[Sparkline Seminar] Where Should We Head in 2025 for Data Marketing Strategy?
The digital marketing landscape is in a state of rapid transformation. 2024 presented both challenges and opportunities, with shifting privacy regulations, evolving user behaviors, and advancements in AI pushing marketers to rethink their strategies. Even though the phase-out of 3rd-party cookies in Chrome was postponed, the industry continues to adapt to a privacy-centric future.
To address these critical topics, we at Sparkline hosted the seminar "Where Should We Head in 2025 for Data Marketing Strategy?" on 25th February 2025 in Singapore. Held in Tanjong Pagar, at the heart of the Central Business District, the venue provided easy access to industry professionals, contributing to a strong turnout. This event was a fantastic opportunity for digital marketers, data specialists, and business leaders to exchange insights and prepare for what lies ahead.
Beyond featuring our own Sparkline experts, we were honored to welcome Kenny He, Tech Partnerships Lead at Google Singapore, as our guest speaker. His insights into Google Marketing Platform (GMP) and data-driven marketing strategies provided invaluable guidance for businesses aiming to stay ahead of the curve.
1. Opening Remarks: Setting the Stage
Our Chairman, Naohiro Yamaura, opened the seminar with a compelling keynote, addressing:
With Sparkline now part of the Ayudante family, we are set to reach new heights across the APAC region.
2. Key Challenges & Strategies for 2024
Our Solution Consultant, Jason Pua, then took the stage to discuss the biggest challenges shaping digital marketing in 2024:
Following Jason’s presentation, I (Jasper Poon), as the Global Marketing Lead, walked through 2 case studies, explained how data could be aggregated in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) BigQuery, using User-ID to unify user identity across offline data, behavioural data, and conversion data.
To introduce our main topic, I walked through the four essential steps of an effective data marketing strategy, reinforcing key principles along the way:
As AI continues to evolve, it’s capable of delivering incredible insights into analysis and utilisation. Big tech companies are also stepping up, improving their native connectors with other platforms to enhance data aggregation. But for me, data measurement and collection are still fundamental and can’t be fully replaced by AI. Every website and app has its own goals, design, and code, so AI alone just isn’t enough—it still needs human input to set up data collection properly.
“Think about it—you wouldn’t send your entire source code to ChatGPT and ask it to implement tracking, would you? AI wouldn’t know which data points are most valuable for your data marketing strategy. But we humans know how to do it.”
Please keep it in mind,
“Garbage in, garbage out. Poor data collection leads to poor insights and poor marketing decisions.”
To drive successful marketing efforts, in the end, I reinforced a fundamental principle of modern advertising.
“Advertising is all about delivering the right content, at the right time, to the right audience.”
And the success of your marketing campaign depends on three key players:
Without a strong data strategy, businesses risk inefficient ad spending and lost revenue opportunities.
3. Fireside Chat: Navigating the 2025 Roadmap
To provide a deeper understanding of what lies ahead, our COO, Joy Gupta, hosted a fireside chat with Kenny He, Google Tech Partnerships Lead. Together, they explored three key themes shaping the future of data-driven marketing:
Kenny made an important point:
“Just having a list of emails or user IDs is not enough anymore. You need to match that with real-time signals—what users are searching for, what products they engage with, and whether they interact with your brand online and offline.”
In the end, he emphasised that AI is only as good as the data it learns from:
“AI is only as good as the data it learns from. If you feed AI poor-quality data, you’ll get poor results. Invest in understanding data quality, consented signals, and AI-driven orchestration.”
4. Conclusion: Networking & Celebrating Sparkline’s Integration into Ayudante
To mark Sparkline’s integration into Ayudante, we added a touch of Japanese culture to our networking session, offering authentic refreshments as a tribute to Ayudante’s heritage.
As the event wrapped up, we had the chance to connect with attendees over drinks and discussions, exchanging insights on topics like GA4, privacy-first marketing, and Google’s roadmap for 2025. The conversations reflected the industry’s commitment to staying agile amid continuous change.
Final Thoughts
This seminar was more than just an industry event—it was a strategic dialogue on how businesses can future-proof their marketing in an era of AI, privacy regulations, and evolving consumer behaviours.
A huge thank you to everyone who joined us, and to all my fellow speakers who shared their expertise. It was an incredible experience presenting alongside my colleagues and engaging with the industry on these crucial topics.
We look forward to continuing these conversations and helping businesses navigate the future of data marketing.
And if you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading this long (but hopefully insightful) article!
