This is a profile from the 2022 version of the DataIQ 100.
The latest list is available here.
Alex Gray, director, data insights and analytics, Blue Light Card
What has been your path to power?
I started my data career as an insight analyst at Boots using SQL to analyse meal deals, which was absolutely fascinating to see not only the different - and sometimes unusual - combinations customers were putting together, but also opened my eyes to the world of transforming data into insight and the impact it can have in a business. I stayed at Boots for a few years, learning from some fantastic insight professionals and gaining experience across a number of different categories from pharmacy to cosmetics, before eventually leading an analytics team in the bath and bodycare category.
In July 2018 I had the opportunity to join Gymshark as one of only four members of their insight team, heading up their customer analytics arm, which was an exciting opportunity to really set things up from the beginning. As the business grew, my role changed from leading customer analytics to customer insight before finally leading analytics as a whole.
After just under three amazing years at Gymshark, in which the team grew from four to 40, with half of those in the analytics team, I took the opportunity to join Blue Light Card in December 2020 to set up their data and insight team from scratch. It’s been amazing to see the impact data and insight has had at Blue Light Card so far in such a short space of time, and I can’t wait to continue the data journey into 2022 and beyond.
What impact has the pandemic had on the role of data in your company/organisation?
As a business, we strive to give something back to the amazing people in our emergency services and armed forces, and the pandemic has further highlighted how important these people are in everyone’s lives. The impact we’ve seen as a business as a result of the pandemic from a data perspective is two-fold. First, it demonstrated the importance of really understanding what our members want from us as a business, which led to us establishing our first member panel and linking up research and analytics. Second, we broadened our understanding of the partners that our members value most and provided our partnerships and marketing teams with insight to ensure we are securing the best offers for our members, while also sending communications that resonate most, both with their interests and with where they are in their journey with Blue Light Card.
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