I wasn’t at the Adobe summit but I saw a great summary recently. Data continues to be the buzzword in the industry at the moment and I have been excited by how it will make me produce better results for my clients. Not for one second however did I think ‘data’ would make us redundant…

And then in the slideshow I saw this upcoming product from adobe called CMOBFF which in the description states it’s ‘a dynamic dashboard that helps you optimise your marketing mix’. I thought that sounded pretty cool and, as that has partly been my job for a while, I investigated a bit further.

On Twitter there were comments like:

“One-click media planning agency replacement. Love it.”

“Should I say goodbye to my strategist by implementing CMOBFF?”

“Dynamic dashboard to help visualise and optimise media mix, including pulling ATL spend.”

And I started to think that maybe media planners are about to be shown the door to be replaced by analysts. Don’t get me wrong, the product will make us all better at our jobs and produce better results for clients, so that is a good thing.

But it did get me thinking about the future of the media industry and the skills needed to survive.

1. Creativity is key

With a lot of the guess work being taken out of which channels, at which time and on what device, are needed to produce the best results, those who can apply creativity to the application of results will deliver greater value to their clients.

With everyone being able to access the data in the near future, it will be those who can turn the results into genuine insights who will also stand out and deliver results.

2.  Be collaborative

Collaboration is almost used as much as ‘big data’, and for a very good reason. What good would it be having the data but not getting it into the right hands?

Collaboration is essential, not only with external partners (clients, creative agencies and media partners) but also internal divisions within media agencies. As we all seek to further our careers we need to remember that it isn’t a one-person show.

So does CMOBFF mean machines will replace the media planner? Hell no. It just means that collaboration and creativity are more important than ever to provide genuine insights and analysis on media plans that deliver better results for clients.