Connecting Consumer Engagement with Marketing Analytics: Gurkan Sener on Leveraging Data to Drive Informed Business Decisions
NBC Universal’s Vice President of Global Marketing, Analytics, and Targeting delves into the dynamics of data science and demonstrates how today’s brands can harness analytics to optimize their marketing efforts
Gurkan Sener is the Vice President of Global Marketing Analytics and Targeting at NBC Universal Destinations and Experiences, where he oversees an advanced analytics team specializing in marketing data science, audience, and measurement.
Gurkan holds two advanced degrees from Michigan State University: an M.S. in statistics and one in economics. His expertise spans multiple domains, including multi-channel attribution, marketing mix optimization, audience targeting and insights, forecasting, and high-performing team building and management. He has earned a reputation for innovation and excellence in strategic analytics solution design and execution.
We talked to Gurkan about using data to market a theme park, working with the NBC/Universal umbrella, which includes so much intellectual property, having Disney as your biggest competitor, and discovering theme parks as an adult.
You have two advanced degrees in data-heavy fields. Did you know you wanted to go into marketing when you pursued these degrees?
I’m a data scientist by education and experience, but data science programs weren’t widely available when I went to school. I started in an economics program. That’s how I came to the United States from Turkey. I was going for a PhD in economics. We often think of economics as being all about numbers, but it’s really about human behavior at the micro-scale. As part of the PhD program, I got my master’s in statistics. The two topics together are really what modern data science programs are about and make a great foundation for marketing.
Of course, the field has changed so much with the power of computing and the sheer volume of data that big players like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Netflix are generating. There’s an understanding of how essential big data is and the technology we need to analyze it quickly that wasn’t there yet when I started.
What were some of your first roles out of school, and what did you learn from them?
The majority of my experience has been on the agency and consulting side. Universal is just my second client-side experience. I worked at agencies that had large databases of consumer demographic information. They were doing what they called people-based marketing, which is all about using this individual-level data for customer acquisition and direct mail/email campaigns. Later, I went to Market Share Partners, where my job was all about measurement and helping clients analyze the effectiveness of their marketing efforts so they could optimize future efforts.
I was also at Accenture for four years, and that was a different ballgame. I was traveling Monday to Thursday each week often working on a different project. In that role, I went beyond marketing to help clients do strategic assessments of their business. It was more of a major management consulting platform.
I really appreciate the experience I got on the agency and consulting side. It's extremely fast-paced, and you get exposed to so many business problems with clients in different industries. It gives you a lot of experience in a shorter period and teaches you to be flexible and able to work in ever-changing environments. At the same time, you’re also bound by the project you’re working on, and you often don’t see much else in the company.
I’ve been at Universal for over six years now, and I’ve really loved getting to see a fuller picture. What you can offer from within your internal position is significantly greater because you get to see the concept from beginning to end.
What is your role at Universal now?
I run our global marketing analytics and targeting team, which is part of our overall marketing team. We work alongside the other analytic teams, including consumer insights, demand, revenue management, and pricing.
My team focuses more on the short-term demand from the paid media perspective. About 90 million adults in the U.S. have an affinity toward theme parks, which is a pretty big group. We need to know which of them might visit the park this year and how we can reach them to make that happen.
Within marketing analytics, we have three functions: audience, measurement, and data science. The audience science is using all of the available consumer-level information out there to help us set our targeting strategies and ensure we’re marketing to the right people. The measurement science group is analyzing our paid media to make sure we’re optimizing the return on investment. And then, between those groups is the data science team, which builds complex propensity models to help us figure out who we should be communicating with and what is and isn’t working.
We have strong ties with finance, brand marketing, and sales channels to make sure the media investment is optimized and return is maximized. We continually know what is and isn’t working to reach potential guests, who is visiting our websites, and who is going through the gates. Beyond consumer demographics, in our models, we use guest behavior data, weather, macroeconomic factors, and travel demand indicators such as flights into the area. Our primary function is to guide the marketing organization to make informed decisions through data and sophisticated analytical solutions.
“Our primary function is to guide the marketing organization to make informed decisions through data and sophisticated analytical solutions.”
Who is a theme park consumer? And how do you continue to appeal to them?
That's a very good question. As I said, we’re starting with a pool of over 90 million people. That’s huge and not a particularly specialized kind of consumer profile. It’s families with kids, obviously, but also people with expendable income who like outdoor activities. From an income perspective, it’s people with middle to high incomes because this is not an inexpensive vacation, especially if you’re flying from other locations and staying at hotels or one of our resorts.
Of course, just because you might be a theme park enthusiast doesn’t mean you plan to come to Universal. I know you’re also hearing from Disney, SeaWorld, and the cruise lines. You’re getting all of this information, so it’s my job to figure out what kind of content I should be showing you to get your attention so that we keep Universal top of mind when you decide to make the trip.
What data have you been using, and what will you do as we move into the cookie-less future?
Our audience science team uses all available first-, second-, or third-party data. We work with all sorts of audience marketing platforms like Google, Facebook, etc. My team analyzes signals like whether you clicked on any of our impressions when you were browsing the internet, whether you visited any of our sites and what you did while you were there, and what other websites you visited, like maybe Florida travel websites, that might indicate you are a potential consumer.
This entire ecosystem is based on cookies. Like everyone else, we had to figure out how we would collect the information we needed to analyze your potential behavior when the cookie goes away. Unlike everyone else, however, we have a lot of opportunities to collect this information ourselves. Universal is owned by NBC, which is owned by Comcast. NBC has a bunch of brands, from Fandango to Peacock, that we can use to collect data—because users give us permission to do so when they sign up. So, the company has been investing in building its own databases to make the marketing relevant and personalized under the privacy laws.
“This entire ecosystem is based on cookies. Like everyone else, we had to figure out how we would collect the information we needed to analyze your potential behavior when the cookie goes away.”
You mention Disney. It’s hard to think of Universal as a challenger brand because it’s owned by NBC and Comcast and has a huge footprint. But in terms of theme parks, do you feel like a challenger?
It’s not that simple. Disney is the competition, but there’s also cross-pollination between the theme parks. Disney provides huge gravity in Orlando, which makes it a destination and brings more people to the market. That definitely benefits them, but it also benefits Universal and the other parks in the area, and vice versa. Whenever one of us opens something new, it brings people into the area, which is good for all of the parks.
Where individuals end up going is often based on the IP (Intellectual Property) that interests each consumer. If you have a child in the princess age group, you’re probably going to Disney. But we have Jurassic Park and Harry Potter, which appeal to families with slightly old children.
Our consumer insights team I mentioned earlier is always doing market research to assess which of our many IPs consumers are most excited about. Theme parks can’t be static; you always have to be investing in upgrades to existing attractions and adding new attractions. We currently have three parks—Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure, and Volcano Bay. We’re working on a fourth that will be called Epic Universal and is set to open in 2025. It will have more attractions based on Harry Potter, Super Nintendo World, Dark Universe, and How to Train Your Dragon.
This is a significant investment, and like everything else, the decisions involved were very data-driven.
You’re a data scientist, and yet you say some of this is an art. Can you explain?
Today's marketing is essentially data driven, right. Especially when you are operating in a competitive industry like telecom, financial services, or travel, analytics and data science make a huge difference. We use what we know to connect the dots. But this created its own problem. Science can only explain so much; this isn’t physics; it’s human behavior, and not all human behavior is rational. In marketing, two plus two might just be three today. It’s part of what I like about my job; it can be fun to see the ways in which humans behave differently than we’d expect. Art comes into play to take sophisticated analytic solutions and apply them to make business decisions to maximize the outcome.
“Science can only explain so much; this isn’t physics; it’s human behavior, and not all human behavior is rational.”
Where do you see marketing analytics evolve in the future?
Well, as more data is generated, there will be more sophisticated solutions to sift through it and make better, more precise decisions. 1-to-1 marketing is the ultimate goal, and generative AI is the future. AI is already at work in marketing analytics to generate relevant content, make better predictions, be more precise in targeting, and personalize. Analytics is all about measurement and optimization, and AI is the next phase!
You’ve been with Universal for six years. Were you a theme park person before you got there? Are you now?
They definitely didn’t have anything like this when I was growing up in Turkey. It’s funny: I came to the U.S. in 1996, and two of the first places I visited were Disneyland and Universal Hollywood in California. I loved it, and I love working here now. Being part of our guests’ lives when they make memories is priceless. Everyone at Universal operates with that mindset, which is very rewarding as a career.
It’s hard to pick a favorite ride, but I’d have to say Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. I like the Velocicoaster, too, but I admit I have yet to open my eyes during that ride.
July 23, 2024
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