In our annual Connected Insights Imperative report this year, we showed what happens when consumer insights become more connected.
Organizations become more satisfied with the value of their insights. They bring together more sources of consumer understanding. And they’re better positioned to put AI to work across their insights.
But there’s a bigger opportunity here. Connected data on its own isn’t the end goal. Successful businesses are. At the end of the day, connected insights power business growth.
Maximum impact comes when insights are both connected and continuous — centralized enough to build cumulative knowledge, but constantly refreshed so that knowledge stays relevant and actionable.
Our Connected Insights Framework shows how insights connect. And our new Connected Insights Flywheel shows how they keep moving to ultimately drive business outcomes.
So, how does it work? Let’s get into it.
At the center of the flywheel is consumer data, with AI helping organizations turn that data into understanding faster and at greater scale.
From there, consumer understanding flows into three key areas of the business: Launch, Engage and Grow.
But this is where the flywheel differs from a collection of disconnected research activities: the learning doesn’t stop once a decision is made.
What happens in-market creates new learnings, which feeds back into the system and informs future decisions.
Around the flywheel are two priorities marketers also need to balance: short-term activation and long-term brand building.
And surrounding the entire system is business growth — the cumulative result of making better, more connected decisions over time.
Let’s take a closer look at each part.
Every connected insights system needs a strong foundation of consumer understanding.
Consumer data sits at the center of the flywheel, bringing together multiple sources that help organizations understand what consumers think, feel and do (and why).
The opportunity here is to bring different sources of understanding together so teams can answer business questions with more context. And this is also where AI can add another layer of value.
AI can augment consumer data by helping organizations analyze, synthesize and surface relevant understanding faster and at greater scale.
TL;DR: Consumer data provides the foundation. AI helps expand what brands can learn from that data and how quickly they can put that learning to work. That understanding starts shaping the decisions that matter most to the business.
The second part of the flywheel is made up of three areas where consumer understanding helps brands make better choices: Launch, Engage and Grow.
Innovation insights help teams understand consumer needs, develop and refine ideas and make stronger product and experience decisions before launch.
That learning can help teams answer questions like: What should we bring to market? Which ideas have the strongest potential? And how can we improve them before investing further?
But learnings found through innovation don't need to stay solely within the innovation team. They can become part of the broader body of consumer understanding that informs future advertising and brand decisions, too.
Advertising insights help teams understand which communications will earn attention, build memory and motivate action before significant media investment is made.
Again, that learning can go beyond a single campaign.
Understanding what resonates with consumers can inform future creative decisions while also contributing to the bigger picture of how the brand connects with its audience.
Brand insights provide the ongoing context teams need to understand how brand health and consumer perceptions are evolving.
This helps teams identify where to act next — while also creating new learnings from what happens once products and communications are in the market.
And that creates the feedback loop at the heart of the flywheel.
TL;DR: Launch shapes what to bring to market. Engage shapes how to connect with consumers. Grow helps you learn from what’s happening. All three areas are connected because each can create learning that makes the others smarter.
This is where the flywheel starts to become more than a collection of research activities.
Each part of the system can generate valuable consumer understanding, and connected insights brings that learning together.
Learnings across innovation, advertising and brand can build on what the organization already knows, travel across decisions and inform what happens next.
Instead of starting every new question from scratch, teams can draw on a growing body of consumer understanding.
For instance, an innovation decision can contribute to learning that informs future advertising. Advertising performance can add context to brand understanding. Brand learning can help shape the next innovation opportunity.
The exact connections will look different from business to business. But the principle is the same: The value goes beyond connecting data and lies in connecting learning.
TL;DR: Connected learning is the goal. When that learning accumulates over time, it can help marketers make better choices across both immediate and longer-term business priorities.
Of course, marketers have to deliver today while also building for tomorrow. The next section of the flywheel focuses on just that.
Short-term sales activation helps brands convert existing demand and drive response in the near term.
Long-term brand building builds the awareness, associations and preference that support future demand and sustained growth.
Connected consumer insights can help marketers make better decisions across both.
They can also help them apply richer consumer understanding to established principles of brand growth, including mental availability, distinctive brand assets and category entry points.
The key is that these priorities don’t have to operate in isolation. They're also connected to the decisions made around launch, engage and grow initiatives, which are driven by consumer insight.
TL;DR: When the learning behind short- and long-term decisions is connected, marketers can make choices with a fuller view of both the immediate opportunity and the role a decision plays in building the brand over time.
Ultimately, the value of the Connected Insights Flywheel comes down to what organizations do with what they learn.
When consumer understanding carries across decisions, teams can respond to change with greater context, make more consistent choices and build on what they already know.
That’s why business growth sits around the entire flywheel.
Growth doesn’t belong to one part of the system. It’s the result of better decisions made across the business over time.
One decision creates learning. That learning informs the next decision. The next decision creates more learning.
TL;DR: With every cycle, the organization has more consumer understanding to draw from and drive better informed business decisions.
So, what actually makes it a Connected Insights Flywheel? It all connects, and each element feeds the next.
Consumer data provides the foundation. AI helps organizations turn that data into understanding. Consumer understanding informs innovation, advertising and brand decisions. Those decisions reach the market and create new learnings. And those learnings feed back into future decisions.
The result is a continuous learning system rather than a series of disconnected research projects. And over time, those better decisions can compound into measurable business growth.
The Connected Insights Flywheel is part of our broader Connected Insights Imperative report.
Explore the full report to learn more about the value of connecting consumer insights across your organization.