On 3 June 2020 the webtalk on the topic “Navigating through the Crisis with Data Driven Predictions” was held. It was moderated by DDV (German Direct Marketing Association) President Martin Nitsche and the head of the DDV Competence Centre Meinert Jacobsen. The two experts that were invited are Dr. Lisa Wang, Data Scientist and Gregor Wolf, VP Business Development at Smart Digital GmbH.

Both experts presented the new predictive marketing service from Smart Digital. In the current coronavirus pandemic, this databased planning tool helps customers find the optimal marketing tactics that align with the economic conditions and consumer sentiment. With the help of a Dashboard, the so-called “phases of the crisis” (Pre-Corona, Awareness, Strong Concern, Recovery, New Normal) can be determined relatively precisely for different countries also the point at which a particular country is currently in the crisis. The phases and forecast of a country entering the “new normality” are the foundations for a customer-specific planning grid. This planning grid shows which decisions should be taken during each phase of the crisis regarding communication, sales promotions, and other actions in the Sales Funnel.
For more information on this topic read our previous blog post.

List of the webcast’s timestamps and script

03:46 min. | Short introduction to the topic
The Corona situation is still a concern. We are all aware of the economic consequences. For marketers, the questions always remain the same: How should we deal with the situation? What special options are available to navigate better through this crisis?

05:05 min. | About Smart Digital
Founded in 2011, we are based in Stuttgart and Berlin, and we have 100 employees with a focus on user-centered personalization. Since 2019 we are part of the Omnicom Group.

06:35 min. | Smart Digital’s own-developed dashboard
We analyzed publicly available data from the Johns Hopkins University and numerous other sources for various countries worldwide and built an application based on this data. Our main objective is to support clients in steering through the crisis.

10:23 min. | New scope: Marketing has to be more predictive, not descriptive
Less backward analysis along the lines of – what happened, what did I sell when, how many users were on the website, and moving towards a more predictive orientation, for example how many users will I have on my website tomorrow.

12:07 min. | Example of Web Traffic Prediction
A prediction can be made not only about traffic – but about sales conversions, or conversions for a specific stage in the sales funnel.

13:51 min. | Predictive aspect of the dashboard
The probability that a particular country or region will reach the next phase within the upcoming week.

17:25 min. | Tactical aspect of the dashboard
Measures should ideally be planned for the next week or two.

27:40 min. | The sale of goods is almost independent of the industry
Now the companies have full warehouses and have to sell off first. This means that different parameters are made available.

Photo: Deva Darshan| Unsplash