In general, this is a great piece. When looking at pure strategy you need data and analytics to get you, and the room, to where things need to go. The Netflix quote is from here and it's a wonderful articulation of how to think about the importance of data every day.
But again in this piece, just like Always and Never, things aren't black and white, they are shades of gray.
The piece talks about Got Milk? and how the insight that led to that effort, using a focus group, is now something 'of the past.'
I wonder how analyzing milk data would get to Got Milk?'s taste appeal pairing insight with peanut butter sandwiches and cookies as quickly or as decisively as talking with milk drinkers did?
I also wonder if the Got Milk? campaign launched today for the first time, if it wouldn't have many of the similar successes that it had years ago?
Just because we can now do a new thing doesn't mean we should stop doing the other thing. It means we must think more critically and thoughtfully at the onset. Choosing our tools and approaches with care, versus defaulting to one. Ironically, that's what we did in the past. And with the way so many people talk now, it's what we're at risk of still doing today. Just with the new thing, so that makes it okay.