The Great Hack: Predictive Analytics and Behavioral Psychology in Digital Marketing

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Date of submission
Documentary Review: The Great Hack
1 What do you understand about the use of predictive analytics and behavioural psychology in digital marketing?
Predictive analytics is widely utilized in the field of digital marketing due to its tremendous benefits and minimal risks. It applies a method by which resource allocation becomes optimized to improve the number of positive outcomes. The history, algorithms, data, and machine learning are the essential aspects of predictive analytics to provide an excellent assessment before launching a particular product or service (Ogunleye).
Behavioural psychology is a vital aspect of predictive analytics. This serves as the backbone of this method. Matz et al. state that behavioural psychology is guided by persuasive mass communication that encourages different groups in the web community by stimulating the people’s motivations by matching their needs and wants with what they see on the screen.
Both of these concepts are reflected in the Netflix Documentary, The Great Hack. The documentary explored how big companies treat people’s data as a commodity. Cambridge Analytica, the centre of the film, gathered data globally to use these for social media and 2016 presidential elections. This data firm is supported by the Republican donor, Robert Mercer CITATION Kar191 \l 13321 (Amer and Noujaim).
From my perspective, Cambridge Analytica used the obsession of many people online, especially in social media, to bring an algorithm to life. This is part of behavioural analytics. The data firm targeted the susceptible areas of the human mind and emotions and associated these with the superstructure present around those particular people. The company continuously sucked to the behaviour of the people, and eventually, the firm used the input of the people to formulate a tactic that helped many politicians win the 2016 elections.
2 What are some examples/applications of such predictive analytics that marketers could or are currently engaging in?
Predictive analytics may be used in many areas of marketing, including but not limited to, finance, healthcare, and consumer goods. First, in finance, predicting analytics may be used...