New Year, New Resolution: From data as a tool to data as a foundation

The start of a new year always comes with a familiar ritual: resolutions. Grow faster. Be smarter. Make better decisions.
In business, we often translate that into: use more data. But if 2025 taught us anything, it’s that the real shift is not about using data more, but about respecting data more.

Looking at what resonated most on our website last year, the pattern is clear. The topics that consistently performed were data solutions such as Marketing Mix Modeling, Digital Competitive Monitoring, Ad Impact, Multi-Touch Attribution and Digital Health Index. And the studies that drew the strongest interest were Consumer Report, Events Study, Focus ON, Black Friday, and InfluenceMe.
Different formats, same underlying need: clarity, context, and confidence in decision-making.

Data is no longer a tool. It’s the structure.

For a long time, data was treated like a screwdriver: useful, necessary, but interchangeable. Today, data is the architecture.

It’s the ground on which we build strategies, the walls that support decisions, the framework that keeps everything standing when the market shakes. When data is weak, biased, incomplete, or misunderstood, the entire construction becomes fragile.

That’s why our responsibility goes beyond delivering dashboards, studies, or models. It extends to how we frame information, how we interpret it, and how we help others use it. Because data doesn’t just inform decisions. It shapes the way we think.

Attention is easy. Meaning is harder.

We live in a fast-forward world. Trends change weekly. Algorithms reward noise. Content is optimized for speed, not depth. In that world, there are two paths:

• chase attention that is quickly gained and just as quickly lost
• or cultivate understanding that grows slowly, but lasts.

We’ve chosen the second.
Yes, we all have our vanities. We like likes, shares, views, reach. That’s human. But the real impact doesn’t come from excitement. It comes from consolidation. From ideas that settle. From insights that change how you look at a problem long after the article is closed.

Our role is not to trigger. Our role is to shape.
To offer perspectives that help you think differently about media, consumers, performance, and growth. To bring research that challenges assumptions. To build narratives that connect dots, not just generate reactions.

Why this matters for marketing and business leaders

Marketing mix modeling, multi-touch attribution, competitive monitoring, ad impact, digital health, etc. – these aren’t “hot topics.” They are decision topics. They are the questions leaders turn to when budgets are under pressure, when growth is harder, when intuition is no longer enough.

The popularity of studies like Focus ON, Black Friday or Consumer Report is not accidental. It reflects a deeper shift: a need for grounded understanding in an increasingly noisy environment.

People are tired of opinions. They are looking for evidence. Tired of trends, they want patterns. Tired of speed, they want certainty.

Our 2026 commitment

As we step into a new year, our resolution is simple and demanding at the same time: to treat data not as content, but as responsibility, to prioritize depth over volume, to build insight, not just output, to offer information that helps you decide, not just react.

Because in the end, the most valuable thing we can give you is not more data. It’s better thinking built on solid data. And that is the house we intend to keep building.

Photos @Pexels