Anthony Magee, SYZYGY’s Director of Data and Experience Technology, takes a look into the year ahead
As we approach the end of another turbulent year, we’re all looking ahead to 2022 hoping for a brighter future. Covid-19 has provided businesses with a multitude of challenges, but it has also accelerated major changes in the way we use data and analytics.
Following 2020’s reactive pivoting to stay afloat, and 2021’s more strategic and intentional use of data, we’re predicting the top 10 data trends for the year ahead as businesses navigate through the post-cookie landscape. Here are SYZYGY’s predictions for 2022:
1. AI and Meta-data fuelled full-funnel campaign measurement will grow
The focus here will be on adopting and scaling the owned-ID graph to deliver effective marketing in a post-privacy world, ditching the third-party cookie.
2. Amplification of Data Ethics
As consumer concerns around data privacy continue to grow, we will definitely see a greater emphasis on Data Ethics as a source of brand value through leveraging data for good.
3. Measuring the impact of ‘macro environmental factors’
Businesses face more scrutiny than ever on sustainable practices in the wake of COP26, so expect to see greater traction in how we measure carbon footprints, sustainability, and brand purpose. Market share and customer loyalty will no doubt have a greater reliance on these factors than previous years.
4. Acceleration of the emergence of proprietary 1st party consumer testing panels
Brands will move beyond cost-prohibitive panel solution providers to unlock valuable first-party data.
5. Behavioural individualisation will harness AI-assisted Meta-data management
Enhancements in AI will be used to drive marketing effectiveness and generate conversion through deeper attention to contextualised dynamic creatives, which will be driven by richer Meta-data that contains deeper human-understanding.
6. Further adoption of AI-assisted technology will drive ‘Conversational Intelligence’ to enable optimal decision-making across remote and hybrid workforces
To further democratise the embedded use of data insights at SYZYGY, we have deeply embedded anomaly detection, natural language alerts, and a contextualised decisioning engine across our media operations for smarter media buying and creative optimisations. Other organisations are finally catching up now that conversational dynamically generated insights, explainable AI and interactive non-code analytics is open to all. By powering the right person to access augmented intelligence, they can build an action in their system of activation at a rate only dreamt of in the past.
7. Experience automation will be underpinned by smart-modelling
This is deployed to balance growth and profitability through accelerated adoption of dynamic value-exchange (discounts, individualised bundles, effective content) and AI-content production to orchestrate personalisation at scale without the creative adaption costs. Proving the ROI will further bridge the gap between creatives, technologists, and data-specialists.
8. Proliferation of transparent inter-brand data exchange partnerships
This will address the need to scale valuable 1st party data, boost human-understanding and increase full-funnel stitching and addressability for marketing in a post-cookie world.
9. Prototyping and experience design will move closer to a hybrid-discipline within XOPS
At SYZYGY, experience technology, data-science, and experience design all sit in co-working pods to combine these superpowers and deliver real customer value. By combining platform, data, and machine learning we can ensure AI delivers repeatable growth and is seamlessly woven into user experience to avoid fragmented journeys.
10. Data Quality (DQ) and Actionable Data-Discovery is critical now
A key learning for organisations from the pandemic has been the value of being able to access the right, trusted, and contextualised insight at the speed of thought. DQ and speed to actionable insight should be at the top of all organisations’ agendas in 2022.
You can read some of Anthony’s comments on Data and Analytics in 2022 alongside other industry experts in Econsultancy’s ‘Data & Analytics in 2022: What do the experts predict?’
