Why we should be data-informed, not data-driven.

Clients often ask us to focus on the data and what it’s telling us to do - but how does data and our analysis of it sit with creativity? Does this reliance on fact and functionality restrict creativity and will the ongoing dependence on automation?and the increased use of data threaten innovation in creative campaigns?

Until recently, businesses and brands didn’t have access to the level of information needed to leverage a marketing campaign, relying instead on the instincts of their agency’s creative team. Now we have access to more data than ever before and, of course, that’s been hugely beneficial in helping brands to identify their target audience and know how to reach them. But the best stories, the best creative executions are not always rooted in numbers - clicks, impressions, sales or percentages. We don’t operate solely on logic - we’re humans, designing for humans and the most successful brands and campaigns are the ones that are informed - and not led - by data.

In 2015, Netflix, recognising the limitations of its information-gathering operation, hired a cultural anthropologist; his role was to blend Netflix’s algorithms with its customers’ lived experience of the platform. The results was a more ‘humanised’ strategy which blended qualitative data with emotions, cultural insights - even weather patterns - to inform decision-making to curate and recommend only the most popular content for its end users. This (data-informed) approach successfully ensured a personalised and relevant viewer experience and maximised engagement – and the results speak for themselves.

As an agency, we know never to lose sight of our end purpose: to create high impact campaigns that improve the user experience and grow market share for clients. To really shift the needle, you need those unique insights into what emotionally motivates your consumer, but we’ve learned that, while data can be used to support decision-making, it should never dictate it. Blending data with human ‘gut’ emotion and experience forms a foundation for making informed decisions – an approach which resonates with the entrepreneurial spirit of today’s business, where intuition and vision work alongside hard facts.

Remember those magic eye pictures from the 90s? Up close, all you saw was a colourful kaleidoscope of repetitive patterns - to see the hidden image (if you were lucky), you had to step right back and carefully train your eyes. If all you focus on is the data, how can you take your end users and other variables into consideration? The distinction between being data-led and data-informed isn’t binary, it’s a spectrum and by balancing functional insights with intuition, creativity and vision, you can achieve a more holistic and strategic decision-making approach.

It’s time to challenge the status quo. We can’t afford to play it safe. We need to think about risks differently and strategically step into the unknown. If it hasn’t been done before, then what’s the benchmark?

People want stories that are compelling and informing - data only needs to be part of that story. We shouldn’t lose sight of the insights we get from human emotion. Only by considering the bigger picture will we have the flexibility to innovate and adapt in an ever-changing and competitive creative landscape.