Tenet Partners has launched an advanced marketing analytics practice focused on applying machine learning, artificial intelligence and natural language processing to help marketers build, manage and optimize branding and innovation initiatives, thereby shifting their focus from hindsight to foresight—from reactive to proactive. The new practice, underpinned by a novel framework of interconnected models, is grounded in applied data science.
The CMO’s challenge: turning data into action
Leveraging technology to generate customer insight has become a key part of marketing and brand building. To this end, marketers have implemented a wide range of mar-tech solutions, customer experience management systems and research programs. These efforts have yielded a vast quantity of data, but much of its potential value remains untapped.
The next major task facing CMOs is to maximize the value of these investments by bringing the data together to see the bigger picture, create predictions and be more prescriptive in both brand strategy and tactics. The issue is finding a way to do so effectively and efficiently.
This is far more than an exercise in traditional business intelligence and analytics. The challenges and complexities of joining customer, transactional and operational data across the enterprise—some of it unstructured data such as the content of emails and text messages—can be monumental. So are the opportunities: making use of data science to drive innovation and digital transformation offers exponential upside potential.
A quantum leap in data-driven transformation
Tenet’s interconnected models are built on the premise that data science is both transformative and scalable. Every marketer can start with the data that is available today and grow capabilities over time, adding new data sources and making new connections as they proceed down the path of digital transformation.
Through extensive and in-depth development, this novel approach enables clients to connect disparate data sets along with external data sources to produce advanced forecasting, predict business outcomes and optimize ongoing brand investment strategies. In addition, the dynamic framework provides real-time consumer sentiment, insight into purchase drivers, predicts consumer behaviors and observes customer experiences.
In keeping with the philosophy of human-centered design, Tenet will combine deeply rooted design and systems thinking skills with the computational power of cloud computing and our proprietary data models to yield compelling insights, create deeper understanding of customers and deliver digital transformation at scale.
The experts behind the practice
Tenet CEO Hampton Bridwell says, “data is a critical tool for building and managing corporate brands and their portfolios of products, services, and experiences. We have assembled the very best team of practitioners in enterprise-level data science and technology to create this new practice, the first and only of its kind among brand innovation agencies. This move marks the next evolution of our 25-year history of using data to deliver value to marketing leaders.”
Kellan Williams, Senior Partner and head of Tenet data science capabilities and Larry Roth, Senior Partner and head of Tenet’s digital arm, are leading the practice. Mr. Williams is an expert in data management and analytics, and is in charge of developing the interconnected data models that power the offering. He says that, “there is a huge opportunity for brands to use advanced analytics to improve financial outcomes by moving from outdated BI tools that look backward to using advanced modeling to predict the future.”
In concert, Larry Roth will lead development of the solutions that will put Tenet’s sophisticated data models into action using proven tools such as IBM SPSS. His work will encompass the building of next-generation analytics platforms for data visualization, data interoperability and decision systems. Roth says, “Our focus is helping clients turn data into usable insights that drive innovation. We can do this efficiently by combining our models with IBM SPSS Cloud computing to enable clients to streamline data movement. The resulting solution is secure and highly scalable, so we can move at speed and provide marketers with an unrivaled competitive advantage.”
