Cellphone market penetration is predicted to reach its highest point to date in 2025. With this increased usage comes an explosion of customer data, offering companies more opportunities than ever before.
But more data doesn’t automatically mean better decisions − without the right foundations in place, it can quickly become overwhelming, rather than useful.
Companies have to get the basics right − like data governance and staff training. This way they can create a strong framework that enables technical and business teams to turn data into meaningful insights.
The flipside, of course, is that opportunities are frequently accompanied by challenges, and this is especially true when it comes to leveraging the data explosion.
So, how can companies effectively navigate this landscape?
Information everywhere
Statista.com is predicting a bumper year in terms of mobile data usage, with an average of 23.8GB forecast to be used − an increase from 20.29GB, and a massive upward trajectory since 2016’s 1.97GB. And with more mobile usage, comes more customer data.
With the number of cellphone users expected to reach 7.49 billion, the stage is set for companies' IT and marketing departments to collaborate more closely than ever, ensuring they can effectively harness this wealth of customer data for strategic decision-making.
Information about customers, it would appear, will be everywhere. And with 5G networks driving the data engine, along with enhanced on-device processing capabilities, it’s never been easier to glean detailed knowledge about users, or to use that information to great effect.
Think about it: with the number of cellphone users who track their health status via their phones numbering in the millions, it’s possible to collect information around everything from activity levels to sleep patterns, while location tracking means that advertising can be laser-targeted.
Even choices around entertainment can be used to tailor marketing messaging and deliver a customer experience that’s personalised to a previously unimagined degree. Moreover, armed with this information, companies will be better positioned to innovate products and services entirely aligned with what customers actually want and need.
Every silver lining has a cloud?
The problem, as has become clear in recent years, is that the more data becomes available to companies, the greater the risk of data breaches.
According to the 2024 IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report, 83% of respondents experienced more than one breach in the past year. The report further stated that data breaches cost an average of $4.88 million, with companies paying dearly, not only in the form of financial losses, but also damage to reputation and regulatory fines.
Stories of companies that have been hit hard abound, from Australian financial services firm Latitude, which saw data stolen from around 14 million customers, to Colonial Pipeline in the United States, which was held hostage to hackers whose attack affected the country’s fuel supply.
Less dramatic, but no less significant in terms of the impact on marketers, is the legislation governing data usage, with SA’s Protection of Personal Information Act setting strict parameters in terms of users’ privacy.
Added to this, there’s the fine line companies are forever treading as they balance personalisation with messaging that can become intrusive if not carefully managed.
Then there’s the need to manage those large volumes of data in such a way that companies are, indeed, able to extract and leverage insights accurately, rather than losing them in a swamp of information.
Are you ready?
Against this backdrop, how can companies make the most of the goldmine of information they can potentially access?
The first step: getting the requisite infrastructure in place (think security, mechanisms which allow customers to opt-out and therefore build trust and transparency, and tools allowing analysis and which guard bias). Of course, assuming you have already moved beyond the initial stages of collecting, storing and analysing data, you can tick this box.
The next step is to put the insights that have been gleaned to use. One of the biggest trends of the year, predicted by Hyperight.com, which stands to change the way you do this, is the democratisation of data analytics. There’s enormous power in this approach: according to Hyperight.com, which quotes a report by McKinsey, personalised marketing can increase revenue by 15% − and democratised analytics is often the secret here.
As organisations see volumes of data escalate, and the data itself becoming more detailed thanks to advanced AI, they have to become more rigorous in their approach. It will become imperative to keep an eye on data quality, and become even more meticulous when it comes to secure management and storage.
The bottom line? Now is the time to review the data strategy from all perspectives. Is it sustainable? Is it aligned to business objectives? Are management and security measures sufficiently robust? Is the company geared to make the most out of analytics?
As much as the potential opportunities that arise out of the data explosion this year are exciting, they are accompanied by risks of an equal magnitude – and companies must gear up to manage both.
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