In her editorial contribution for Campaign Middle East’s Power Essays, PHD UAE’s (OMG) managing director Elda Choucair explains how data is transforming marketing from a cost center to a revenue driver. “Today, thanks to the advent and proliferation of digital technologies, we are able to collect more data about people than ever before, yielding real-time insights that lead to greater marketing agility across multiple media platforms… As a result, the skill-sets of marketing professionals – at both the client and agency ends of the spectrum – have had to evolve in order to embrace both the data and its impact. We are no longer doing the same job that we were doing 20 years ago,” writes Elda.
The essay also touches on the fresh recruitment challenges that marketers and agencies face, given the new requirements from both marketers and planners, stating “…we all increasingly need to become data specialists.” Elda also mentions the increase in accountability of the marketing function within an organization, stating: “As marketing becomes a lot more accountable, it justifies its place at the top table further. More than managing budgets, chief executive officers now expect chief marketing officers to generate proven revenue streams, even if they don’t have their own profit and loss statements.”
