#46 Today is the Best Time to be a Data Scientist with Jonny Bentwood – Global Head of Data & Analytics

Jonny Bentwood is the Global Head of Data & Analytics at Golin. Jonny is an innovative leader with 15+ years of experience in communications - winning, retaining and working for Fortune 100 clients such as Facebook, Unilever, Heineken, Barclays, HP and Microsoft. He has a proven record as a creator of pioneering solutions with ability to transform business to radically impact bottom line. Jonny presents complex information in an engaging and informative style and is a strategic consultant to executives using data to provide guidance on reputational and crisis issues and maximising marketing campaigns.

In this episode, Jonny tells a story about how MTV got in touch with him to apply data in figuring out who would most likely win The Apprentice. After being in the industry for over twenty years, he believes this is the best time to be in data. CMOS are spending more of their money than ever before on analytics. How do data scientist prove their value? People use data purely in a descriptive way. To succeed and bring value to clients, one needs to switch from describing the data to telling the customer what they need to do with the data. Set the goals of who, what, and why to figure out which message will be most useful before you even start. Take it a step further by using prescriptive data and make it predictive. This is where you study what will happen in the future. We are continually absorbing and understanding what things could happen and will happen. This opportunity is essential to identify issues before they occur and fix them.

We speak about:

• [01:30] How Jonny started in the data space
• [04:50] Public relations
• [06:00] Descriptive, prescriptive, and predictive
• [08:15] Difference between interesting and useful
• [10:00] Understanding the customer
• [15:25] Cultural shift of data in organizations
• [19:10] Challenging the status quo
• [22:40] Shiny object syndrome
• [26:45] The twenty percent time
• [30:00] Bringing data application to the masses
• [34:30] Each stage of the customer journey
• [39:30] Getting value for money
• [42:45] Return on investment
• [44:15] Data + creativity

Resources:

Jonny’s LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jonnybentwood

Jonny’s Twitter https://twitter.com/jonnybentwood?lang=en

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