Mildenberger spoke at the school’s Nanosystems Institute, detailing how to better build real relationships with consumers by understanding them through social speech. He was joined by fellow speakers Mohammed Mahbouba, UCLA Health’s chief data officer, William Miller, chief information officer for NetApp and William Doherty, senior solution architect for GE Digital.
The IS Associates is a UCLA-sponsored organization that dives deeper into managing and understanding information systems and effective leadership of IT functions, a sentiment Mildenberger echoed throughout the course of his half-hour presentation.
“The world of marketing has fundamentally changed with the advent of social media,” said Mildenberger. “Ever since Gutenberg’s 1440 printing press, marketers have worked with gatekeepers—the printers, publishers, TV networks—et al. Now, consumers are speaking freely and directly to one another. But they are doing it at petabytes an hour all over the world. So, today’s challenge is to understand and act upon this massive influx of social speech. Data sciences and AI are the only way to do this.”
Mildenberger says marketers can learn virtually everything from consumers using this kind of technology, including preferences, dislikes and passions.
“We can learn who they are, what they are talking about, and where they are,” he says. “This last point isn’t referencing geography, because that’s not as important in social media, but where they are in the social fabric. Social speech can help us know their personality and understand their base psychological makeup, which is the best way to predict future actions.”
Mildenberger concluded his talk by highlighting emerging trends that marketers should absolutely know for AI-driven technology right now.
“AI and data science are just a conduit to connect social science with what we are trying to do—inject brands into authentic conversations to gain influence with the ideal consumers,” said Mildenberger. “And, of course, measuring that influence is key to success.”
Learn everything you need to know about turning insights into data at AList Sessions, a new invite-only event series for marketers, on October 26 in Los Angeles. Mildenberger will be one of the featured speakers.
Go to sessions.alistdaily.com for more info.
