With the rise of "big data" and various analytics technologies, marketers can now design campaigns that target new customers and consumer sectors.

According to Professor Jamie Jia, chairman of the department of marketing at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), data analytics are of increasing value to marketers in identifying and engaging customers, and in measuring campaign effectiveness.

This is why CUHK joined forces with IBM to launch the Marketing Engineering Lab (MEL) in August. The lab is part of a collaborative project between CUHK and IBM that enables both parties to further drive the big-data-driven marketing revolution in Hong Kong and China.

"Marketers are [now] faced with a sea of unstructured information," says Samson Tai, chief technologist at the IBM Innovation Network in Hong Kong. "Though cluttered, these 'digital breadcrumbs' left by consumers indicate what they like and dislike, who they are as a person, and how and when they want to be engaged as an individual."

IBM donated marketing software licences and cloud facilities to the MEL, while committing to support continuing research collaboration. CUHK runs the lab for educational purposes and conducts relevant marketing research.

Jia says that the collaboration recently saw success by helping AmorePacific Hong Kong - operator of the Laneige cosmetics brand in the city - improve customer response to its retention programme by over 30 per cent.

"We believe the time is upon us to apply science to reinvent the art of marketing, as big data presents a new and valuable natural resource for marketers," Tai says. "With big data and analytics technologies, marketers can predict the precise moments to engage customers."