From Report Card to Growth Engine with Nancy Smith, Analytic Partners

[00:00:00] MRII Announcer: Welcome MRII’s Insights and Innovators podcast, where we talk to top market research professionals to get their inside stories about innovative and enduring best practices. Today’s episode is sponsored by Suzy. Suzy is the real time market research platform. Suzy’s audience powered tools enable research from start to finish, helping enterprises make more intelligent decisions.

[00:00:25] MRII Announcer: Now, here’s your host for today’s episode. 

[00:00:27] Jon Last: Welcome to today’s episode from Report Card to Growth Engine. I’m your host, John Last, former president of MRII. Today’s guest is Nancy Smith, founder and CEO of Analytic partners, a firm now celebrating its 25th anniversary. Under Nancy’s Leadership Analytic Partners has become a global leader in marketing, measurement and analytics.

[00:00:48] Jon Last: With Forrester, Gartner and other large corporations naming Analy Analytic Partners, a leader in the marketing mix modeling space, they’ve helped many of the world’s most recognized brands turn data into [00:01:00] decision power. Now, Nancy is pioneering the next generation of this science, a more holistic approach they call commercial analytics.

[00:01:07] Jon Last: Nancy, I wanna welcome you to Insights and Innovators. 

[00:01:11] Nancy Smith: Thanks John. I’m delighted to be here. 

[00:01:13] Jon Last: Glad to have you here. You know, before we look back on 25 years of progress and transformation of the analytics function, I really wanna start with some perspectives on where we are now and what’s on the horizon.

[00:01:24] Jon Last: And to begin with, when, when you talk with CEOs today, what are they asking and expecting from analytics teams that they weren’t even thinking about 10 years ago? 

[00:01:36] Nancy Smith: Yeah, and I, I, you know, I think if. C-suite leaders today are looking to make better decisions faster, and it’s, it’s, it’s that simple. They are in a world of unprecedented change and, uh, high competition.

[00:01:53] Nancy Smith: And, uh, being able to make better decisions faster by understanding the risks and opportunities of those decisions that [00:02:00] they’ve, they’ve always had to make, um, is incredibly powerful and informing for them. 

[00:02:07] Jon Last: Are there certain types of decisions that, that analytics have particularly lent themselves to in, in helping make those types of high level decisions today that, that, that weren’t necessarily prevalent in the past?

[00:02:19] Nancy Smith: I, I, I really do think it’s about, um, informing those better decisions faster. Um, but I do think. Brands today or advertisers today, uh, have a, a wide range of needs. Um, and they’re much more commercial, um, because marketing doesn’t exist in a vacuum. So if you need to understand, I’m taking my price up, do I need to advertise more?

[00:02:45] Nancy Smith: Do I need to advertise less? What are the costs and implications of the changes in my budget? Um, we’ve had C-Suite leaders come and say. I’m spending too much as a percentage of my revenue. I need to [00:03:00] spend less and achieve more. And we’ve gone in and, and worked with them to uh, say, well. If you spend the same, you can actually achieve more and you don’t need to cut.

[00:03:12] Nancy Smith: Um, so it’s, it’s a lot about spending, but it’s in the, in the, um, context of their total business. All of the commercial decisions, whether it’s pricing, uh, new store openings, partnerships, co-brands, uh, depends on the industry. Of course. It’s, it’s a continuous, uh, evolution of decisions that are getting more and more complex today, 

[00:03:39] Jon Last: and you’ve actually kind of formulated it into what you’ve defined as commercial analytics, which I, I guess, is the engine that’s made this more possible today.

[00:03:48] Jon Last: Let’s unpack that term a little bit. What, what is commercial analytics and, and how does it factor into today’s business environment? 

[00:03:55] Nancy Smith: Sure. Well, you know, we, we are in a world of, of data, uh, and [00:04:00] data explosion. And as I said earlier, marketing doesn’t exist in a vacuum. But if you, if you think about it for a brand, marketing is kind of that heartbeat and it connects the heart, connects to everything.

[00:04:12] Nancy Smith: So you need to think about. The consumer and their experience with the brand. And if we can reflect that consumer experience with the brand in data, not just for marketing, but their experience with, uh, their pricing power, how much money they may have, how much uncertainty or unemployment there is, um, all of these factors com competitive choices that may be in the marketplace where they can go.

[00:04:39] Nancy Smith: To buy, whether it’s online or in store. All of these are important factors that make up commercial analytics because once you’re able to represent that consumer experience with the brand, with data, then you can explain their buying behavior. They, you can explain the overall business performance [00:05:00] as opposed to just how many people are visiting your site or just how many people are converting due to an offer.

[00:05:07] Jon Last: Yeah, no, it, I think I remember in a previous conversation you and I had, we, we talked about kind of how we both approach this from seeing analytics as kind of the fulcrum, if you will, in, in this big spoke that marketing emanates from. And I think if you take that approach, it really does go beyond simple scorekeeping or performance tracking to influencing investment in strategic decisions.

[00:05:31] Jon Last: Any, any poignant examples that you might wanna speak to and, and how it does that? 

[00:05:35] Nancy Smith: Yeah, no, I think, I think so many brands, um, have engaged in MMM or marketing mix modeling programs, um, to validate where they’re spending or to do a report card so they can showcase to drive accountability that they’re spending in the right place, but not as much to create a decisioning engine or even more exciting a commercial decisioning engine.[00:06:00] 

[00:06:00] Nancy Smith: Um, so we have customers today that, um. Whole teams leverage our platform. They are constantly looking to optimize their, uh, decisions to achieve the goals for the next quarter or the next month. Uh, and and it’s incredibly powerful when you can see that both the risks and the opportunities of making those decisions.

[00:06:23] Nancy Smith: And you can estimate what may happen if the competitor reacts or the competitor doesn’t react, or there’s a downturn, some headwinds in the economy. My costs are going up because my supply costs are, are increasing. What is that going to mean for my business performance? We can measure that today. Um, and it’s just, it creates one version of the truth versus what exists in so many, uh, businesses today, which is multiple versions of the truth.

[00:06:52] Jon Last: Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, it sounds like a more 21st century ramp up of what we used to call, um, game theory or decision [00:07:00] analysis. Yeah. Yeah. No, it’s, 

[00:07:02] Nancy Smith: it’s, it’s the same, it’s the same issues and the same goal as in 25 years ago. But the world is so much more complex and so much more data rich. Um.

[00:07:17] Nancy Smith: Consumers have so many more choices and so many more touch points, um, that it’s that analytics and decisioning need the, uh, the rigor of the technology power that we have today to really inform. 

[00:07:35] Jon Last: Yeah. And it becomes kind of this roadmap for the future rather than just a report card for the past. Yet it, it, it strikes me, and, and, and maybe it’s, this is something more akin to some of the verticals that, that my company works in, but it still seems like a lot of companies get this wrong, um, even though several now are embracing it.

[00:07:52] Jon Last: What, what’s the disconnect? Why do you think so many companies are still kind of struggling with, with moving into that space? 

[00:07:59] Nancy Smith: Uh, I [00:08:00] mean, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s a hard, it’s a hard pivot. Um, because it’s a, or these are, we work with enterprise businesses, so there are huge organizations that require change management.

[00:08:13] Nancy Smith: And, um, I think, I do think there’s a lot that get it wrong, but more and more are looking to elevate from what they’re doing today. Um, we. We responded to the market need. We listened to our customers who said they need an enterprise solution. They need a privacy safe solution that was delivered for the enterprise so that they can make decisions anytime.

[00:08:43] Nancy Smith: And I, you know, we heard that from customers, so they know they need that. And now this is an adoption challenge of driving it through the organization. Um, so we’re seeing more and more customers come to, to analytic partners that either haven’t done this [00:09:00] at scale before, haven’t even done marketing mix modeling.

[00:09:03] Nancy Smith: Um, and a, a a, a good number of customers, about half and half that. Are looking to elevate from what they’re doing today. They’re looking to elevate from report cards to, to more of that commercial decisioning because they, they recognize they need something that they can have that conversation with the CFO.

[00:09:23] Nancy Smith: And I think that may have be what’s changing today. There’s so many dynamics within an organization, within the C-suite of who’s sitting at that table. Um, and the CFO asking those tough questions hasn’t changed. But they’re more engaged with analytics today, and we’re working with so many of our customers, both, both the CFO and the CMO and the and the board to really understand what they can do differently to help them achieve their numbers.

[00:09:53] Jon Last: You know, we’ve, we’ve talked in the industry for so many years about that seat at the table and really kind of moving [00:10:00] from just a provider of insights to a provider of influence. Yeah. Are, are there skill sets that are needed by members of your team that help them to be effective in, in moving into that role of influencer as opposed to just provider of insights and, and, and what do you look for when you’re recruiting for those particular skills or training for them?

[00:10:19] Nancy Smith: Yeah. I, you know, I, I think. You, you need the people skills. Um, we’re in this world of AI and, and, uh, great possibility. Uh, so much can be done for you, but you know, nothing beats this, right? Like, uh, a person to person conversation, uh, to to provide context and, and understanding and advocate. For, for this.

[00:10:45] Nancy Smith: And, and it’s still, it, it’s still the same from early days. Like you need the, you need your advocates within an organization. Um, and you need to identify the skeptics. And you need those advocates to help you, [00:11:00] um, showcase the skeptics, and you need the proof points to demonstrate to them, um, because the skeptic is that, is that for a reason?

[00:11:08] Nancy Smith: So it’s, it’s really about creating that dialogue and getting comfort and building trust. Trust is incredibly powerful and the only way you can do that is, you know, the proof is in the pudding, is to demonstrate results. 

[00:11:23] Jon Last: You know, you, you, you hit on a theme that, that a couple of other guests have had in the past, and that’s, you know, really understanding contextually and holistically thinking like a business owner, thinking like you own that company and that you’re actually not just answering questions for a specific narrow problem, but really integrating it into the fabric of that organization.

[00:11:42] Jon Last: That, that said though, there, there, there’s certainly specific types of analytics that. You may have found are more resonant with senior leaders today. Are, are there certain things that you look to do in, in terms of how you present findings that, that can influence those types of decisions? [00:12:00] 

[00:12:01] Nancy Smith: You know, I, I think you need to, you need to connect to those leaders and how they look at their business.

[00:12:08] Nancy Smith: So if you’re, if you’re showcasing any insight you need to connect to a number they know or, um, uh. A goal that they have, um, or a, a key performance indicator that they’re always looking at and showcase why something moved and, and, um. That will resonate. I, I think there are cultures that are very high, very focused numbers, cultures that if the number changes from $5 and 20 cents to $5 and 25 cents, there’s, or even worse, $5 and 10 cents.

[00:12:43] Nancy Smith: Um, there’s, there’s stress that’s put into the system because there’s so numbers focused and, and I think we’re seeing more and more C-Suites again. Financial number focus. Absolutely. It’s that, you know, how much are you going to make [00:13:00] decisions based on the guidance from the tools and technology and the science that’s afforded to you?

[00:13:07] Nancy Smith: And we’re seeing more and more organizations, uh, and senior leaders ask the question of, well, what is the, what is the analytics tell us what do the commercial analytics tell us about that decision? Um. In terms of presenting to them, we have beautiful technology. You can show it to a senior leader and they’re gonna say, you know, like, what am I looking at?

[00:13:33] Nancy Smith: Um, I think you really need to get simple, clear results and insights that are tailored to them. Um, and, and board presentations are, are just, are just that. So try to simplify and connect to the KPIs is what I would say is the key. 

[00:13:51] Jon Last: Do, do you find that sometimes it’s helpful to move off of the, the narrowness of a specific number and put more of the story [00:14:00] behind it?

[00:14:00] Jon Last: Is that something that’s accepted more today or to the contrary, are people kind of locked into those numbers? 

[00:14:07] Nancy Smith: I think every number has a story behind it, right? It’s, uh, it’s that, um, it’s business storytelling that’s so, so important. So absolutely. But absolutely there’s more appetite to understand the whys.

[00:14:22] Nancy Smith: And it’s one of the things that as an organization we do, is obsess with the whys. Like, why are we seeing this? Um, and I think when you apply science, uh, to data, you can lose that sometimes if you don’t have the context or the business understanding. So obsessing with the whys and understanding why is absolutely critical to get, um, the C-Suite leader to.

[00:14:43] Nancy Smith: Adopt and, and they might have hypotheses that you’re gonna disprove with data and analytics, and it’s gonna be real important to understand what, what their hypothesis is or what their, their known truth is that you’re going to debunk potentially [00:15:00] to. 

[00:15:00] Jon Last: But you’re gonna bring forward that shared understanding that that more macro level understanding that I, I would sense builds legitimacy so that you can have that type of conversation.

[00:15:11] Jon Last: It’s, it’s, it’s interesting, you know, you, you, you, you founded a company and built analytic partners into one that’s recognized as a leader. Um, obviously both Forrester and Gartner, among others. Um, really thinking about. The, the broader application of, of analytics to, to what their decision making process is.

[00:15:32] Jon Last: Certainly there’s a lot that’s happened on that ride. Yeah. You know, that, that, that’s kind of understating it, I guess, what’s the belief that you may have had in the past about data and decision making that you’ve kind of completely done a, a 180 on? 

[00:15:51] Nancy Smith: Yeah. You know, I, I, I was thinking the other day, it’s nice to have 25 year anniversary ’cause it gives me a moment to reflect, um, which I don’t do very [00:16:00] often.

[00:16:00] Nancy Smith: Um, you know, on, on that full journey. But, uh, it’s, it’s a job that changes all the time because we’re in an ecosystem that’s constantly changing, which is pretty awesome. But, uh, you know, believe it or not, one of the things I believed was, uh. If we built it, they will come, you know, the 

[00:16:20] Jon Last: dreams approach is we 

[00:16:22] Nancy Smith: Yeah, yeah.

[00:16:23] Nancy Smith: Field of Dreams approach. Um, and, and, uh, you know, you can have the perfect analysis, the, the best science, the best data, um, and it’d be a no brainer for a customer to, to make use of the opportunities that you reveal. Um, but after 25 years of working with like. Huge organizations, um, successful brands. I recognize that no matter how sophisticated an organization is, how great a brand or an advertiser is, um, there’s, there’s a vital need for change management and corporate alignment and.

[00:16:59] Nancy Smith: Um, [00:17:00] that business context, that storytelling, that effective communication to, you know, to get, to make use of those golden nuggets that are, uh, revealed by the data and the analytics. So I think that was one belief I had was like, great analysis will, will, will penetrate and no matter how great it it is, it will not penetrate, um, without evangelizing it.

[00:17:24] Nancy Smith: And it’s so important to do. 

[00:17:26] Jon Last: Absolutely. It’s funny, I tell a story similar to that, that that actually happened right near where you are in South Florida in the travel industry. We were, we were talking to a, a very passionate founder and had this very well thought out, strategically driven approach, and it didn’t really align with what his vision was.

[00:17:44] Jon Last: The data was still right, but now we had to understand it contextually and transform it in a way that was still gonna be consistent with their vision because that’s what, what, wow. Yeah. Do. It’s, it’s, it’s a great lesson that I think can be shared with a lot of folks. [00:18:00] You know, I’m, I’m curious, you know, your company in the 25 years that it’s grown you, you’ve gone from a very bootstrap beginning to recently taking on private equity investment.

[00:18:09] Jon Last: Uh. Is there one decision that that really kind of drove you to scale more effectively? I mean, I, I, I admire the fact that you still control the company as one who also has a small business and has tried to keep e interest out for that very reason. What, what, what did you do that, that helped you get to that place?

[00:18:27] Nancy Smith: Well, we found a great, a, a great company to, to invest, uh, Onyx. But, um, outside of that, uh, and, and we made that decision really because we wanted to drive scale. But you know what, if I. If I think back on what was, you know, what were the decisions that were made over 25 years? Like what was, what was the one, maybe it’s, it’s two that were made kind of in tandem and we were pushed, we were working with multinational companies that, you know, 10, 15 years ago, 15 years ago, probably.

[00:18:58] Nancy Smith: Were pushing towards like, [00:19:00] we need to lower costs, everybody wants faster, cheaper, and, and, uh, more accurate. Um. And we wanna lower costs, so we should look at some talent offshore. So let’s look at offshoring. Um, and, you know, we had a strong push at the time to invest in our talent and to be close to our customers because of the change management that’s needed.

[00:19:22] Nancy Smith: Um, and it’s still needed today. And we made a conscious decision to invest in technology. Um, you know, 25 years ago Facebook didn’t exist and, uh. Google was in its infancy and, and technology isn’t what it is today. So we were more of a consultancy and. Over 15 years ago, we decided to invest in technology, um, and at the same time invest in our talent onshore.

[00:19:50] Nancy Smith: Um, and you know, that focus on our talent, I think, um, and, and onshore talent really was it incredibly important because [00:20:00] it enables us to hear our customer’s needs. And respond. And it, it served us so well through COVID. Um, we have this mantra, adapt, evolve, thrive. You can thrive in the most challenging times, uh, if you know how to adapt.

[00:20:16] Nancy Smith: Um, and adaptive, evolve, thrive then, and, and we lived that in, uh, throughout COVID and we listened to our customers and we were able to so quickly adapt, uh, to their needs. And we paused some like hospitality, right? And, and we accelerated others like retailers. And I, I think it was really, uh. We were able to do that because we had invested in that talent that was so close to our customers that we weren’t doing handoffs to anyone else to ask what is this going to mean?

[00:20:48] Nancy Smith: And if I make these decisions or if I change this, um, we were able to, to pivot quickly, so. 

[00:20:55] Jon Last: Such an important thing to do. Uh, you know, I could tell our COVID story. It kind of [00:21:00] transformed in a way when all the sports and travel businesses were kind of paused for a moment. You had to think what their needs were at that particular point.

[00:21:08] Nancy Smith: Exactly. 

[00:21:10] Jon Last: As you look to the future, obviously not one to rest on one’s laurels, to to be continuously adapting and evolving, which is why I call ourselves the 16-year-old startup. You may say the same thing. 

[00:21:21] Nancy Smith: Yeah. I think we’re just getting started. Yeah, exactly. 

[00:21:25] Jon Last: What, what, what’s exciting you about the future, whether it’s from a technology standpoint, a data standpoint, or even from a leadership standpoint?

[00:21:34] Nancy Smith: I, I think, you know, I’m most excited right now about the industry momentum behind analytics with that commercial lens. Um, you know, you asked me earlier, do a lot of customers get it wrong? And I, I think there’s more and more I appetite for, uh, for that commercial understanding and for, uh. MMM, [00:22:00] traditional MMM, we even see Google and, uh, meta producing their own versions.

[00:22:05] Nancy Smith: So it’s, uh, it’s, you know, it’s definitely an area of, uh, interest for so many customers, for so many advertisers and platforms, uh, that I’m excited about the momentum. Really excited about it. I say in 25 years, I feel in some respects it’s only been a few. Um, although we’ve, we’ve achieved so much and done so much, um, but we are really just getting started.

[00:22:33] Jon Last: So, so with that in mind for knowing that a lot of the folks that listen to the podcast are themselves getting started in their careers, what, what advice do you have for somebody looking to get into the analytics profession today? What, what should they be learning or doing or, or unlearning even? 

[00:22:49] Nancy Smith: Well, yeah, I, I, I, I love that question because it’s so, it, you know, I have, I have three kids, so, and, uh, two, two are college aged.

[00:22:59] Nancy Smith: And, and [00:23:00] I, I think it’s, it’s so important, uh, you know, they have. Hackathons that, uh, you know, when you, when they decompose and understand who, who wins. It’s not the, the greatest minds in science. It’s those teams that have the business understanding. Um, and I think understanding business and industry context and being comfortable to ask the why’s and getting more, uh.

[00:23:33] Nancy Smith: Experiences that are hands-on in a world of, you know, hands, hands off, the, the machines are going to do it for you. Um, getting more hands-on experience is going to create much more. And understanding the business context why is going to create more, uh, more capable talent for the future. And, you know, I, I was recently at a, at a conference where someone shared that the.[00:24:00] 

[00:24:00] Nancy Smith: The folks that are going get the most out of these generative AI tools are going to be the ones that know the most. So, um, the ones that know the least are gonna get the least out of it because there’s a, there’s a way to ask questions and, and that critical thinking is so incredibly important. You’re only gonna get that with the business context.

[00:24:21] Jon Last: Absolutely. It’s, it’s, you’re, you’re, you’re, you’re totally parroting kind of my perspective on it too. I, I’ve often bristled in the past about, you know, there’s all these technological innovations, but at the end of the day, it’s really about asking the right questions in the right way to the right people or things.

[00:24:36] Jon Last: And that’s how you’re gonna uncover the really groundbreaking and business transformative insights. Nancy, it’s been, it’s been great to have you on. Um, we could probably talk for another 45. We 

[00:24:46] Nancy Smith: probably could. 

[00:24:48] Jon Last: I’m gonna be respectful of your time and our listeners time and, and, and not take the additional 40 minutes, but, but again, much appreciation for being with us today.

[00:24:56] Nancy Smith: Thank 

 

[00:24:57] MRII Announcer: you, John. It’s a pleasure. [00:25:00] Thanks for joining the Insights and Innovators podcast for Market Research Institute International. Click subscribe to never miss an episode and visit us@mrii.org for more market research insights.