
If Noumenal Media came to Slalom, we would:
- Conduct a data audit
Identify gaps and inconsistences in Noumenal Media’s data sources. - Use Snowflake’s data platform
Integrate and centralize Noumenal Media’s data for a comprehensive view of its audience. - Leverage emerging tech
Use Snowflake’s machine learning capabilities to uncover deeper insights and drive more effective advertising strategies. - Do more with Noumenal Media’s data
Use our team of experts to implement best practices that optimize data management and analytics processes.
Afternoon: Stand and underdeliver
It’s time for the weekly departmental meeting and Sarah has prepared a presentation on the latest data insights.
If it sounds easy, it’s not. Presenting complex data in a way that’s easily accessible and provides actionable insights for her colleagues in sales, product development, and beyond can be a challenge.
Sarah starts her presentation: “As we all know, data management is essential to Noumenal Media’s success. So, let’s dive into the latest insights, shall we?”
Unfortunately, it’s not long before Sarah’s colleagues take her presentation as an opportunity to multitask. Sarah looks at the clock — halfway through — and reveals a slide with a convoluted graph.
As eyes squint in unison, Sarah wishes she could point to a visually stunning dashboard where all the relevant data comes to clear, fully comprehensible fruition in front of everyone’s eyes.
If Noumenal Media came to us, we would:
- Bring data to life with custom data visualizations that effectively communicate Noumenal Media’s insights across the organization.
- Democratize data literacy with Slalom’s assistance by enabling Noumenal Media’s employees to better understand and effectively use data for improved data literacy and decision-making across the organization.
- Optimize data communication strategy with Slalom’s comprehensive expertise that ensures effective data insights are communicated.
- Easily and securely share data across departments and teams using Snowflake’s platform for secure knowledge transfers.
Evening: CE-Oh no
“Sarah, have seen you this?” Noumenal Media’s CEO, Calvin Dillinger, holds up a sales report.
“You still print those out?” Sarah asks in disbelief.
“Yeah, because otherwise I couldn’t do this.” Calvin taps emphatically on the report where there’s a sharp downward arrow indicating bad news. “We’re not hitting our revenue targets. Have you ever heard that saying, ‘Talent hits the bull’s-eye, but genius hits the mark that nobody else sees?’”
“Yeah, that’s a good one,” says Sarah. “What about it?”
“We’ve got plenty of talent,” Calvin explains. “We need to inject more genius into our marketing strategies.”
Sarah nods in agreement and wonders how to translate that ask into a clear directive. She goes back to her office and pulls up the latest sales data. Inconsistencies that were once hidden now jump out at her. “What is going on here?” she mutters.
This is what’s going on: the data was collected and analyzed in different ways by different teams. After some internal investigation, Sarah discovers that her teams were using different metrics to measure the same thing.
She texts Calvin:
“I want to propose a new set of standardized metrics that everyone can use and that means getting everyone trained on a new methodology.”
Calvin responds: “😎👍”
If Noumenal Media came to us, we would:
- Standardize metrics
Our team can work to implement a set of standardized metrics that everyone can use for more accurate and reliable data insights. - Implement data governance
Our experts can help establish data governance policies and procedures for consistent and accurate data collection and analysis. - Investigate data quality
We would conduct a thorough investigation into any data-quality issues and identify areas for improvement, focusing on implementing solutions to improve data accuracy and completeness. - Add data integration
Our team can help create a data integration strategy that would ensure all data sources are used effectively and provide a comprehensive and accurate view of the company’s performance.
Sarah, months later with Slalom and Snowflake
The media and entertainment industry is constantly evolving — that hasn’t changed. What’s different now is that Sarah has teamed up with Slalom and Snowflake.
Working with Slalom and Snowflake, Noumenal Media transformed its approach to data management and advertising strategies. The net result:
- Increased revenue through more effective advertising strategies
- Improved data accuracy to reduce time spent on data cleaning and validation
- Enhanced data literacy leading to better decision-making and increased productivity
- Reduced data management costs with streamlined processes and optimized resource allocation
- Improved customer experience through more personalized and effective ad targeting
Key outcome: Implementing Slalom and Snowflake’s solutions has significantly improved the team’s decision-making process. With a more detailed view of its audience, Noumenal Media can now proactively develop advertising strategies without worrying about whether its data is fresh or stale. Sarah is now able to extract meaningful value from her data, and she can also deliver measurable results in a way that her entire team can easily understand — and get excited about!
Unlock the value of your data
Discover how Slalom and Snowflake can help you unlock the full potential of your data, empowering you to gain deeper insights into your audience, optimize your advertising strategies, and stay ahead of the competition by thriving in turbulence. Find out more by downloading our whitepaper today.
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