The world around us is changing rapidly. The digital universe is doubling every 2 years, humans and machines are generating data 10x faster than businesses. Importantly, the ability of brands decode this chaotic landscape is now defining their success.

Our study tracks the growth stories of the top 4,000 US and UK brands, assessing 25 data sets including employee confidence with data, high skilled data roles, brand digital footprints, and brand revenues over time.

Its findings are startling: data fluent brands – those that are continuously deriving value from technology and data, are winning. They are creating 4x stronger audience connections and earning sustainable growth year on year. Meanwhile, brands without data fluency lost out on £60bn in growth in the last 4 years alone.

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The implications for brands are critical to the bottom line. Brand leaders must now empower their decision makers to encode brands where it really counts.