On 20 February 2025, I had the opportunity to participate in What’s NEXT in Marketing: Singapore, hosted by MARKETECH APAC. The event brought together industry leaders, innovators, and marketing professionals at One Farrer Hotel for a full day of discussions on strategies, insights, and the future of marketing.
As one of the most influential marketing conferences in the region, What’s NEXT provided a crucial platform for brands to navigate the fast-changing digital landscape. As a key APAC hub, Singapore provided the ideal backdrop for networking, collaboration, and in-depth exploration of the latest trends shaping the industry.
For Sparkline, What’s NEXT was an exciting opportunity to engage with industry leaders and experts across different sectors. As a leader in data analytics and digital marketing, specialising in Google Analytics and the Google Marketing Platform, we are deeply committed to the Singapore market. The event allowed us to exchange insights, address industry challenges, and share our expertise on data-driven marketing strategies in an increasingly privacy-centric world.
Then, our Chairman, Naohiro Yamaura, took the stage to deliver an insightful session titled “The Future of Measurement: AI-Powered Predictions in a Privacy-Centric World.” His presentation explored the evolving landscape of data collection and privacy regulations, and how businesses can effectively adapt using tools like Google Analytics Consent Mode.
Naohiro set the stage with a thought-provoking statement:
"Data privacy isn't just a buzzword; it's a fundamental shift in how we approach marketing. The way we measure and collect data is changing dramatically."
With the rise of privacy regulations such as GDPR and growing user concerns about data security, businesses must rethink their marketing strategies. One of the most pressing challenges today is signal loss, which makes it harder to track user behaviour and optimise marketing performance.
Addressing the issue of signal loss due to cookie restrictions, Naohiro highlighted the impact on digital marketing:
"Signal loss due to cookie regulations has a significant negative impact. We see decreased accuracy in targeted advertising, difficulty in measuring performance, reduction in audience data, and limitations on personalisation. But this isn’t just about challenges; it’s about opportunity."
He emphasised that businesses must adopt privacy-centric solutions that allow them to continue making data-driven decisions while respecting user privacy. Google Consent Mode is one such solution, helping businesses recover lost signals and maintain accurate measurement even in a restricted data environment.
AI is becoming a critical tool for modern data measurement. Naohiro explained:
"AI is becoming a critical tool for measurement in a privacy-restricted environment. It helps predict and fill in missing data, mitigates signal loss, and enhances measurement accuracy. By using AI-powered solutions, businesses can continue to use data for their marketing while respecting user privacy."
The industry is rapidly shifting towards AI-driven data supplementation, ensuring that businesses can still optimise marketing performance even with limited access to direct user data.
Naohiro reinforced the idea that without accurate data, AI cannot deliver meaningful insights:
"To succeed in this evolving landscape, we must prioritise accurate data measurement. This means investing in high-quality data for AI, leveraging user behaviour and conversion data to drive marketing performance, and building robust first-party data strategies to power our AI-driven initiatives."
He stressed that poor data quality leads to flawed insights, ultimately impacting business decisions.
Naohiro explained how businesses can recover lost conversions using Google’s privacy-centric solutions:
"If your website uses a CMP (Consent Mode Platform), cookie banners, or popups, Google Consent Mode is a powerful tool that helps recover an average of 65% of lost conversions by counting both consenting and non-consenting users and leveraging GA4’s conversion modelling to identify those lost conversions."
He encouraged businesses to embrace privacy-centric solutions rather than resist them, as privacy regulations and consumer expectations continue to evolve.
His session concluded with a powerful reminder, emphasising that quality data measurement is the key to AI:
“Many people are paying attention to AI itself. However, if you want to use AI effectively in your marketing activity, you won't get the results you want unless you provide the AI with your own accurate data. I think we should put more effort into measuring data. I'm concerned that many companies are not paying enough attention to this.”
One of the most engaging aspects of What’s NEXT was its interactive discussion format. Instead of traditional Q&A panels, attendees had the opportunity to participate in 14 dedicated discussion tables, each focusing on a key industry topic.
At the Data & Analytics discussion table, we had meaningful conversations with professionals from a range of industries, sharing thoughts on some of the biggest challenges and opportunities in data-driven marketing. The main topics included:
These discussions were insightful, collaborative, and highly relevant, reinforcing the importance of industry knowledge-sharing and adapting to new challenges in the evolving digital landscape.
What’s NEXT Singapore was an invaluable experience for digital marketers, data experts, and business leaders. For Sparkline, it was a chance to strengthen our brand, share our knowledge, and reinforce our leadership in data measurement and analytics. As we continue to grow under Ayudante, we remain committed to helping businesses navigate the future of data measurement.
A huge thank you to everyone who joined us at What’s NEXT. We look forward to continuing these conversations and supporting businesses as they adapt to the new era of data-driven marketing.
If you have any questions about Consent Mode, data analytics, or digital marketing strategies, feel free to reach out to Sparkline!
