Haleon North American Lead: How People Should Use AI As A Supercharger And Not A Crutch
01 Mar, 2024
Haleon's US and North American Lead, Consumer and Business Insights and Analytics, Tina Tonielli, schools listeners on the art of data “diving” - plunging headfirst into swimming metaphors and the importance of playing with raw data to notice patterns and trends, in the latest episode of MAD//Fest's partner podcast, Shiny New Object.
Tina Tonielli is the US and North American Lead, Consumer and Business Insights and Analytics at Haleon. With over 17 years of experience at Johnson & Johnson working on brands like Tylenol, she has also held insights functions at Pfizer and GSK. Her Shiny New Object looks at the dichotomy of AI: how people should use AI as a supercharger and not a crutch.
Balancing Automation and Manual Analysis
Tina emphasises the importance of balancing advanced analytics with descriptive analytics and performance management in data driven marketing: "If you don't understand the mechanics behind your business, you're toast." Her top tip is to regularly explore raw data sources to gain unexpected insights. "Those little quick laps in the data are where you'll see nuggets you weren't looking for." After all, serendipitous data discoveries are just like serendipitous conversations in everyday life - you never know when one could change your life.
AI as a Supercharger for Curiosity
Tina's Shiny New Object is using AI as a supercharger rather than a crutch. "People think of it the wrong way, as a ‘serve me’ culture versus a curious culture." Instead of supercharging the ability of AI to retrieve data, while making an effort to make more of the data received, most marketers are now content with just “asking AI to solve questions.”
Tina sees potential to enhance curiosity during business reviews and post-campaign analysis. By cultivating curiosity through generative AI, insights professionals can gain a deeper understanding of their business.
Preparing for an Uncertain Future
Marketers should not underestimate the importance of anticipating trends far in the future to avoid being caught off guard. As Tina says, "Some of this stuff is pretty predictable if you look at it." Going back to the focus on analysing data - if you look and ask questions, you will uncover patterns that can give you an advantage for the longer term. Just like Hasbro’s David Khoshpasand explained in an earlier podcast, marketers and business leaders need to stop looking at the near term only and identify trends with a longer timespan in mind.
Find out more about balancing the capabilities of machine learning and automation with human analysis and curiosity, as well as more tips from Tina on maximising insights and marketing performance, in the full episode.