The level of professionalism in any branch can be determined, among other things, by looking at their practice of knowledge management. In marketing, advertising, and media, the performance seems rather poor. In addition to that, there is a growing gap between the sheer amount of data and studies available for practitioners and their abilities to judge these data for quality and relevance. This may lead to faulty-and possibly costly-decisions. This talk is intended as a wake-up call for the pitfalls underneath bad data sets for ill-informed practitioners.

Organizations rarely suffer from a lack of data or lack of knowledge. But action on this data can be scarce.
Many research findings confirm what teams accross the organization already sense in their daily work. Still, these insights often fail to translate into concrete decisions. Let's talk open about this "action gap" and how it can be approached. For a large-scale audience reserach project the Market and Audience Insights team of DW redesigned the way how insights are activated internally. By building a dedicated insights platform and running a multi-level roadshow tailored to different stakeholder groups, the team created continuous impulses that made insights visible, relevant, and actionable.

In this presentation we'll discuss this approach, the role of a thorough stakeholder analysis, the fun in creating a home for your insights, the achieved impact, and what can be done differently next time.

In the age of artificial intelligence, companies have access to unprecedented amounts of behavioral data—yet more data does not automatically lead to better decisions. While AI can optimize what people click or buy, it often fails to understand why they act. This presentation argues how in an algorithmic world, values-based segmentation can provide deeper insights into increasingly fragmented societies shaped by personalized media ecosystems. Micromilieus help to identify deep motivational structures and cultural codes that drive decision-making. When integrated into AI platforms, dynamic insight pools can be created, that enable companies to truly understand their audiences and align strategy, communication, and innovation with authentic human meaning. The presentation also touches on the ethical risks of AI optimization, arguing that AI strategies should position human understanding as the true competitive advantage in the AI era.