Research is all about trying to reach a new understanding of things, so one is better able to make more informed decisions.
In a world where truth and insights are rarely aligned, the role of research has never been more important. This tension has been exacerbated by technology in three ways: i) the consistency of data or lack of; ii) how social media has diversified and intensified how we are influenced by information and; iii) our ability to manipulate data to suit conflicting agendas.
Over the past five years, the belief that technology could solve these problems by automating and providing actionable insights at scale has only perpetuated this siloed landscape. In 2012 there were 120 martech businesses, now, there are over 7,000 with 63% of companies having between 6-20 martech solutions – trapping much of the data and insights in these un-integrated solutions.
With narratives increasingly influenced by fake news, never before has the ability for real-time conversations been so important or verifiable research-based evidence so useful. The need to keep-up with customer’s interests, brands not only need to track and understand what’s going on, but also deliver relevant, compelling and truthful content speedily.
Understanding the relationship between content and insight
And because we believe, like Seth Godin, that content marketing is the only marketing left, we think content is what you should focus on, especially when it adds to the conversation.
This is about being agile, data-driven and always on and with new methodologies of analysis emerging across different platforms: social media, ecommerce sites, search engines keywords trends, it is about looking for commonalities across them all and then being able to exploit them to drive an authentic narrative.
And this is precisely why we acquired FindTheRipple (FTR). They developed a methodology that helps their clients better understand what their influencers care about by being able to carefully identify and listen to their conversations in real-time. And it worked, with FTR deploying many successful campaigns for clients like Unilever and Kantar.
The trick is being able to join the conversation quickly with the right branded content.
Realising the promise of social media depends on understanding the context
But the trick is then being able to join the conversation quickly with the right branded content. This has always been the challenge with social media: access to content on the fly. So, when you connect FTR technology to our best-in-class DAM platform we are now able to deliver content quickly and consistently, realising the true potential of social media. And it is this direct connection between insight and response that makes the future so exciting.
How will technology shape the future of research?
As technology platforms use machine learning and AI to improve its understanding of language, semantics and behaviours, it will be able to bridge the gap between keeping up with the pace of engagement (from the customer) and the quality and truth of content (from the brand). This will provide real value by filtering out the noise and help you recognise what is important and what is not.
Research is also capable in connecting the dots across the marketing ecosystem and it is this ability to employ a more holistic, balanced and scientific methodology, that gives it such an important role moving forward; providing verifiable data, defendable insights and a naturally holistic view.
But as with any insight, it is what you do with it that matters the most.
