Business insights with Dave Hockly

What makes you buy something? What makes you behave in a certain way?

Like all good marketers, Dave Hockly knows the answers to those questions. But what really interests him is using cold, hard data to dig down into the detail of people’s decisions, adapt marketing strategies and measure the results and revenue.

Hockly launched Queenstown company Data Story in August 2018, after leaving Wellington for the snow of the Southern Alps.

In five years, the company has grown from just him to a team of seven, based in offices on Gorge Road.

“I learned through running previous businesses, which weren’t marketing businesses, that marketing is as much a science as it is an art,” he says.

“It was a hard lesson because if something didn’t work, I had to pay for it out of my own pocket. It’s actually hard to focus on the right things, rather than looking at what just sounds cool.

“That pushed me towards data-driven or evidence-based marketing. I liked the idea of being able to test a hypothesis, map things out and benchmark.

“Once we’ve got that benchmark, we can be creative, we can test and learn. And we can do it faster and with less stress, because we can see if we’re moving the needle or not.”

Hockly graduated with a degree in tourism management at Victoria University, before working at Wellington agencies and consulting.

He moved south and says it was initially difficult to get a foothold in Queenstown, before winning the contract to help Cardrona Alpine Resort.

“We were too small to deal with the winter season, but Nadia Ellis, their marketing manager, who is an absolute gem, said ‘why don’t you give us a hand for summer?’

“We helped them triple their online revenue over the summer and it’s all really kicked off from there.”

Since then, the client list for the digital specialist agency has included Destination Queenstown, Harcourts, Queenstown Resort College, the Co-operative Bank, Microsoft, Fergburger, First Table, the New Zealand Government and many more.

As well as steering people towards buying products and experiences, work has included quitting smoking campaigns.

“A lot of what we do is understanding the buyers’ decision-making journey through data. It’s crazy how much marketing can persuade people to do something, almost without them realising it.

“We can see someone who thinks they’re making an impulse decision but they’ve had 21 ad impressions with a bunch of messaging designed to appeal to their deepest desires. People are still autonomous but it’s very hard when someone knows what you want.

“I do think, because of that, marketing can be on the right or wrong side of the conversation. The goal should be to help people make better decisions for themselves, rather than just selling stuff for the sake of it. I think marketers can change the world in that way.”

In Queenstown, that translates as the ability for companies to give locals and tourists those life-affirming moments.

“As businesses in the region start to get more digitally mature, we can have less competition and charge a whole lot more,” he says.

“I don’t mean scalping people because they have to buy a bottle of water. People come here to have incredible one-of-a-kind experiences, and when you provide that, they’re happy to pay more. It’s the same reason you’ll pay $12 to buy a beer in a pub when you could buy a box for $20.”

Data Story focuses on the strategy, using the best off-the-shelf programmes to compile and present the data.

“Everyone who makes a decision goes on a journey. No one just gets out their credit card. We have a framework around that, where we take a client’s marketing initiatives and map it to the buyer’s decision journey. We look at how they communicate, how they can reach the right people, the right volume, how they build trust, what marketing will give a potential customer a moment of delight, all those sorts of things.

“And then you can use the data to diagnose problems, look for causation versus correlation, and track results.”

Understanding the psychology can lead you to view the world in a different light.

“My wife does say I’m a shocker in the supermarket, looking at the product’s marketing positioning, analysing the wording and branding. It’s like when a builder walks into a house. They look at it in a different way.”