Customer data management, reporting and actionability was firmly in the spotlight this week for Adobe as the vendor unveiled a new approach to its customer data platform (CDP) offering and journey analytics and first-party data sharing capabilities.

Growing first-party data sophistication, a focus on customer consent and personalisation driven by empathy rather than regulatory requirement are just some of the ways Australian brands are attempting to navigate the data-driven marketing landscape.

The Seven Network has added to its second-party data partnerships, striking a deal with weather information service, Weatherzone, to bring more geospatial insights into its 7RediQ audience intelligence offering.

Woolworths is outlaying $223 million to gain a majority stake in data analytics firm, Quantium, and has flagged plans to establish a new advanced analytics practice bringing the best of both companies together as it increases its shareholding to 75 per cent.

Seven West Media has become the latest media company to sign up to Flybuys’ data division, Unpacked by Flybuys, a deal that will see it joining the dots on audience data across its 7plus connected TV proposition with TEG Analytics and FMCG shopping habits.

Triple-digit customer database growth, record email engagement rates and a plethora of insights informing new products and promotions are just some of the wins for Australian brewery, Stone & Wood, after lifting its digital marketing game.

A lack of awareness and technical insight into how consumer data is used for targeting and retargeting purposes remains a core concern for several industry thought leaders as marketing becomes increasingly exposed to data privacy concerns and regulation.

Marketers globally and across the region are seeing increasing value in location-based services and data targeting yet concerns about the accuracy of such data remains rife, a recent report has found.

Marketers needs to rid themselves of the idea that third-party data is bad and first-party data is good and instead focus on improving their access to ‘good’ data - full stop. And that means transparency and consent.

Bringing merchandising, loyalty and marketing strategies and insights ever-closer together to improve customer service is the name of the game for West Australia’s Liquor Barons liquor retailer as it brings on a fresh promotional planning platform.

Recently returned to local hands, RM Williams has appointed a homegrown media agency to spearhead its global media buying, insights and strategy.

It seems even technology companies can run into customer management data issues. According to MYOB head of product and platform Jay Nawaz, product diversity had led to customer information residing in different places, which was causing problems for the company’s product development and marketing ambitions.

Pivoting marketing and customer efforts to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic clearly took centre stage this year, as this year’s CMO list of most read stories in 2020 shows.

Data management, reporting and action are the holy trinity for Aware Super’s first group head of data sciences as the organisation works to build a data-driven capability that drives bigger rewards for members, employers and stakeholders.

Australian mattress and furniture online retailer, Koala, is spending the next six months undergoing a large-scale data transformation to bring customer insight into every step of its decision-making processes.

While 2020 might have been the year of accelerated digital transformation, marketers will have a host of other technologies on their radar in 2021. From artificial intelligence (AI) and IoT to mixed reality (MR) and robotic process automation, marketing leaders will increasingly tap technology to make informed, responsive decisions with tightened budgets and changing consumer behaviour.

A 270 per cent increase in revenue and ability to optimise more than 1 million discrete customer journeys are just a few ways data visualisation is helping Australian marketplace, Oneflare, lift its business game.

Here from CMO 50 marketers Movember Australia marketing director, Jason Olive, along with Tennis Australia chief marketing and insights officer, Josie Brown, Brownes Dairy director of sales and marketing, Natalie Sarich-Dayton, Nestlé Oceania
 director of eBusiness, strategy and marketing, Martin Brown and Amaysim CMO, Renee Garner about how their executing data-led marketing.

Bold test-and-learn, commitment to data-driven cultural change and employing a predictive and prescriptive approach are key to making marketing analytics truly impactful on the brands it’s being applied to serve, says Gartner.

Wanting to address the problem of customer feedback in silos, ANZ has extended its Qualtrics integration to better utilise valuable customer feedback and feed it directly into developing new propositions around banking products or services.

It’s by tapping into data for decision making, rather than concentrating on data from marketing actions, that will enable CMOs to identify new paths to growth and revenue, Constellation Research VP and analyst, Liz Miller, says.