WPPedCream 2015
Data Investment Management

Infinite variety was the theme for this year’s entries to the Data Investment Management category. The wealth of innovative and creative ways to gather, integrate, illuminate and execute data delivered by agencies across WPP was awe-inspiring. Much more rounded than in previous years, good to see so many more entries from all parts of WPP and not just Kantar. With Cannes Lions now awarding in the Creative Data category, there is no doubt that the use of data to inspire and provoke is here to stay.

The winner from VML for the Tennessee Tourist Board combined all of these elements: innovative, wide-ranging data gathering and seamless integration of data for a beautifully creative and incredibly user-focused application. The quality of the creative thinking and execution was amply demonstrated by the incredible results delivered for the client. The other entries we recognised were a mixture of bringing data to life in a personal way (AKQA’s Nike Your Year), visualising data in imaginative ways (Grey’s Berlin Wall of Sound), and mining data to produce great insights (Added Value External Radar and The Futures Company for Ford). There were some entries that tantalised us (Millward Brown Emotion based targeting and TNS social infused tracking) but which did not have enough of a client track record to win but for which we hold out huge hope for next year.

Data is the fuel for so much of the extraordinary work being delivered for our clients across the group and it was eye opening to see the sheer range of applications for both raw data and more developed insight. One key learning was obvious: the most successful applications make the data human-sized and use data to make real human connections to customers and audiences. It is clear from these entries that Big Data is not the dehumanising and anti-creative force it is too often called.

Congratulations to all our winners and highly commended entries this year and many thanks to all the agencies across WPP who are working to show the power and creative capacity of data for all of our clients.