Insights. We’ve chased them, dreamt of them, mastered them, monetised them, faked them, failed at them, improvised them, researched them, Chat-GPT-ed them … but mostly coveted them.
Insights are every strategist’s output and every creative’s input. And the quality that goes in inevitably comes out. You know, peanuts and monkeys.
“But what’s the insight?” is what we get when our brand partners are raising the bar and when our creatives are running on empty. And both are right to demand that one silver bullet. The north star. The golden nugget. The power slide and the money shot.
A powerful insight is a strategist’s mic-drop moment, as it unlocks a whole new brand world and creative opportunity.
Keep it reliable
We use the word insight loosely and figuratively, and the range includes observation to provocation to trend, tension, behavior, and attitude. We’re also keen to school each other on what insight is when everyone is guilty of serving rhymes at times.
Suspending judgement and honoring limitations, I admit that insights are hard to come by. I’m even stressed to write the word in plural, as they’re not cheaper by the dozen. Most of what we claim to be insights are humble observations and attitudes, juxtaposed to a tension, or glorified with a data point. And that’s ok, as long as we acknowledge them as such.
What’s not ok is to normalise trend reports, social listening reports, research reports, my 12-year-old cousin’s TikTok FYP, and “Gen Z demand authenticity” as insights.
The truth is, we are overwhelmed and misled. We’ve reached peak access and exposure. Data and information have never been as available. Trend reports have never been as published and prolific. Social listening and social understanding have never been as accessible. AI has never felt so pedestrian.
But with all this shared transmission and ready research, we are left with too much information and too little insight.
Infer past the white noise
We’ve become slaves to the algorithm, and it’s not just our feeds and FYPs. We all have the same tools, the same data sets, and the same trend reports. Using the same input, we are generating very similar output. Gen Z is eco-conscious. Millennials are health-conscious.
We’re all served the same set of attitudinal data. Recycled research that flows from one source to another, regurgitated and repeated as truths to transmit.
In reality, these are mostly reported attitudes of people. They are ripe with bias and removed from reality. When we look at any such report, we are looking at people’s aspirations—their best selves. We are asking them to paint a perfect picture for us, describing life the way they want it to be.
They share the most righteous values, the perfect hobbies, the least controversial opinions, the most parent-pleasing ideas, and the most ambitious dreams, but in reality, their time is spent differently, their thoughts are otherwise, and their money is elsewhere.
Gen Z claims to be eco-conscious, yet they collect Stanley Cups in all colors and wear some outfits once.
When we consume and reference attitudinal data, we are looking at the desired state of mind and being. The truth, on the other hand, is not lab-grown. It is not to be found only in questionnaire results; it is to be seen and felt.
The ‘I’ in insight
That’s where the I in insight comes in. The gap between attitudinal data and behavioral data is only found through human intervention.
I, and you, are both the reality check and the magic switch. The best insights are the result of talking to people and hanging out with them in their living rooms, bathrooms, and bedrooms. I work on personal care brands and that’s mostly where the moment of truth and magic happen. It’s old-school, but to get to their tensions and blind spots and the coveted ‘Aha’ moment.
Some leg work is involved. People claim and self-report their best selves in surveys and questionnaires, but you get the real deal only when you are in the room, carrying the conversation, doing the observations, monitoring the tone and body language, and taking it all in with a grain of salt and a leap of faith.
The bridge between attitudinal data and behavioral data is you and I. We are the force that extracts the insights. That observation, motivation, and tension get into formation and cause a revelation. That’s when you beat the algorithm and AI. When you weigh in with your real, genuine human interactions, you luck out with insights and turn data to ‘ta-da.’
By Manal Khater, Head of Strategy and Insights at Leo Burnett, Beirut.
