What’s the biggest industry change you have seen over your career?

Without a doubt the biggest change I have seen in the industry has to be the rise of data, data, data. The type of data we have access to; the tools we have available to us to organise, analyse and utilise that data; and the mechanisms that enable marketers to use data to give value back to customers, and to add value to their brands and businesses. None of these things were as readily available and as easily leveraged when I started out as a marketer.

The role that customer data plays in how we as marketers understand our customers – whether it is behavioural data collected through mechanisms such as loyalty programmes; or whether it is attitudinal and perception data from research sources – is enormously powerful and we have an obligation as modern marketers to use that data wisely and well!