Good Data, Not Big Data: The Case for Emotional Intelligence in Marketing

For 35 years, Ian Baer sat in agency rooms watching brands mistake data volume for understanding. In this interview, Baer explains why the strategy of looking backward to predict forward is fundamentally flawed. The conditions behind a purchase have usually shifted by the time that behavior shows up in a dashboard. He also breaks down what most platforms miss when they process for scale instead of meaning — three people can buy the same sneakers for three entirely different emotional reasons. And he digs into why slow, expensive research often persists out of fear rather than rigor. Additionally, Baer shares how Sooth's AI, ELI, is built to surface the "why" behind behavior before it ever becomes a click.