As North American sports fans will know, the baseball season is now in full swing, and already bringing heartbreak to some (thinking of you, Mets fans) and excitement to others (Yankees and Dodgers).

But just like marketing, and like all elite sports these days, Major League Baseball is awash with data. From the launch angles of a hitter’s home run shot to the completed pass percentage of a soccer (football) midfielder to the hang time of an (American) football punt, coaches and sports officials have plenty to work with. And nowhere does this apply more than in the recruitment and drafting of players – remember Michael Lewis’s “Moneyball” which showed how data drove a whole new approach to using data as opposed to “gut feel.”

And old-school sports fans will have been horrified by a recent article in the “Wall St Journal” which anticipated the use of AI in maximizing the impact of corner kicks in soccer.

So, what could possibly go wrong?

All too often both marketers and sports teams deploy data without either properly understanding it, putting it in context, or weighing different and often contradictory data sets. Worse still, metrics and data are often regarded as static and not changed and adapted over time.

Nowhere does this apply more than with the use and misuse of intent data. The errors stem from a number of causes including:

1. A basic misunderstanding of how intent data is gathered (and they are not all the same)
2. Misplaced expectations
3. A belief that somehow account-based intent equates to individual behavior
4. Ignorance of keywords used and how they should be adapted and changed
5. Failing to check on intent location
6. Not appreciating that intent can be just a snapshot and it can wax and wane over time

Our advice at Demand Studio is simple:

• Review the source, compilation and methodology of your intent data
• Do not just leave it – or your vendor – to work by itself. Review, assess, and adapt
• Stress test against pipeline acceleration and path to revenue metrics

And of course we can help!

Finally, a salutary tale…. The Oakland A’s, the subject of Moneyball, are now languishing at the bottom of their league and about to move from California to Las Vegas. Data can’t solve everything.