Marketing Data Is Uranium, Not Oil — Uncontained, It Does Damage

This piece summarizes an opinion column by Steve Kennedy, chief marketing officer at Marco's Pizza.

For years marketers have repeated the same line: "Data is the new oil." Tidy, but it made more sense when data scarcity was the constraint. Back then, the companies that extracted the most data and analytics looked like the winners.

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 is analyzing it and extracting insights that produce actions capable of transforming the business.

A more accurate comparison: data is uranium.

Refined with the right containment, it is one of the most powerful assets a business has. Left unattended, disconnected from a clear strategy, or handled without discipline, it does damage. Poorly used data easily becomes wasted budget, eroded customer trust, or bad decisions made with confidence but no real insight behind them.

We Are Asking the Wrong Question

In the race to implement AI amid constantly evolving technology, marketers are asking the wrong thing. The question is not how much data a brand has, but whether the brand knows how to turn it into better decisions and measurable growth.

Data-Rich Is Not Insight-Rich

Many marketers are drowning in dashboards and spreadsheets while starving for clarity. Upgraded technology delivers more data streams, platforms, and real-time reporting, and better decision-making still does not follow.

If a brand is expanding its reporting but not changing its strategy, it is collecting, not learning.

Insight-rich means there may be fewer channels of data, but each is chosen deliberately with a distinct intention to inform a decision. It means the marketing team can explain the "why" behind changes with tangible data behind it, not data kept for show.

The test is simple:

If a piece of data doesn't change a decision, it isn't an asset — it's a wasted resource.

AI Accelerates Human Understanding Rather Than Replacing It

As AI evolves, businesses have access to more data and more powerful analytical capability than ever. AI is exceptional at identifying patterns, generating insights, and testing hypotheses at a scale no human team could reach alone. Used well, it lets marketers learn faster, decide better, and uncover opportunities that would otherwise pass unnoticed.

But data alone is not understanding.

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 cannot 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 one tap away.

The most successful marketers will not use AI to replace human judgment. They will use it to amplify it: collecting information, testing ideas, challenging assumptions, and deepening customer understanding faster than ever, then applying what AI cannot replicate — curiosity, empathy, creativity, and intuition.

The future of marketing is not human versus AI. It is human ingenuity, powered by AI.

In Franchising, Every Dollar Is Someone Else's Investment

Every marketer must maintain cost efficiency. In a franchise system, every dollar spent comes out of a franchisee's marketing fund, and they trust the marketing team to make decisions that grow their business.

That responsibility changes how data collection gets evaluated. Deciding which signal to act on is a decision about how to use someone else's investment.

Franchisors need to use data to drive marketing decisions with a clear line back to results franchisees can see in their own stores. Collecting and using data is not beneficial to local ownership unless it directly improves their operations.

Being Effective Can Beat Being Right

Talented creative and analytical marketers all know one thing: 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 once you have enough data is the actual skill — and it is not taught by a dashboard. It comes from confidence built on genuinely understanding human behavior.

Putting It Into Practice

Three checks translate this argument into operations.

Write the decision each report changes. A report where you cannot name the decision is a candidate for deletion. This is housekeeping, not theory.

Do not take platform numbers at face value. Having a lot of data is not the same as having accurate data. The ANA's warning against overrelying on retail media data addresses exactly this: self-reported network numbers used without verification are uranium without containment.

Beware the average. More data increases the temptation to summarize into a mean. The analysis of why customer journeys fail when built for an average customer describes a classic failure mode of data abundance.

Bottom Line

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 is not collecting more uranium. It is learning to contain it and direct it toward something effective and efficient.