COLOGNE, Germany — As “maths men” take over from “mad men” on advertising’s Fifth Avenue, the new cult of data is proving to be too all-consuming, says one advertising veteran.<\/p>\n
“We may be losing the plot – too much math, too little meaning,” says DigitasLBi and Razorfish chair Rishad Tobaccowala.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019ve forgotten that the data is there to support the art of the instinct, rather than be<\/em> the art of the instinct.”<\/p>\n Modern digital advertising software platforms give advertisers and agencies super-control in to where and how they buy online ads, including fine control over how they target campaigns to reach consumers across ad networks. It’s becoming a frenzy.<\/p>\n “We\u2019ve become too data-infested and not intelligent enough,” Tobaccowala tells Beet.TV in this video interview. “Things will keep changing so fast that the machines won\u2019t keep up with the rate of change – machines are very good at repeating what has been done before – not at doing new things.”<\/p>\n Tobaccowala published a blog post on the topic<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n