PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: Data Kinetics - Market & Audience Intelligence system
Data Kinetics: Market and Audience Intelligence system
ki·net·ics | \ kə-ˈne-tiks also kī- \
Definition of kinetics
1a: a branch of science that deals with the effects of forces upon the motions of material bodies or with changes in a physical system
b: the rate of change in such a system
For the last few years I have been developing a Market & Consumer Intelligence system - Data Kinetics. We have been quietly beavering away but the system has been used by the UK and Europes largest publicly listed companies including BP and Nestle, and many others.
It aims to solves the key problems creative agencies, consumer brands and Governments have when it comes to developing and acting on research and to also ‘future-proof’ their analysis.
THE PROBLEM: WHAT DATA? WHAT MODALITY? Marketing Directors and Business owners shouldn’t have to be experts in every form of data and brand analysis..
Marketing leaders and Exec teams are swamped in different data sets, often needing to decide which source or ‘modality’ of Research or Performance metrics to listen too, Data kinetics solves this problem by integrating and weighting all forms of Research and Performance marketing, creating singular actions based on the goal for the defined Audience, continuously adding in ‘new’ and improved algorithms to the system so it is always at the cutting edge. I demo every new tool, sourcing those with with unique and improved outputs, absorb them into the system, giving our clients and their research a competitive advantage.
In much the same way that the forces shaping consumer and audience opinions shift and morph, so to do value and relevance of data sources, algorithms and skill sets needed to provide the best intelligence - hence the name ‘Data Kinetics’, as your goals and as consumers changes, so does the system to counteract and provide the best insight…
The Data Kinetics system uses Machine Learning and AI systems, combining conversational, social, image, language and behavioural analytics with traditional methodologies of Survey, Search and CRM data - all with human oversight and qualification.
Social Intelligence:
A key component of the system uses ‘Social intelligence’, this is using Social, Emotional and Behavioural signals from conversational and social media (sources include anything from call logs at call centres, to review sites, comments on The Times articles or social media channels),. We blend it with Business Intelligence Systems and Traditional consumer insights and it adds in the ‘Why’ and the ‘How”, as in ‘Why’ do people feel like this and ‘How’ do you most effectively communicate with them.
If you want to know more about this please check out Dr Jillian Neys Social Intelligence Lab - she has pioneered this industry and helps to explain this burgeoning area very very well - giving a name to what we have both been working on for years when there was none!
So now lets look into the key problems in detail that DK aims to fix;
1) An over reliance or favouring of a particular type of research / algorithm: There is no ‘best’ research methodology. Research, Data and Analytics teams tend to favour a particular approach and this can lead to bias, similarly, Intelligence tools are not good at everything they have strengths and weaknesses.
Data Kinetics strength lies in its ability to bring multiple systems together, recognising that each specialist methodology has particular weaknesses and strengths, it calls these out and then layers methodologies ontop of each other, applying tools and processes in combination, weighting the output for the best result on a job by job basis - it is methodology agnostic..
2) Conflicting outputs: One study says X, one study said Y. The truth is they can all be right, at different times and for different markets and audiences - but which ones matter most?
Data Kinetics uses hundreds of sources of data, then overlays Human Intelligence to weight these studies and tracks them, taking the ‘direction of travel’ in the trend, audience growth, perception, Triggers or Barrier etc, and then uses this weighting and ‘direction of travel’ to come up with a ‘Top 10” list of recommendations, scaling them by importance based on your defined brand / corporate goals
3) Speed: Audiences and Markets change quickly, Data Kinetics has been created to give answers for any category, and any brand, inside a month.
It uses the larger Category studies from companies such as Kantar, and utilises the Drivers the deliver as ‘ground truths’ testing and measuring relevance for each market and channel per Driver, per Audience, per market, vastly improving speed of insight, and then enriches the output to give you the ‘why’ and ‘how’ making the reports fully actionable and effective.
4) Creative relevance: We have the insight, but what do we do with it?
Data Kinetics product ‘Creative Intelligence’, delivers base level, example creative with relevant words, images, partners and channels to guide creatives - significantly improving the effectiveness of your creative and content.
5) Combining known and unknown Audiences: Often the Audiences in your CRM don’t match the Audiences you are marketing to outside your CRM.
Data Kinetics enables ‘Unknown Audiences’, (the Consumer), to be compared to your Known Customer (in your CRM). By mapping both you can allocate resources and improve performance in each of your segments, and by enriching your customers in your CRM you can serve them content that receives the best response and NPS.
We have used the system at Live and Breathe and Virtual Influencer Agency for over a dozen clients and it has been providing quick, coherent and actionable insight - never was it more useful than over Covid as opinions and behaviours changed so quickly, or for showing differences between markets or relevant nuances in creative iterations of brand position / platforms for individual segments.
It still is, and always will be a work in progress, my promise is to always be ahead of the curve, analyse and monitor the best algorithms, data sets, tools and methodologies and integrate them into Data Kinetics as and when we believe they have become proven, effective and useful to you.
This means you can get on with building your brand, secure in the knowledge you will having the most effective combination of methodologies and technologies, providing you with competitor beating intel with on which to base your decisions.
If you have any questions please do ask, the system is and never will be perfect, and critique is the precursor to improvement, so please critique, but hopefully it provides directional insight that gives our clients a competitive edge.
Dudley Nevill-Spencer