The Convergence of Data and Empathy: How a TED Speaker, Southwest Airlines and IBM are Changing the World

Last week capped an inspiring #andTHEN16 show at the newly named Data & Marketing Association (DMA). We heard from thought-leaders from best-in-class organizations on themes of data, algorithms and real-time marketing. While these are the things that can get a marketer’s blood pumping, it was the outlier in the discussions that truly brought our focus to the heart of the matter: empathy.

Empathy in Leadership

Simon Sinek, author, consultant and famous TED speaker, gave a powerful talk on leadership’s responsibility to teach employees how to build strong, personal relationships. He spoke how we often lack empathy, and of the need for us to look and experience the world through another’s perspective. In doing so, we as marketers also have a responsibility to use data not to replace people, but to bring people closer together. Bravo, Simon!

Social Empathy

Southwest Airline’s Social Business Advisor Brooks Thomas spoke on customer experience and immediately addressed the elephant in the room: the massive technology failure in July 2016 that suspended more than 2,000 flights over a four-day period. Southwest navigated the chaos through social media, offering customers travel vouchers, sincere apologies and assurance they would take steps to stop this kind of crisis from happening again. But it wasn’t their transparent response or even the genuine approach that impressed. It was the consideration of the irreplaceable customer experiences – missed weddings, family reunions and even funerals in some cases – and the consideration of employees who took the hot calls. Southwest took an empathetic, human approach and truly tried to experience loss and frustration from the individual’s perspective, which in turn guided their response and ultimately stellar handling of a disastrous situation.

Empathetic Technology?

The star of the show emerged when IBM presented cognitive marketing and completely wowed the audience with Watson. Watson is a platform that uses augmented intelligence to understand, reason, learn and interact (you may recall their commercials with Bob Dylan and Carrie Fisher). We watched a demo “conversation” between IBM’s Zeynep Tolon and Watson using a hypothetical bike shop. Watson was able to target 2 million qualified road bike users via paid social ads that would be featured in specific demographics. Through previous research, IBM discovered certain buying behaviors were correlated with weather patterns, so in response they featured select product ads on days when the weather forecast was not calling for rain. Watson also pulled images to correspond with the paid ads and products that were specific to each market and the personas within it. This all took place in a matter of minutes! While Watson is a whole lot of impressive technology, it aims to create “competitive differentiated human experiences”. In the demonstration, we saw just that: Watson delivered jaw-dropping insight that was unique, personal and meaningful for customers through human interaction.

It’s an exciting time to be in data and marketing. As we proceed in creating unique and satisfying customer experiences, may we remember to lead with our minds and hearts, and let the data be our guide.