Sonar Academy - Data Strategy Post Pandemic - May 2020

It was great to talk to Tony Clement about Data Strategy in a Post-Pandemic world last week.

Tony has spent over 15 years in digital marketing / strategy / analytics and held senior positions in agencies across US, Europe and APAC working on brands like Google, Samsung and Ford.

So – I was excited to get his take on the opportunities that present themselves from COVID and what companies can do to leverage, and the issues they might run into.

The video of our discussion can be found here:

Some of the key points that we talked about:

More Data.

COVID is pushing more people online than ever before. This means buying more online but also doing things they might have done offline, online. Physical events become virtual events. If a school or home builder used to provide tours of the property or home, these are now becoming virtual tours. Appointments that would normally be face-to-face are done via ZOOM. Platforms, like ZOOM, must be aggregating incredible amounts of data and evolve their products as a result. All businesses have had to rethink their digital models and related opportunities with data.

Segmentation Opportunities.

Companies can look at different ways to segment their audience than they might have done in the past. Perhaps considering more attitudinal data as part of their audit.

In order to enable in an organisation, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Organising around data privacy.

Organisations are going to need to think through their approach to data privacy. This means thinking through the resourcing and collaborations between legal and data teams.

Considering the human part of data.

In addition to thinking through the quality of data, data sources, and what it is being used for, companies need to think through the narrative of the data through the organisation, and it’s fluidity between teams. This means ensuring there is an alignment of goals between Senior Leaders. And transparent conversations around priorities and trade-offs on existing work. Ultimately we are trying to develop an operational space for the project or programme to be successful.

Another important element is to connect Leadership with the people doing the day-to-day. The day-to-day insights on the customer, and their gut feel, can be invaluable as a data point to the overall process.

Consider going ‘Local’.

There is renewed awareness at the community and neighbourhood level. This is an opportunity for companies to leverage geo-targeting trialling different messages, even products, for different areas.

In summary, COVID has provided more datapoints and data opportunities. In order to leverage these, and be productive with data initiatives in the future, they need to organise themselves in ways where they can be aligned and agile. This means alignment of Executives between departments, and between the Executive and the customer front lines. It also means thinking through how to keep data privacy as a key element without slowing down the organisation in legal and compliance review.