Big isn’t necessarily better when it comes to data, says Nadim Samara
Trade has been the fiber of human societies for more than two millennia, taking several forms during that time. The barter method gave way to the mercantile system, where recognised forms of currency yielded purchasing powers beyond the previous means of quantity and quality of goods or services.
In a way, nothing has changed: we still trade with recognisable physical or virtual forms of transaction. Consumers still select their desired brands based on the five needs Maslow described in the 1940s. Brands still aim to maximise their revenues from volumes sold, trying to optimally anticipate demand levels. Our economies are still fundamentally based on consumers’ demand and desires, with companies working towards meeting them with supply and satisfaction.
These timeless principles are as current today as they have ever been. Yet the velocity with which people navigate their instantaneous moments, make lifestyle choices and embrace cultural trends have put the utility of big data under pressure. Our experience from more than a decade of advanced analytics in this region has sharpened our minds to focus on nano-data instead. Converging these individual data points to catalyse insights, we inject more confidence and more accuracy into our decisions and further refine our approach.
David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign manager for his two successful runs to the White House, and currently chief advisor and board member at Uber, put things into perspective at this year’s OMD Predicts: “Models like these don’t start out perfectly, but they can approach perfection with enough discipline and eventually predict behaviour with incredible accuracy.” That was how the decisions of where Obama would show up the next day were made: the marriage of rich data and qualitative insights is proven to be a winning combination.
Naysayers will argue that this region lacks the data structure that Plouffe enjoys in the USA. His recent Uber experience will prove otherwise, as the company has used detailed nano-data to decipher how to optimise its experience, costs and, ultimately, revenues. This region is indeed ready to leverage data: the people in this region continue to embrace technology while remaining rooted in their traditions. Walid Hadid, OMD’s head of analytics, rightly states that: “The data, technology and analytics are available here and it’s up to the brands and their agencies to work together in taking the next step.”
This region has truly evolved from the Middle East to the Middle West, a modern and diverse melting pot where we consume, produce and scale content our way – while relying on global platforms. If, fundamentally, consumers haven’t changed, technology has certainly altered the way they manifest their basic needs, their desires, their wants and, ultimately, their demands. Each consumer is becoming more and more visible to us; we believe this is the key to unlocking better brand and business performance now.
As we look to influence consumers’ choices when they demand and desire brands, we know they pursue different journeys across various sectors. We’ve learned from past consumer journey models and aggregated more than 100 advanced analytics studies in this region to decode our consumers’ journeys in the Middle East and North Africa. Our study has built on what our EMEA chief planning officer Neil Hurman describes as “demand opportunities”. Understanding how consumers navigate their purchases with different dwell times, various intensities, certain focus levels and other parameters across each phase of these journeys is vital to stimulate further growth. Our behaviour as consumers shapes the actions of the brands our industry manages; their role within the purchase basket, their narrative within our lives and, ultimately, their business performance.
It’s clear we have what we need to listen, digest, and act on what our consumers are ‘saying’. Harnessing the skill sets, resources, technology, infrastructure and passion to glean insights from reams of data is a strategic imperative we must design and implement to perform better. Only then will we be able to hone what hasn’t changed and apply new techniques to what has. Only then will we be able to translate data into actionable insights to unlock better brand and business performance.
Nadim Samara is the CEO of OMD UAE