Member Article

Businesses clamour to implement Big Data in their marketing activity

Big Data will play a key role in marketing for businesses across the UK as 61 per cent of marketers expect to incorporate it into their strategies within the next two years, a new research report has found.

Almost 29 per cent of those surveyed by DQM Data IQ and Lateral Group are still unsure when they will adopt Big Data practices with a further 9 per cent expecting to implement it in more than two years. This desire to take full advantage of Big Data comes despite a shortage of in-house expertise. Currently only two in ten companies believe they have the resources in-house to analyse and use Big Data to its full potential.

The need to analyse and utilise Big Data is only set to increase, with the average growth rate of data volume set to hit 38.9% during 2013. Social media is likely to become the dominant source of Big Data with almost two thirds (65.7 per cent) of companies expecting to use it to extract information in the next 12 months.

Education is likely to become an issue as the industry looks to manage the vast and disparate number of channels that generate Big Data. Four out of ten respondents are yet to be convinced of the full potential despite accepting it does benefit a business, while three in ten view it as nothing new. The apparent lack of internal expertise coincides with a lingering sense of scepticism among many businesses, which underlines the need for data providers to better educate the industry.

“There are a number of clear indicators signalling that ‘Big Data’ is soon set to play a core role in business’ marketing and strategy plans,” said Ruaraidh Thomas, managing director, Lateral Group. “Though the term ‘Big Data’ continues to be debated as to whether it is actually a fresh proposition, the fact that it seems to be helping data be considered of core importance to business in all sectors is an exciting development and opportunity.”

“Like it or not, big data is coming - the growth rate means your data volume will have doubled inside two years. Technology won’t have much trouble coping with that - the big challenge is around human resources,” said David Reed, editor of DataIQ, says. “At a time when there is intense competition for people who know how to do this work, the race is on either to automate data science or to become a trusted business partner.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Editorial team .