Marketing teams for some of the world's biggest brands are leading the charge to use COVID-19-specific data analytics platforms for determining how to use their budgets most effectively during the pandemic, according to an Oct. 25 The Wall Street Journal report.
The data used within these platforms is often pulled from a range of existing sources, compiled so marketers can see the factors they need to track in one place.
Four examples:
- Bacardi's media agency provided it with a data analytics dashboard that collects data from 35 sources across 30 markets to gather insights on ad rates, consumption habits, consumer sentiment, shopping trends, government-imposed COVID-19 restrictions and local COVID-19 positivity and mortality rates. This influenced the company to shift dollars over to marketing efforts for its ready-to-drink cocktails.
- Mercedes-Benz, which uses the same media agency as Bacardi, used the data analytics dashboard to better understand consumer behaviors and economic trends in various regions. Natanael Sijanta, Mercedes-Benz's director of global marketing communications told The Wall Street Journal the company sought to answer questions about consumer mobility, pent-up demands, content consumption rates and price fluctuations.
- Progressive used data from a weekly poll that its ad agency conducted, in which 1,000 consumers were answered questions about their daily habits, attitudes and purchasing behaviors.
- Hershey's media company offers a platform that uses machine learning to predict changes in consumer demands by utilizing online search data and other available datasets. The platform, which uses data across various marketer categories and 32 countries, tracks data on local COVID-19 infection rates, local government restrictions, and economic trends.