Here's why Air BnB should be the example for all Marketing teams...

It’s not lost on me that I’m old enough to remember a time when the success of TV advertising was measured by ringing up a household and asking them if they recalled seeing a particular TV ad on screen.

As Marketing and the Advertising industry has evolved, so has the sophistication of the data available for brands to measure the success of their campaigns. Now data is so prolific that businesses can make ALL their decisions based on what the ‘data’ says.

As the amount of data we have access to has increased, the role of intuitive Creative Marketeers has been diminished. I know brands who used to have ONLY creative brand marketers in their Marketing department and now have almost exclusively Performance and Data driven roles.

If you work in Marketing and the Creative industry, and would like to work in Brand, the bad news is, the roles are getting less and less.

But here’s the good news…

Creative Brand Marketing is making a comeback!

Just last week AirBnB founder Brian Chesky was on the podcast ‘Diary of a CEO’ talking about the importance of Creative People in a world that seems to only value Data People. Chesky notes that when companies start out, they have no data. So decision making is more instinctive, intuitive and creative. 

But as they grow, the data grows and the decision making becomes all about what the data says.

Chesky wants AirBnB to go back to its roots. To measure less ROI. And to make decisions that are more creative and intuitive. 

And I think more brands will follow suit

Data has its place. And it’s important.

But I can see why Chesky wants to make the shift.

During my years at Nike, we hired smart, creative, instinctive Marketeers who understood the consumer and could make decisions for the brand that might not have been obvious in the data. 

This allows a competitive advantage in the market that is hard to replicate. 

Brand roles are still really popular

There is a reason Brand Marketing roles have historically been some of the most popular roles in a Marketing team. The creativity and freedom to guide a brand and the consumer is at the heart of what makes Marketing appeal to many people when they graduate. 

And as an ex-Brand Director, I couldn’t agree more. Brand roles are amazing. And I’m excited to see more of them come back!