Danny Gardner, analytics manager, US and North America social intelligence lead, GSK

What are your key areas of focus for data and analytics in 2022?

I’ll speak specifically for the social intelligence field here, but know that many of these priorities and ambitions will apply to other analytics teams too.

Data democratization is front and center these days when it comes to the needs of a large organization, ie, who needs X information at Y time in Z format. Fit for purpose analytics and information delivery is a top priority.

Social media has its mainstream apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat, which generate messy unstructured data. New and innovative third-party tools will continue to play a vital role in helping us compile highly disparate data into a single view, and more importantly at scale across the six-plus categories we compete in.

With new media formats like social audio (voice, communities, “metaverse”) and TikTok (short-form video, text overlay, music), we’ll need to fold in existing technologies like transcription and machine learning to surface insights that aren’t explicitly text-based. This is a big challenge ahead with the introduction of web 3.0, or what’s really web 2.5.

Tell us what leadership means to you in the context of your role as a senior data leader.

Leadership to me goes hand in hand with education, you can’t be an effective leader without the ability to teach other people. Whether it’s explaining how two databases interact with each other or why Facebook prohibits social listening tools from collecting usernames; enabling others to see what you see is critical for building trust and camaraderie.

Data can be really confusing to interpret so as an analytics expert it’s increasingly important to act as a “translator”, to help others connect the dots between problems and solutions. This translator role knows no bounds when it comes to title, age, or experience, people who can explain complicated things in simple terms are extremely valuable to analytics teams today. Especially when you work for a company that markets to 2 billion people every year!

I’m also a big believer in leading with empathy, because at the end of the day we’re all human. It’s easy to get lost in the numbers but every data-driven decision we make comprises a human action (employee) and human reaction (consumer); sometimes you have to lead with your gut instead of your data. Soft skills are just as important as technical skills in this field, if not more important!

And what about the skills of your data teams and of your business stakeholders? How are you developing data literacy across the company/organization?

Our teams here at GSK are very data literate, and even more so with the introduction of internal learning academies and external university partnerships; all of which span across insights and analytics, marketing, digital commerce, and other commercial functions.

Covid-19 undoubtedly accelerated the appetite for and adoption of new digital technologies, including social intelligence! Social media and e-commerce are easily the two biggest technology trends in the last few years and they’re becoming increasingly intertwined. Social platforms are making it easier to buy things and reducing the path to purchase dramatically, posing new challenges for us as an organization. Thankfully, with so many educational resources at our disposal we’ve made significant progress in future-proofing our tech stack and embracing these paradigm shifts with open arms.

I believe that with many of the systems and data literacy programs we have in place today we will be well equipped to tackle the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow, including NFTs, eSports, and yes, the dreaded “metaverse”. Exciting times ahead!