The TNS Marketing Monitor, a survey of over 2,700 marketing professionals across Asia Pacific, revealed that many are failing to use the data at their disposal to help them make informed decisions.

While businesses across the region are apparently investing more in data-driven digital platforms and tracking systems, feeding data into marketing departments, 70% of marketers admit they find it difficult to integrate data from different sources. The report reveals that because of the difficulties experienced with real-time data, many marketers “are falling back on traditional measurements” such as sales uplift metrics.

However, current market research methods are seen as “not actionable enough” by 68% of marketers across APAC, and “too slow” by 66%.

There is a difference between countries across the region. The percentage of marketers in each country using social media monitoring to inform decisions is as follows:

1.    Singapore – 55%
2.    Malaysia – 50%
3.    Thailand – 46%
4.    South Korea – 45%
5.    Indonesia – 43%
6.    Australia – 43%
7.    India – 42%
8.    China – 30%

“The difficulties in extracting valuable insight from data means that marketers have a rear-view mirror approach, only understanding their performance and brand equity weeks or even months afterwards,” said Nitin Nishandar, managing director of Brand & Communications, Asia Pacific, TNS. “Real-time data needs to deliver real-time value – otherwise it’s just distracting noise.

“As the pace of change accelerates across the region, we need to start using data to gaze into the future, not just measure the here and now. Tracking social and search data to form the basis of a predictive spine delivers insight months ahead of survey data or sales figures. This gives marketers the power to anticipate changes to brand equity in time to actually do something about it. In such a volatile environment, having a telescopic view into the future is an invaluable competitive advantage, and one that businesses can’t afford to overlook.”