Futurist Tobaccowala Warns Travel Marketers to Not Be Too Data-Driven


Skift Take

Advertising legend Rishad Tobaccowala lashes out at an over-dependence on data, and believes so-called FAANGs must be broken up. All this simply makes his forthcoming book, Restoring the Soul of Business: Staying Human in the Age of Data, a must-read for decision makers in travel.

The oracle of the advertising industry, Rishad Tobaccowala, has warned travel marketers about the dangers of being overly-dependent on data-driven companies, and in the process losing sight of the customer as a human being. Speaking at Skift Global Forum on Thursday, the chief growth officer of Publicis Groupe observed that his “major clients, marketers and every business” have tilted towards data over the last four to five years because the five most-known companies in the United States — the so-called FAANGs (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet’s Google) — are data-driven. “Business after business orbit to the large platforms, to such an extent they become data-driven, short-term and complet