Marketing News Canada From Assumptions to Evidence: A Smarter Way to Market
Feb 26, 2026
Charlie Grinnell, Co-CEO of RightMetric and former in-house marketer at Aritzia and Red Bull, champions external digital research and data-driven strategy. He argues brands too often rely on assumptions not evidence. The conversation covers triangulating external data, attention economics in a saturated landscape, and engineering content to win those crucial first seconds.
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Most Marketing Runs On Wrong Assumptions
- Marketers often operate on assumptions and bias, not evidence, which leads to wrong decisions.
- Charlie Grinnell learned from 500,000 pages of research that his stereotypes were frequently wrong and you must challenge assumptions.
Triangulate With Multiple External Data Sets
- Triangulate the truth using multiple external data sources rather than a single tool.
- RightMetric combines 30+ tools like SimilarWeb, Tubular Labs, Pathmatics and SparkToro into one analysis to get a holistic picture.
Attention Is The Scarce Resource
- Attention is finite while content supply has exploded, so earning attention requires far higher standards.
- Charlie cites MrBeast and thumbnail teams as examples of how hyper-optimization now determines reach.