In an interview with Google’s “One Minute With…” series, Tamara Ingram, global chair of Wunderman Thompson Group, was asked which industry hot topic she wished people stopped talking about.

Here is her reply: “I wish we would stop talking about data because data is a fundamental. It’s like the blood in the veins, and everyone’s going to have it. But it’s the application of the data; it’s how we apply it to solving business challenges which is more important than the thing itself.”

Ingram’s reply is an illustration of why data analytics is, at the same time, an art and a science. The science part is the “blood in the veins,” the data available by itself that most business makes use of and reports to monitor performance.

Analytics becomes an art when it is used as a tool to solve business challenges, going beyond the raw numbers. It is by using analytics as art that marketers can understand where the next big thing is, can reply to complex questions, and be ahead of the competition.

This is why we need to stop talking about data and start talking about art.