This is a reality: we live constantly generating and receiving data. There's a lot of talk about Big Data, but what happens if we stop thinking big and dive into some of this data? Then we will meet face to face with the Small Data. Let's see how small data can help your digital strategy.

Small Data vs Big Data

Big data is a process that consists of recording and storing large amounts of data to then process them in such a way that they can be analyzed through statistics. The ultimate goal is always to reach conclusions that are manifested with predictive models that are used for different companies or institutions. One of the applications of Big Data is Anticipate decisions of consumers of a service or product, based on past digital behaviors or even in real time.

The Small Data It exists as a reaction, as a contrast to Big Data: without it, it wouldn't make sense. But what exactly is it about?

It's a Concept that emerged For the first time in 2016 in the book Small Data. The little clues that warn us of big trends of Martin Lindstrom, a specialist in branding. Lindstrom describes the concept as”behavioral observations apparently insignificant but which contain very specific attributes that point to a consumer need not yet resolved”. In some way, Small Data is fixed on specific data about the person and analyzes them qualitatively; while Big Data is based on the quantitative method.

Today, we can still see how a large number of companies do not control the data that is close to them. Companies that don't take into account the Social Listening they are losing a golden opportunity, in addition, it represents a risk since competition can get ahead of themselves and, when they want to react, it's too late.

El Small Data (analysis of the small details) will help us to Prepare a good digital strategy, organize information in such a way that it is understandable and helps us to personalise the customer experience. It will allow us to turn the complex into actionable.

Hypersegmentation and Small Data

About a year ago, thanks to new technologies, we had the opportunity to offer great and unique experiences to the attendees of a music festival in Barcelona. In order to achieve this, we took into account several factors: historical data of the festival (if the attendees were in previous editions), socio-demographic data, geolocation by beacons, among others.

For example, attendees who had been to the last three editions of the festival and had checked in with their wristband, were inside the venue and had consumed a minimum of three times, when they passed the side of a specific bar between a certain time slot, were notified via the App (SMS if there was no app) that they had a free hamburger courtesy of the festival. With the action, what was intended, apart from offering a good user experience, was loyalty to the festival and to surprise and thrill them in an original and fun way.

Another action that we carried out and it was quite successful: we congratulated festival attendees who celebrated their birthday on the same day via SMS and invited them to a cake.

Unity Makes Strength: Rational + Irrational

If Big Data is the opposite of Small Data, they are also complementary. So why do without either of them? To understand and prevent consumer behavior, we can use both methods, taking into account the company objectives at all times. The purpose will determine the strategy to follow, but without a doubt a comprehensive analysis of the data What we have is paramount.

A clear example of success can be found in Hawkers, the famous company that sells sunglasses online. They define themselves as follows, we are not an ecommerce for sunglasses. We are data. The focus is on the user and the analysis of the data in order to offer the best user experience.

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