The Truth & What Matters
My best friend and one of the smartest people I know has struggled with opiate addiction most of our adult lives. His addiction has been helpless and heartbreaking to watch.
Thankfully, a few years ago he finally got clean during a long rehab stint in Costa Rica that included working at a remote surf camp (we all need motivators…). He was recently telling me about his reaction upon meeting some locals in this sleepy beach town: he pitied them. If they’d only had what he had, he thought — nice clothes, an iPhone, new surfboards, brand-name sunglasses — they’d be happier. It took him a while to learn that while he was right that they didn’t have what he had, he was wrong that it mattered.
One of the things that made me want to work at Conde Nast, aside from the views from 1WTC and the assurance I’d be the least stylish person in every single meeting, was the access to first-party audience data. Every brand has access to panels like MRI, Facebook and Google Insights, brand trackers, ecommerce analytics, media performance, trends reports, and more. Few know what their audience is doing en masse in their free time.
But the benefit of that data wasn’t knowing more, it was adding layers that allowed us to focus. (We wrote about the power of that data here, if anyone is interested in digging in more.)
In that traditional consumer behavior data stack there are thousands of data points that represent self-reported or observed/ behavioral truth. It’s true that 34% of a given (made-up) audience is 45–54, they have a 145 index on shopping at Whole Foods, they see themselves as risk-takers, they’re more likely to shop on mobile but purchase on desktop, 67% are Prime members, they watch 2.5 hours of TV per day, they comment 3x more than the average Facebook user, etc.
We all contain similar depth of facts. I’m 5'9" (6'1" on Hinge), 35 years old, surf or snowboard every day if possible, have two siblings, live within a 10 minute bike ride of six friends, and am currently reading two books. None of those truths are really relevant to my work. Similarly, having a BA in sociology or an MBA or a career in marketing don’t help unlock my goals around surfing or fitness, or make me a better friend or uncle. Or maybe they do?
Among these dense trees of truth is a forest of potential insight. As the risk of getting The Internet Insight Police on my case… a definition of “insight” is a surprising truth that gives you a deeper understanding of how to solve a problem. That usually comes from a handful of facts that, in context of each other, tell you something genuinely revealing.
That means in those thousands of data points are thousands of irrelevant truths — facts that don’t matter to how you’d try to make a brand magnetic, position a product, or create content an audience will seek out.
Separating irrelevant truths from ones that matter is a subjective process, the strategy version of a creative leap. We can cook anything, so how do we choose from a giant pantry of ingredients? You can start with a filter of, “What kind of knowledge would create movement toward what I want to happen?” If it’s all true, our job is the find what will best energize our mission. I guarantee it’s not a long list of data points.
Happy hunting :)
