At Coca-Cola, data experts are now regarded as the "cool people at the company" – a complimentary view that extends well beyond the usual advocates of number-crunching.
"If you can believe it, even the creative teams at Coca-Cola are now asking us for data," Justin De Graaf, Coca-Cola's Director/Data Strategy & Precision Marketing, told delegates at the Association for Data-Driven Marketing and Advertising's (ADMA) Data Day in Sydney.
"Generally, that's like oil and water."
Such enthusiasm, he added, began with a data-driven brief that "earned the keys to their heart" by providing far greater insight than usual. "We brought them...