Data As A Starting Point

Often, we turn to data points to complete the story we’re looking to tell.

Perhaps we do this too often?

What about starting the creation of the story by grazing data points and chewing on the numbers so we start with well-nourished questions so our answers lead to better plans, campaigns, and results?

Thought I’d practice by looking through a variety of data points sent my way the other day.

• Desktop isn’t dying. When are we most alive on it?
• What’s a multi-platform day look like?

• How big does the screen of up-and-coming devices need to be so enjoyment is highest?
• Size probably matters in making a video-based experience as impactful as possible, right?

• Looks like overall consumption has plateaued. So where can earning attention generate the greatest opportunity? Asked another way: which media formats above are people more apt to devote higher amounts of attention to?
• If the above doesn’t represent all media — and I don’t think it does — what are different or new media formats worth exploring that could make our work more interesting and worthy of attention?

• How we view and use social is complex. But how complex?
• There’s a difference between “Active” and “Always-On.” What’s the Canadian definition?
• How long is the average social media session?

• How are we defining “following?” Are there actions people make after they decide to follow — like visiting the brand page often — that can help better understand if there’s a “scale of following?”
• How long have these people been following these brands?
• Are there market categories that see more followers versus others?
• What are these percentages based on? In other words, how many Canadians follow brands online?

• Is this a matter of not enough options, existing options not showing their value as best they can, pirating, and/or traditional habits being hard to break?

• What do the standout MoM increases tell us about what Canadians might not turn to Amazon for?
• Could groceries, household items, entertainment, and/or DIY be categories Amazon doesn’t own within the consumer mindset?
• How might Amazon look to address this with the various resources they have? If I’m a business in one of these categories, what do I do to protect myself?

• So Gen Z and Millennials could have more in common with Boomers than we thought? What else might there be?
• Could there be differences in digital buying experience expectations? What might they be? How can we design the experience for everyone? Do we need to?

• What’s a Canadian’s cost-benefit analysis look like when they’re online and thinking about shipping? How does this differ across categories?
• How does the answer to this impact the consumer journey?

• Do food app orders inflate this?
• If they do, is takeout a larger space now versus what it was pre-Uber Eats? Or are we still going the takeout route about as much as we were in 2005, 2000, or even 1995?
• If this isn’t inflated by food app orders what categories are benefiting most from this increase?

• What are analysts seeing to make them project this?
• Could AR adoption be influencing this more than VR? VR more than AR?
• What companies are leading in the AR and/or VR spaces that stand to benefit most from this happening? If it does, what media opportunities might they provide?

• What’s a connected home device’s price point vs. its traditional competitor’s?
• Is there a learning curve that needs to be overcome when it comes to implementing a connected device versus “fixing something?”
• If I’m a company looking for sales within the connected home space how do we build “upgrading” into our comms planning?

• Can we equate connection with control? Or normal? Both?
• What does instant messaging’s numbers show us about the importance of personal communications?

Practice Over

NOTE: these slides are from an excellent presentation by Tim Dolan over at KICKFRAME.

Thanks to Jed Schneiderman over at EQ Works for bringing the presentation to my attention.