By Michael Bürgi • August 7, 2026 •
Ivy Liu
There’s significant debate about synthetic audiences. Sure, they save agencies and brands considerably on time and money, but there are inherent risks as well. Probably the biggest is that most synthetic data models are regressive — they trend toward the mean. They smooth out the edges, compress the variance, and pull everything within a standard deviation or two of average.
But another risk is that too much research is commissioned but seldom used, and within the creative world, rarely used as a springboard to informing creative ideas at their outset.
Ideally, a New Zealand-based market research firm, is looking to reinvent research when serving the creative side of the industry by integrating consumer insights earlier in the creative process, enhancing creativity and reducing risk. The platform connects data from various teams, enabling compounding knowledge and, in the long run, incorporating synthetic data usage into the process.
