The need for direct, absolute, and real-time data is a discussion that is long overdue in Portugal. I’m astonished by the delay. And please, let’s not even talk about the lack of independence of those who provide the data.

Since its inception, Marketing has sought to incorporate data into many of its decisions. Whether for reasons of rationality, focus, or simply caution, this approach has led to the growth of various disciplines aimed at supporting strategic marketing decisions.”

Among these, there are two absolutely fundamental areas: the measurement of advertising campaigns and the evaluation of market shares.

A quick and brief analysis validates these two areas. On one hand, we need to steer the development of our business in relation to our competitors, and on the other, we want to ensure that the most important part of our budget is allocated correctly and translates into visibility for the brand and its products.

Historically, both the measurement of media data and the evaluation of market shares have relied on similar models. In both cases, there is a panel that aims to be representative of a universe, where data is collected and then extrapolated. The only difference lies in the data collection techniques, which range from telephone interviews to household meters or in-store data collection. In other words, everything that Marketing purchases in terms of data is inferred and extrapolated to correspond to a specific market.

Depending on the quality of data collection and the forecasting method, we have markets that are better or worse estimated, brands and companies that are better or worse evaluated, along with all the problems and noise that this entails. There have been frequent public discussions about how television audiences are measured, as well as ongoing struggles to determine which method prevails and remains in use.

But the world has changed. A lot.

When television signals were broadcast through large antennas, discovering what was being watched in each household was a Herculean challenge. Today, thanks to digital and streaming platforms, we know in real-time what is being consumed on each of them. Operators have this information. They know who watched, on which device, and where. This is especially relevant as linear TV consumption continues to decline. This wealth of information and data is being lost to everyone: channels, advertisers, and media companies.

The same is true for retail panels, but with a nuance: large chains have realized that there is economic value in this data and have begun to commercialize it. Today, we can know exactly what we sell and our market share in a particular chain, as well as the position of our competitors, without having to wait an eternity for analysis.

With the recent departure of one of the major supermarket chains from one of the retail panels, issues of reliability and coverage will arise because, no matter how much the model has been fine-tuned in the past, it will be unable to reflect future changes—and there will be many—due to its complete inability to keep up.

The need for direct, absolute, and real-time data is a discussion that is long overdue in Portugal. I am astonished by the delay.

Which panel is more reliable: the one that knows exactly what has been sold, or the one that tries to estimate the same values through a sample? Or perhaps the one that knows in real-time what is being shown on television, or the extrapolation made from a thousand devices?

The connected world requires a change in the way we measure and access data. We say that digital is more agile because we are constantly adjusting campaigns, which leads to more efficient results. Now that we are starting to have these capabilities in other areas, why are we slow to adopt them? Is it due to inertia, lack of willingness, or economic advantage?

Consumption and media panels have served the market for decades, but the digital and connected world now allows access to real-time data. Wasting this opportunity is throwing away a potential leap in quality for brands, advertisers, and agencies. And please, let’s not even discuss the lack of independence of those providing the data; we would have to start talking about Google and Meta, and this article is already long enough.

Article written by João Santos, COO of WYgroup, originally published in the ECO magazine.