The plane’s speed sensors iced over, igniting a chain reaction of signal overload and pilot confusion. If the pilots had followed standard operating procedures, they most certainly would have recovered. The plane’s black box, recovered two years later, surfaced how technology and automation — relied on for safety and productivity — may have had the unfortunate outcome of preventing pilots from gaining the experience and sensitivity required to take command during abnormal situations.

According to Popular Mechanics: “While the airplane’s avionics track crucial parameters such as location, speed, and heading, the human beings can pay attention to something else. But when trouble suddenly springs up and the computer decides that it can no longer cope on a dark night, perhaps, in turbulence, far from land the humans might find themselves with a very incomplete notion of what’s going on. They’ll wonder: What instruments are reliable, and which can’t be trusted? What’s the most pressing threat? What’s going on? Unfortunately, the vast majority of pilots will have little experience in finding the answers.”

This problem is not limited to aviation. It is not uncommon for boaters (especially powerboaters) to set their electronic chart plotters and automated self-steering systems to aim for navigational buoys — only to take their mind off navigating and subsequently collide into those very buoys. It is not uncommon for drivers to drive off roads or collide with other cars, because their GPS systems told them to stay on course. I even know of people with poor eyesight who still drive because their GPS tells them where to go, when to turn, and when to slow down (and this makes me furious).

I work in marketing at a technology services company, so I often think about how the automation revolution impacts marketing companies. Automation touches many tactical and operational areas of large companies, but data and intelligence are most strategic.

Over the past few months, I’ve had multiple conversations with senior marketing and systems leaders from Fortune 100 companies. A theme has surfaced: While marketing automation is powerful and getting more sophisticated, one of the downsides is the deployment of executive-level performance dashboards that are simplistic, overly static and passive.

After two or three decades in business, many executives want to apply their experience and instincts to connecting the dots among disparate data points. The challenge is, many executive dashboards have evolved with limited ability for senior leaders to directly and easily manipulate and compare data. This may prevent serendipitous insights from surfacing, and creates more distance between senior leaders and the operational front lines, especially where customer experience happens.

What’s next? Senior business leaders will continue to demand executive-level dashboards with holistic views, typically curated by specialized business analysts. However, expect a growing demand for executive-level dashboards and platforms that also enable them to easily drill into details, to integrate and compare seemingly unrelated data, and to quickly perform ad-hoc analyses that facilitate discovery. Smart, seasoned executives want to get their hands dirty, surface important questions for further study, and become more connected through their own immersion.

Automation can be powerful. It should drive efficiency, scale and control, but it also should empower senior leadership to become more astute and do what machines cannot always do on their own: sense and respond to the abnormal.

This article was written by Syncapse VP Marketing, Max Kalehoff, for MediaPost. Read the full article online at MediaPost.com

]]> http://www.syncapse.com/marketers-dont-let-automation-dull-your-senses/feed/ 0 http://www.syncapse.com/ab-inbev-and-coca-cola-marketing-executive-maarten-l-albarda-joins-board-social-marketing-solutions-provider-syncapse/ http://www.syncapse.com/ab-inbev-and-coca-cola-marketing-executive-maarten-l-albarda-joins-board-social-marketing-solutions-provider-syncapse/#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 21:19:11 +0000 Max Kalehoff http://www.syncapse.com/?p=6123 NEW YORK, May 6, 2013 – Syncapse today announced that it has landed respected 25-year marketing veteran Maarten L. Albarda for its industry advisory board. Mr. Albarda, 51, served from 2009-2012 as vice president, Global Connections for Anheuser Busch InBev, and from 2005-2009 as Global Director, Media & Communication Innovation for The Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, he founded MLA Consulting LLC to advise marketers, agencies, startups and media companies on integrated marketing communications.

Mr. Albarda joins other distinguished industry veterans on Syncapse’s advisory board, including Chris Burggraeve, Founder of Vicomte LLC and former CMO of Anheuser-Busch InBev, and Ted McConnell, EVP of Digital at the Advertising Research Foundation and former Director of Marketing Innovation at P&G.

“Much of the work we do at Syncapse involves helping very large global brands with complex marketing needs better understand their social connections to identify their most important segments and what content and message frequency resonates best with them,” said Michael Scissons, founder & CEO of Syncapse. “Maarten brings a unique global perspective as an insider with just the type of enterprise for which our solution is built.” 

In addition to AB-InBev and Coca-Cola, Mr. Albarda has led a distinguished career in pan-regional global agency leadership roles at JWT, Leo Burnett and McCann Erickson working in The Netherlands, the UK, Japan, Germany and the U.S.. He is a sought-after speaker who regularly appears at the Festival of Media, Cannes Advertising Festival, DMexico, Ad:Tech and others. In 2000, Ad Age named him as one of the "40 under 40 to watch" and M&M Global nominated him as "Marketer of the Year" in both 2010 and 2011. 

Mr. Albarda also is the co-author with Joseph Jaffe of the new book “Z.E.R.O.,” to be published in September 2013 via Archway/Simon & Schuster.

He resides in Stamford, Conn. with his wife. 

About Syncapse

Founded in 2007, Syncapse is a technology-enabled services company that uses social media data to achieve smarter marketing for the world’s most valuable brands. Anheuser-Busch InBev, Coca-Cola, Diageo, L’Oreal, Reckitt Benckiser and others turn to Syncapse to understand their customer needs and improve performance. Headquartered in New York City, the company has offices in London, Toronto and Gurgaon.

Twitter had a marquee moment last week, particularly late Friday afternoon and evening, that should scare most television news outlets in the business of reporting breaking news.

That’s when Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was cornered by police, trapped and almost bleeding to death inside a covered boat in a backyard in Watertown, Mass.

I was riding home on the commuter train and wanted an update on the manhunt. I tried checking the news sites, but there were no fluid updates. Moreover, the sites refreshed painstakingly slowly on a moving train.

So I checked my regular Twitter stream, and updates poured in persistently. I kept refreshing the stream every few seconds to import new updates and perspectives. This event resembled the OJ Simpson’s slow-motion car chase, and it was Twitter’s moment.

Twitter seized the moment with: