Don't fear data

I don't believe that data never lies - it can be configured to mean one thing to one group and another thing to another group. However, the fear of data or the answer of "it depends" can be the undoing of a client relationship for any marketing or advertising agency.

Over the last 20 years, I have sat through so many meetings where the creative execution was only based on the ability of the creative team to produce an incredible presentation - Wow factor! The exercise to find out if it reasonates - is often discounted, or overridden.

It's hard -- in this economy and any other economy -- to realize that the value of WHAT you do is NOT in HOW you do it, but WHY you do it. And once you've done it, can we measure how close the tactic got us to the end goal?

Companies need to articulate the end goal of why. If they can't, then they won't be in business very long.