Audience measurement with big data; Google Trends

I don't think the availability of big data will put an end to the need for theory. They actually go hand-in-hand as big data is meaningless without interpretation of what it means. As Gonzales (2013) mentions in his article, "disentangling signal from noise is still a subjective matter, as is providing the context that will help identify meaningful correlations and discard those that are unsubstantial." An abundance of data is good but an abundance of meaningless data is not. Therefore, the WIRED article by Chris Anderson claiming that Google conquered advertising simply with mathematics is disputable. It may be true that Google analytic offers a tool to analyze big data but to assume that this was done without any knowledge of the "culture and convention of advertising" is completely wrong. As we learned in class, we have to know what keywords to look for to make an effective campaign. Also, looking only at SEO disregards integrated marketing strategies and would do no more than get exposure. Furthermore, without knowledge of consumers and what they want, how can we arrive on a successful keyword/campaign that matters? I think that Google has provided a better way to determine the performance of campaigns, not how to actually run them.