Data Visualization to build a storytelling experience for brands

By Naren Vijay, EVP-Growth, Lumenore

Data has been driving decision-making for several successful organizations across the world. Although data crunching and analysis have been a part of business operations for a few decades, technology has transformed how data is captured, processed and presented. Rather than relying on gut feel and assumptions, businesses are relying on data for deciding on the future roadmap. Therefore, it has become necessary for companies to identify routes to access and understand data conveniently. 

Data visualization has empowered the average person to access data insights without having to rely on data scientists. It is not only easy to disseminate but is much more responsive than a spreadsheet. Decision-makers pore through dashboards to unlock the answer to operational and growth inefficiencies. Due to its visual structure, it becomes easy for users to understand the sorted data.

According to a report, the global market size of data visualization tools stood at $7.4 billion in 2021. It is expected to grow to $19.5 billion by 2031, registering a CAGR of 10.2% from 2022 to 2031.

Data visualization makes it much easier to understand data and access available information. It has also emerged as the go-to choice for brands to enable a storytelling experience using data. 

What is Data Visualization?

Data visualization is the effective visual representation of data. It can include basic charts, diagrams, and flowcharts derived from a data set. On the other end, it can also come up with complex shapes, colors, and sizes to come up with a visual focus on data findings. In other words, data visualization is mainly used to effectively communicate the critical message of the data in a manner that the target audience can easily understand. 

Storytelling with Data Visualization

Using data visualization for building a narrative around the brand requires a fundamental shift in thinking. Some companies have been able to go a step further and use data visualization solutions for storytelling. 

A business needs to establish a critical message with the correct understanding of the target audience and end objective for using data visualization as a tool for storytelling. Once these elements are clear, data visualization empowers brands to select the right tools to help build a set of visuals that can be woven into the story’s structure. 

To start with, a brand needs to have a basic story structure populated by related visuals and information to deliver a storytelling experience to the audience. It is essential to be selective when choosing data to build an engaging experience for the end consumer. 

Storytelling can also effectively communicate the end message with the right impact. At the same time, it helps provide more context to the audience, which can be used to drive the result. 

Using data visualization to create attractive charts and graphs is no longer enough. Business analytics platforms provide interactive dashboard options that can help compare the actuals vs the plan, and make any business decision that requires data-driven thinking to drill down into granular data sets. 

With the increasing number of data sources with structured and unstructured data, it is critical to have the proper framework with which a brand can create impactful stories to achieve the end objective. With data visualization, it becomes every employee in an organization to connect with data and understand it better. This can help an organization find new opportunities to grow.