Putting in place a comprehensive marketing technology stack is not what determines digital marketing success and data-driven thinking. It’s having your people skilled up and in the right mindset to employ the tools to what they do on a day-to-day basis.

The sophistication of the Australian digital market, plus the rapid rate local marketers have embraced personalisation and metrics, is phenomenal, global leaders from the Oracle Data Cloud team believe. Now, they say, it’s up the marketers globally to ask the right questions about where they want this technology to go.

US-based Nike says its acquisition of data analytics firm, Zodiac, is aimed at bolstering digital capabilities and accelerating its Consumer Direct Offense strategy to serve consumers faster and more personally at scale.

More than 310,000 Australians may have had their data improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica, according to a Facebook update overnight.

Three months in to a marketing technology-led transformation to bring voice of the customer in to the Village Roadshow business, digital and customer marketing leader, Clare Smith, rolled out a DMP trial. It was a big mistake.

​Growing volumes of data generated through emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, voice interaction and mixed reality could see consumers outsourcing their own identity management as the very nature of value-driven exchange between brand and consumer transforms.

News that more than 50 million Facebook user profiles were leaked to controversial political data analytics provider, Cambridge Analytica, should serve as a hefty warning to marketers on the importance of transparency with consumers about how their information is used, and more stringent governance practices around access, usage and sharing.

Online genealogy company, Ancestry, is using a data-driven approach to capture ‘real-life’ customer moments in Australian-made videos and local digital in order to deliver authentic personalised experiences.

Stanford Peace Innovation Lab co-director, Mark Nelson, is calling on CMOs to use technology, and particularly 'peace data', in order to bolster brand purpose while also making inroads and a positive impact towards achieving global peace.

If marketers aren’t running split-testing on Facebook ads, they're not doing Facebook correctly.

iSelect is making big investments into a single view of customer and martech initiatives as the company moves to “unlock insights” and deliver improved customer experience, according to iSelect CEO, Scott Wilson.

Marketers need to sell the benefits of data-driven personalisation to the consumer and those who might not be as digitally-savvy if Australian business is to remain competitive.

​Data regulation is going to be key to marketing innovation, said Steve Lok, head of marketing technology and ops at The Economist.

Achieving significant productivity wins via data-driven automation and unifying business insight into a single source of truth are just two big priorities for The Iconic’s analytics and data science chief.

​For many Australian organisations, 22 February marks the day when they lose much of their ability to hide shortcomings in how they safeguard the personal data of clients and employees.

There aren’t too many Aussie marketers right now who aren’t trying to connect the experience dots and turn their customer acquisition craftsmanship into retention and advocacy. To get there, however, there’s a growing complexity of digital channels to navigate, increasing swathes and types of data to stitch together, and ever-rising consumer expectations to contend with.

Tapping artificial intelligence and real-time data capability, redesigned customer journeys and digital-led and disruptive innovation have been key priorities for IAG’s customer labs over the first half of the financial year.

​With the dominance of digital in today’s marketing conversations, it is easy to forget that for many mid-tier Australian organisations, their digital journey is still in its infancy. But if you can take advantage of two decades of learning to achieve spectacular results, it’s not always a bad thing.

Data sharing is becoming increasingly common as organisations strive to better know their audiences.

It’s been a year of stellar sales and international expansion, technology advancement and food menu improvements for ASX-listed pizza maker, Domino’s. But equally, consumer data breaches, franchisee complaints and a legal dispute with a technology supplier around its flagship tracking app have made it a difficult year for brand management.

The age of customer centricity is here, and as experience increasingly becomes the biggest driver of digital transformation and marketing strategy, 2018 will be about moving the customer relationship to an even deeper and more dynamic level of personalised engagement.