FOCUS
DATA
DUTY
With the Information Age upon us, there is a growing need to utilise our data to understand what drives our audiences’ purchasing decisions and to inform our strategies. Meetings gets to the bottom of the matter. Data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves.” Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web
10 • MEETINGS l NOV/DEC 2020
O
ver the past two decades, we have seen a massive increase in our capacity to access, produce, store and reference enormous amounts of data. Figures from Statista show that market revenue for data hosting, storage, and cloud computing services, just on its own, is projected to reach US$163 billion (R2.5 trillion) by 2021. Even more valuable than this is being able to, from the data we have available, garner insights into understanding our stakeholders’ purchasing decisions and better informing our business strategies. “To thrive in this new age, every organisation needs a complete view of its data – real-time insight, with the ability to take real-time action,” says a report from Splunk, a US multinational and listed data solutions company. The report notes that 81% of 2 259 surveyed participants believe data is crucial to the success of their operation. And nowhere could data be more relevant than where we find ourselves now. On the back of the Covid-19 pandemic and a strained economy, where many industries are working twice as hard for half the money – if they’re lucky – purchasing decisions are being made with several considerations in mind. Revenue streams that were once flowing strongly have dried up, which has naturally led to decision-makers and those with purchasing
power to reconsider their budgets and trim costs down to the bare minimum to ensure business survival. This is where understanding the power of our data comes in handy.
HARNESSING OUR DATA Among the massive advantages of operating in the Information Age are the analytics behind it. This exists in its own complex ecosystem and it is closely interlinked with technological advances such as hardware, software and, of course, connectivity – the glue that provides access, archiving and navigation in real time. Suddenly, we can compile audience demographics and establish how long they have interacted with our brand’s campaign and on what device. The higher our views and click-throughs, the more relevant we know our campaign is to our existing audience. A/B split testing enables us to test the waters, constantly tweaking and optimising what works best for which audiences. These insights are key to drilling down to the subtle nuances that either draw in or stifle potential growth opportunities. Interestingly, we are just on the cusp of understanding how to harness and utilise our data, and two-thirds of companies from the Splunk report say they are “in the dark” when it comes to how to use their own information,
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