Information vs. Inspiration

I was at the adtech New Delhi conference couple of days back. An impressive constellation of speakers. Much to learn and network!

However, one familiar drone/ murmur amongst the audience was "not enough insights man!", the information shared is available in public domain - "not enough new information/data dude"!

I have a slightly different take on this. I believe the marketing fraternity in India is at par in terms of information access and knowledge accumulation. As a nation/ marketing fraternity we have a huge appetite for data. But once we get that data, our record in acting on that data is not quite impressive.

What we most need NOW is :

(a)To act on that information to create new products & services, to create a meaningful engagement with people, to create better service experience and so on...
(b) And not just wait endlessly for a constant stream of new insights but start using the ones that we already have!!

(c) Not be paralysed by analysis but take action steps & be prepared to take some risk
(d) We need to 'get inspired' by ideas, case studies, cross -category happenings. And we have enough of those on our collective hard disks!

(e) The TRUTH and many of the answers are out there. We just need 'big ears' and an honest intent on doing something about it.
(f) Nothing much will ever be gained if social media/ digital marketing isn't imbibed into the DNA of our company.

This small video of Ford Motor company is a great short inspirational clip of how even lagging Detroit used SM/ digital marketing to it's advantage. From a loss-making icon Ford really turned itself around. But for that it took some inspired steps - from the CEO to the shop floor engineer to the fans and the blogger community!