In The Data Deluge, Arun Kumar brings his digital development and data management expertise and experience to start a needed and important conversation on how the industry should approach data and marketing. Data's explosion and targeted marketing has ushered in a new era of data use and analytics. Unfortunately, in today's world, neither marketers nor consumers are fully benefiting from this explosion of data.

The purpose of marketing is to strengthen a brand's relationship with its consumers; we are all collectively successful when brands are successful. There is no higher purpose for marketing to exist. Brands need to build relationships based on trust. Consumers want transparency. And they want digital marketing to work—to give them information and entertainment they need (and not repeated a thousand times). In a rapidly evolving data world, platforms are unlikely to change their policies; neither is legislation going to catch up with them. Meanwhile, consumers suffer the consequences, including lack of transparency. Hence marketers must create their own world of trust and principles that do not depend on external sources to succeed.

The Data Deluge invites all those in the marketing space, including CMOs, CEOs, those concerned with privacy and data, CTOs, and anyone who knows there can be a better way to intersect data and marketing, to join the conversation. There is a better way—and together we can find it.