James Oates Columnist Time to show the best side of analytics A nother family Zoom quiz comes to an end and the agencies to pull together our different areas of expertise to evening turns into a debate about the latest debrief support the food and drink companies with which we work, from the government. My household is watching the identifying which products should be in store to aid decisions daily presentations fuelled by data, delivered in on production. PowerPoint slides and with recommendations created from analytics We will need to be creative to benefit from that collaborative to find the best way forward. This might be as close as they get to mindset. As an industry, we are nimbler than we are sometimes seeing what my teams and I do on a daily basis. given credit for, and one such example was the fast development What jumps out at me is that analytics is at the centre of the and adoption of apps monitoring the length of queues at governments strategy for processing and managing the countrys supermarkets, out of stocks, and more. These techniques are not approach to Covid-19 and, most importantly, its a reminder that necessarily new, but are using analytics from consumer-led data data-led analytics will need to be a driving force in what comes next. in a creative way to help people make better decisions. Drawing We are all in different industries, on the recommendations from this and we come from a potentially consumer-based data will be difficult starting point because important to us all as we move consumer behaviour has never been The best of our thinking through to recovery. so disrupted in peacetime. Whether it comes from when we share We will need to be adaptable in our be holidays, how we shop, buying approaches, ideas and, approach. Certain analytic approaches cars, watching sport, consuming importantly, the right data and research techniques will be media or how we get to work, all of scrutinised, as they often draw on our regular analytic approaches in historical behaviour to make these areas will need to adapt. Our decisions. We will need to find ways focus will be firmly on what is next. to forecast and combine human thinking with the development That is where I have the confidence that, as an analytic of AI to get to the answers we are being asked. Given the industry, we will draw on what is best within our research sector variability in consumer behaviour, I expect we will see, across all and deliver what is needed to give recommendations that will parts of day-to-day life, that it will be a time when the power of support our ability to kick-start a recovery. However, the industry such analytics comes through. must bear in mind a few fundamental approaches. I was determined not to write about Covid-19 in this column, but First, we will need to be collaborative. The best of our thinking the reality is it has brought analytics into our homes in such an comes from when we share approaches, ideas and, importantly, overt way that it could not be ignored. We will find the analytics the right data. We have already seen how supermarkets were that shape the right response and then we should shout about the able to connect more openly to find a fix for stock issues and how role analytics is playing. to navigate products to store. Nielsen has provided data to the We need to put this industry in the spotlight to ensure we get the UK government to aid analysis on purchasing patterns and the investment we all need to be collaborative, creative and adaptable for supply of essential items. Pleasingly, we have worked with other when life gets back to normal. 45