Today’s marketing data is too saturated to be oil — it’s uranium

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An overabundance of data can do damage if marketers don’t figure out how to turn it into better decisions, writes Steve Kennedy, CMO at Marco’s Pizza.

The following is a guest piece written by Steve Kennedy, chief marketing officer at Marco's Pizza. Opinions are the author’s own.

For the past few years, marketers have repeated the same line: Data is the new oil . The saying is tidy, but it made more sense in the era when data scarcity was a major challenge. The companies that were seen as winners were the ones that extracted the most data and analytics.

But today, scarcity is no longer the issue — far from it. Every modern brand has more customer data than it knows what to do with. The constraint isn’t collection anymore; it’s analyzing and extracting insights to produce meaningful actions that can transform the business.

A more accurate comparison is to say that data is uranium. It is one of the most powerful assets a business has when refined with the right containment. Left unattended, disconnected from a clear strategy or handled without discipline, it does damage. Poorly used data can easily become a wasted budget, eroded customer trust or bad decisions that are made with confidence, but no real insight behind them.

With the race to implement artificial intelligence and ever-evolving technology, marketers are asking the wrong questions. Rather than focusing on how much data a brand has, we should look at whether the brand knows how to turn it into better decisions and measurable growth.

Many marketers are drowning in dashboards and spreadsheets, starving for clarity. With upgraded technology providing more data streams, platforms and real-time reporting, there is still a lack of better decision-making. If a brand is expanding its reporting but isn’t changing its strategy, it is simply collecting, not learning.

There is a difference between being data-rich and insight-rich. Insight-rich means there might be fewer channels of data, but each is chosen deliberately with a distinct intention to inform a decision. It means a marketing team can explain the “why” behind certain changes, with tangible data to fall back on, not just having it for show. It’s simple: If a piece of data doesn’t change a decision, it isn’t an asset, it’s a wasted resource.

AI doesn't replace human understanding — it accelerates it.  As AI continues to evolve, businesses have access to more data and more powerful analytical capabilities than ever before. AI is exceptional at identifying patterns, generating insights and testing hypotheses at a scale no human team could achieve on his own. Used well, AI allows marketers to learn faster, make smarter decisions and uncover opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed.

AI can tell you how many people ordered a menu item on a specific Tuesday. It can identify trends, forecast demand and recommend the next best action. What it can't fully capture is the human context behind those decisions — why a customer chose one brand over another, what emotion influenced the purchase or how an experience created trust and loyalty in a world where alternatives are only a tap away.

The most successful marketers won't use AI to replace human judgment, they'll use it to amplify it. They’ll leverage AI to collect information, test ideas, challenge assumptions and deepen their understanding of customers faster than ever before. Then they'll apply the uniquely human qualities that AI can't replicate: curiosity, empathy, creativity and intuition.

The future of marketing isn’t human versus AI. It’s human ingenuity, powered by AI.

All marketers must maintain a certain level of cost efficiency. In the franchise system, every dollar we spend comes out of a franchisee’s marketing fund, and they trust us to make beneficial decisions to help grow their business.

That responsibility changes how I think about data collection. When we decide which signal to act on, we’re making a call about how to use someone else’s investment. Franchisors need to leverage data to drive marketing decisions that create a clear line back to results franchisees can see in their own stores. Collecting and using data is not beneficial to the local ownership unless it directly helps better their business operations.

Being effective can be better than being right.   I’ve worked with many talented creative and analytical marketers over my career. They all know that a brilliant analysis that doesn’t lead to a decision is worthless. It is possible to be right and completely ineffective. The most sophisticated model in the room can still fail to move the business forward.

CMOs need to prioritize effective data use, with data serving as a tool to move faster and justify decisions. The instinct to act when you have enough data is the actual skill that isn’t taught in a dashboard. Rather, it comes from confidence in truly understanding human behavior.

Data is one of the most powerful assets a marketing organization has, when handled correctly. Handled carelessly, it is a liability disguised as an advantage. The job of every CMO right now isn’t collecting more uranium. It’s to learn how to contain and direct it toward something effective and efficient.

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