The belief that “content is king” may have been codified into the collective consciousness in 1996 when none other than Microsoft Corp.’s Bill Gates wrote an essay by the same name. At the time, Gates believed that anything appearing on the internet would make a lot of money, but more than 20 years later, it’s now clear that the tech visionary was only partially right. The reality is that who consumes the content is now king, and this is what has marketers scrambling to reach key targets in the chaotic digital world.

“I don’t think that content is king. I think customers are king, audiences are king, context is queen and then content is just the result,” said Annalisa Camarillo (pictured), head of global content strategy, development and operations at NetApp Inc.

Camarillo paid a visit to theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio, and spoke with host John Furrier (@furrier) and guest host Keith Townsend (@CTOAdvisor) during the recent NetApp Insight event in Las Vegas, Nevada. They discussed the importance of data analytics in the marketing world, the value in storytelling and NetApp’s response to a tragic situation in Las Vegas. (* Disclosure below.)

Using data to know the audience and what they want

If the consumer of information is now king, then data analytics is the kingmaker. Today’s key business decisions are driven by data analysis, and NetApp realizes that when it comes to content, the customer is going to choose what they want to consume.

“A lot of it is going to be driven by data and the way that we use information to teach every marketer who the audience is and what they actually want to know,” Camarillo explained. “Data analytics in marketing is really big at NetApp right now.”

Having to gain new insights into the customer mindset can be frustrating for some marketing executives, but the end result is often a different approach, which is more narrative and honest. “Our audiences now get to interact with content that I think is more direct, that is truthful, that is transparent,” Camarillo said. “I love it because it’s now more about human behavior; it’s about telling stories.”

Sometimes the story is a difficult one, as exemplified by the massacre that occurred at the start of NetApp Insight event in Las Vegas. The company canceled the first day and explained why.

“Everybody is really rallying around that,” Camarillo said. “Our customers just really want to know that we’re a company with heart.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of NetApp Insight US 2017. (* Disclosure: NetApp Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither NetApp nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE