{"id":25748,"date":"2021-03-12T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/?p=25748"},"modified":"2021-03-08T18:49:42","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T02:49:42","slug":"covid-19-has-underscored-the-need-for-brands-to-harness-the-world-of-signals-around-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2021\/03\/12\/covid-19-has-underscored-the-need-for-brands-to-harness-the-world-of-signals-around-them\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 Has Underscored the Need for Brands to Harness the World of Signals Around Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cThe end goal of having a data culture is to make better decisions more often<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014McKinsey, Why data culture matters (2018)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the last few decades, brands have heeded the call for big data and analytics and have spent countless hours and budgets working on their internal capabilities that would turn the dream of data culture into reality. The concept is simple: aggregate all of a company\u2019s data together so that it can be accessible and useful across the enterprise to aid data-driven decision making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, when COVID-19 struck the US in March 2020, historical data instantly became less valuable to guide decision making. For brands that had become reliant on data, it was as if the lights had gone out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, the game had changed. The last pandemic was over a century ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Internal data was helpful directionally\u2014at best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leveraging external data during COVID-19<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the earliest days of the crisis, one thing became blatantly clear. COVID-19 will permanently change many aspects of our society\u2014from how we work, learn, communicate, and shop. The companies that can best navigate this storm will outmaneuver the competition and be in a stronger position once the dust settles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the data you have isn\u2019t enough, you must look elsewhere. The world outside your company walls is data-rich with plenty of information, intel, and signals to understand the world. It exists in real-time, which makes it better aligned for times like these when the market is in constant flux\u2014what may have been true last month may not be valid today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But how does a company access external data? It is often unstructured and not written in a way easily understood by machines, because people talk out of context, in hyperbole, use emojis, incomplete sentences, incorrect grammar and sarcasm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analytics solutions providers have been able to help their clients tap into external data to guide data-driven decision making during COVID-19. Some solutions connect to more than 13,000 data sources such as social media, product reviews, patents, blogs, forums, key influencer posts, research papers and more, and use AI and natural language processing techniques to extract critical trends and predictive insights. When these connections are made and incorporate external data into the overall analytic framework that has internal data, accuracy jumps from 35% to greater than 90%, which translates into more confidence in the decision-making process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is critical at rapidly-changing times like these. Even before the pandemic, there was a clear correlation between companies using data and their success in driving profitability, increasing customer retention, and top-line sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVID has proven that it\u2019s time to double down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Gil Sadeh is Co-founder & CEO of Signals Analytics<\/a>. Prior to co-founding Signals, Gil served as a military intelligence and reconnaissance consultant for several defense-related governmental entities throughout the world, utilizing his vast experience honed as a commanding officer in an elite special forces unit of the Israel Defense Forces. He is a frequent guest lecturer and editorial contributor on the application of open source and signals intelligence to drive innovation, delight customers and reduce the risk of commercial decision making. Gil holds an LLB and MA in Government, Diplomacy and Strategy from the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Israel.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sign up for the free insideBIGDATA newsletter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Join us on Twitter: @InsideBigData1 \u2013 https:\/\/twitter.com\/InsideBigData1<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this contributed article, Gil Sadeh, Co-founder & CEO of Signals Analytics, says that COVID-19 doesn\u2019t seem to be going anywhere \u2013 in fact, the future seems uncertain, leaving brands trying to find ways to adapt and strategize in order to stay afloat and satisfy their customers\u2019 ever-changing needs. During this time, in order to stay ahead of the competition, many brands are turning to advanced analytics. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10513,"featured_media":24114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,115,180,268,56,97,1],"tags":[314,854],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCOVID-19 Has Underscored the Need for Brands to Harness the World of Signals Around Them - insideBIGDATA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2021\/03\/12\/covid-19-has-underscored-the-need-for-brands-to-harness-the-world-of-signals-around-them\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"COVID-19 Has Underscored the Need for Brands to Harness the World of Signals Around Them - insideBIGDATA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In this contributed article, Gil Sadeh, Co-founder & CEO of Signals Analytics, says that COVID-19 doesn\u2019t seem to be going anywhere \u2013 in fact, the future seems uncertain, leaving brands trying to find ways to adapt and strategize in order to stay afloat and satisfy their customers\u2019 ever-changing needs. During this time, in order to stay ahead of the competition, many brands are turning to advanced analytics.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2021\/03\/12\/covid-19-has-underscored-the-need-for-brands-to-harness-the-world-of-signals-around-them\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"insideBIGDATA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/insidebigdata\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-12T14:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-09T02:49:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Coronavirus_shutterstock_1629694258.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"159\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Editorial Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@insideBigData\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@insideBigData\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Editorial Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2021\/03\/12\/covid-19-has-underscored-the-need-for-brands-to-harness-the-world-of-signals-around-them\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2021\/03\/12\/covid-19-has-underscored-the-need-for-brands-to-harness-the-world-of-signals-around-them\/\",\"name\":\"COVID-19 Has Underscored the Need for Brands to Harness the World of Signals Around Them - insideBIGDATA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-12T14:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-09T02:49:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2949e412c144601cdbcc803bd234e1b9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2021\/03\/12\/covid-19-has-underscored-the-need-for-brands-to-harness-the-world-of-signals-around-them\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2021\/03\/12\/covid-19-has-underscored-the-need-for-brands-to-harness-the-world-of-signals-around-them\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2021\/03\/12\/covid-19-has-underscored-the-need-for-brands-to-harness-the-world-of-signals-around-them\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"COVID-19 Has Underscored the Need for Brands to Harness the World of Signals Around Them\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/\",\"name\":\"insideBIGDATA\",\"description\":\"Your Source for AI, Data Science, Deep Learning & Machine Learning Strategies\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2949e412c144601cdbcc803bd234e1b9\",\"name\":\"Editorial Team\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e137ce7ea40e38bd4d25bb7860cfe3e4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e137ce7ea40e38bd4d25bb7860cfe3e4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Editorial Team\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.insidebigdata.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/author\/editorial\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"COVID-19 Has Underscored the Need for Brands to Harness the World of Signals Around Them - insideBIGDATA","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2021\/03\/12\/covid-19-has-underscored-the-need-for-brands-to-harness-the-world-of-signals-around-them\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"COVID-19 Has Underscored the Need for Brands to Harness the World of Signals Around Them - insideBIGDATA","og_description":"In this contributed article, Gil Sadeh, Co-founder & CEO of Signals Analytics, says that COVID-19 doesn\u2019t seem to be going anywhere \u2013 in fact, the future seems uncertain, leaving brands trying to find ways to adapt and strategize in order to stay afloat and satisfy their customers\u2019 ever-changing needs. During this time, in order to stay ahead of the competition, many brands are turning to advanced analytics.","og_url":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2021\/03\/12\/covid-19-has-underscored-the-need-for-brands-to-harness-the-world-of-signals-around-them\/","og_site_name":"insideBIGDATA","article_publisher":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/insidebigdata","article_published_time":"2021-03-12T14:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-03-09T02:49:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":159,"url":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Coronavirus_shutterstock_1629694258.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Editorial Team","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@insideBigData","twitter_site":"@insideBigData","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Editorial Team","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2021\/03\/12\/covid-19-has-underscored-the-need-for-brands-to-harness-the-world-of-signals-around-them\/","url":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2021\/03\/12\/covid-19-has-underscored-the-need-for-brands-to-harness-the-world-of-signals-around-them\/","name":"COVID-19 Has Underscored the Need for Brands to Harness the World of Signals Around Them - insideBIGDATA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-03-12T14:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-03-09T02:49:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2949e412c144601cdbcc803bd234e1b9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2021\/03\/12\/covid-19-has-underscored-the-need-for-brands-to-harness-the-world-of-signals-around-them\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2021\/03\/12\/covid-19-has-underscored-the-need-for-brands-to-harness-the-world-of-signals-around-them\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2021\/03\/12\/covid-19-has-underscored-the-need-for-brands-to-harness-the-world-of-signals-around-them\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"COVID-19 Has Underscored the Need for Brands to Harness the World of Signals Around Them"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/","name":"insideBIGDATA","description":"Your Source for AI, Data Science, Deep Learning & Machine Learning Strategies","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2949e412c144601cdbcc803bd234e1b9","name":"Editorial Team","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e137ce7ea40e38bd4d25bb7860cfe3e4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e137ce7ea40e38bd4d25bb7860cfe3e4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Editorial Team"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.insidebigdata.com"],"url":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/author\/editorial\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Coronavirus_shutterstock_1629694258.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9eA3j-6Hi","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25286,"url":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2020\/11\/26\/87-percent-of-us-retailers-race-to-achieve-faster-data-driven-insights-to-support-online-sales\/","url_meta":{"origin":25748,"position":0},"title":"87 Percent of US Retailers Race to Achieve Faster Data-Driven Insights to Support Online Sales","date":"November 26, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Exasol, the high-performance analytics database, published new research that reveals since the pandemic started, 87% of retail organizations in the U.S. have been under pressure to make data-driven decisions faster. The finding comes from an in-depth research report, \u201cRetail: Decision making during times of uncertainty,\u201d that quantifies how retail organizations\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analytics"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23616,"url":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2019\/11\/28\/how-big-brands-are-using-automated-data-analytics-that-bring-results\/","url_meta":{"origin":25748,"position":1},"title":"How Big Brands Are Using Automated Data Analytics That Bring Results","date":"November 28, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"In this special guest feature, Steve Habazin, Content Management Specialist with Latana, discusses how big brands are choosing and using the right data analytics that will bring results. Data, data, data. Something very valuable to brands. They need it in order to make informed decisions and in the long term,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analytics"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/insidebigdata.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SHabazin.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24478,"url":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2020\/06\/01\/big-data-covid-19-news-6-1-2020\/","url_meta":{"origin":25748,"position":2},"title":"Big Data\/COVID-19 News \u2013 6\/1\/2020","date":"June 1, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The big data ecosystem has come out strong to help combat the global coronavirus pandemic by announcing new products and services to help fight COVID-19. In this article, I\u2019ve listed a number of the recent announcements along these lines. Kudos to all the vendors listed below, you may just make\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AI Deep Learning"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24736,"url":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2020\/07\/12\/keys-to-managing-real-time-data-during-covid-19\/","url_meta":{"origin":25748,"position":3},"title":"Keys to Managing Real Time Data During COVID-19","date":"July 12, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"n this special guest feature, Ben Schein, VP of data curiosity at Domo, draws on his many years of experience with real time data working at Target during the days of Black Friday to the current day where he works to monitor a new COVID-19 tracker. There is something very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analytics"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24157,"url":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2020\/03\/19\/starburst-announces-free-software-to-accelerate-covid-19-data-discovery-analytics\/","url_meta":{"origin":25748,"position":4},"title":"Starburst Announces Free Software To Accelerate COVID-19 Data Discovery & Analytics","date":"March 19, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Starburst announced a free offer aimed at helping healthcare professionals stop the spread of COVID-19. The offer is available for the duration of 2020 and is specifically for universities, hospitals, and healthcare research organizations, including government and non-government organizations (NGOs) that have teams dedicated to analyzing COVID-19 data.","rel":"","context":"In "Analytics"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22047,"url":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/2019\/01\/28\/the-five-building-blocks-to-high-confidence-decision-making-in-the-digital-age\/","url_meta":{"origin":25748,"position":5},"title":"The Five Building Blocks to High Confidence Decision Making in the Digital Age","date":"January 28, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"In this special guest feature, Naresh Agarwal, Head of Data & Analytics at Brillio, outlines useful building blocks to understand how to analyze the right data to make impactful action, including: the use of technology and skill sets; asking the right questions; building a culture and mindset that encourages the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analytics"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/insidebigdata.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Naresh-Agarwal.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25748"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insidebigdata.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}