Greenpeace released
a viral video in 2010 highlighting Nestlé’s use of palm oil derived from unsustainable practices that devastate orangutan habitats. And the company did what any brand in a panic would do. It made a valiant attempt to remove the video. Following this, there was a strong backlash and protests from all social media communities. Nestlé had learned its most important social media lesson, albeit in a difficult way. And the lesson is that open engagement is critical when it comes to social media. It embraced a new social media strategy based on principles of open engagement and developed a new framework using data and insights gained from social media activities on various platforms. The insights garnered from this framework were to guide Nestlé in all its future campaigns and help build its reputation.
Under the leadership of Pete Blackshaw, Global Head, Digital Marketing and Social Media, Nestlé created the Digital Acceleration Team (DAT). DAT is the digital leadership training program for digital marketing projects at Nestlé. The 12 members of each class are available to work on short-term projects for which the Nestlé units apply. Then they return to their units, bringing with them what Blackshaw calls “digital vitamins.” These “vitamins” are the supplemental expertise that can be used to assist with the digital transformation in the graduate’s home unit. In this post, we’ll look at how Nestlé uses
business dashboards to visualize data for social media monitoring and engagement. If you’re looking for a
Data Visualization Tool, we suggest using fusioncharts for data visualization.
The Training Program
In an interview published in
MIT Sloan Management Review,
Pete Blackshaw explains the working of the DAT.
“We divide their time in three different areas: community management for some of our top global brands, like KitKat, Nescafé, Maggi, Nestea and the like. Hackathons, team projects, almost like a VC model where we would make our capacity from the Digital Acceleration Team [DAT] available to business units and functions who would compete for the DAT’s time. That would focus on really, really quick projects, things like mobile solutions in emerging markets. We’ve done probably over 100 projects since we started the program. The other piece is really intense training and thought leadership. After eight months, they go back to their markets and either lead digital in those particular regions, or just work on traditional marketing but have those digital vitamins as a back-up.” DAT works on the core disciplines of Listening, Engaging, Inspiring, and Transforming. It makes extensive use of real-time listening and data visualization to tap on online conversation and interactions as and when they happen.
How Does Data Visualization Play a Key Role Inside a DAT Center?
A typical DAT center has rows upon rows of flat-panel screens mounted on the walls for easy scanning of data. This process can be done across several desktops, glass walls, a hushed, generally high-tech atmosphere, and streams of live data visualized for rapid analysis.
On a typical day, the team monitors millions of posts each day on topics ranging from the latest cute dog photo on the Purina pet food website to who was drinking Nescafe to real-time recipe tweets.
The team monitors metrics like volume of conversations, sentiment level and benchmarks it against other players by making effective use of data viz.
They also spend time listening and figuring out when and where to engage and how to communicate with consumers in the right context.
The center’s screens are set up to spot trouble. “
When there are a high number of comments,” Blackshaw adds,
“it alerts you that you need to engage.” That can mean a real-time online response from a team member.
“If there is a negative issue emerging, it turns red.” Through such effective social media engagement with the help of
real-time data visualization, Nestlé climbed to the 12th spot from 16th in 2011 in the Reputation Institute’s index of the world’s most reputable companies. In 2013, Nestlé joined the
Forbes Top 10 List of The World’s Most Reputable Companies.
Final Thoughts
Consumer complaints are not something new. What is new, is the medium. By doing it online, consumers make sure they are heard. In order to be successful, brands have to engage with these conversations and resolve issues before it is too late. Real-time data visualization can go a long way in making sense of these digital conversations and helping brands make the right decisions at the right time using
interactive JavaScript graphs.
Recommended Read
How P&G uses data visualization to uncover new opportunities of growth? “Towards Effective Decision-Making Through Data Visualization: Six World-Class Enterprises Show The Way” [White Paper]
References
View Comments
I am curious as to how you integrate marketing research (business intelligence) information into the Digital Acceleration Process at Nestle's.
Hi Gene
Salesforce is one of Nestle's co-innovation partner whose model incorporates the four megatrends of digital transformation: Analytics, Social Business, Mobile and Cloud/SaaS. The digital acceleration team at Nestle leverages technologies like Radian6, BuddyMedia, and Chatter.
Hope this helps :)
Thanks
Nestle has certainly gone the whole distance in the design of the facility... it looks like the control room at the Houston Space Center :)
It definitely does :)