Updated Nov 2025
What Is Synthetic Data, and Why Is It Needed?
Synthetic data is information that's generated using statistical modeling rather than collected from real individuals. Instead of representing actual people, it mimics real-world behaviors, demographics, and patterns in a way that is accurate, scalable, and inherently privacy-safe.
This matters now more than ever because today's data landscape is under strain. Traditional data sources are losing reliability, survey panels are increasingly polluted by bots, fraud is rising across digital channels, and global privacy regulations continue to tighten. As a result, accessing high-quality, compliant, and trustworthy data is becoming more difficult - and more expensive.
Synthetic data solves this by offering a clean, consistent, and secure alternative. It allows organizations to model scenarios, test ideas, and generate insights without depending on personal identifiers or lengthy data-collection cycles. In a world where traditional data is breaking down, synthetic data provides a smarter, safer path forward.
Common Misconceptions about Synthetic Data
When people hear "synthetic data," they might think of deepfakes, stitched datasets, or AI-generated noise with unknown sources and limited utility. But that's a narrow view.
Yes, some synthetic data today is powered by generative AI or patchworked from one or two existing sources. But the best synthetic data does something more meaningful: it builds entire populations from the ground up using statistically sound, privacy-safe methodologies and a wide number of reputable data sources. That's why it's being adopted in high-stakes fields like financial services and medical research, where precision and privacy are crucial.
In Arima's case, synthetic data isn't hype. It's a rigorous and trustworthy system built to reflect real-world behaviors and population diversity, without identifying a single real person.
Introducing the Synthetic Society
The Synthetic Society by Arima was built using The SynC methodology, a proprietary, academically published process created by Arima's founder, Winston Li. It draws from over 25 trusted sources, including national census data, and uses data downscaling and probabilistic modeling to generate synthetic individuals.
These individuals don't just exist in isolation, they form a statistically representative, privacy-safe population that mirrors the behaviors, demographics, and decision-making patterns of real-world societies.
These individuals may be synthesized, but when collectively built up, they accurately reflect the behaviors, demographics, decision-making patterns, daily routes, habits, attitudes, and media consumption of over 32 million Canadians and 260 million Americans.
In practice, the Synthetic Society enables users to:
- Uncover public sentiment on key issues
- Map travel routes and mobility patterns
- Identify high-impact advertising locations
These insights accelerate progress along the Gartner Data Maturity Model, reducing time, effort, and dependency on traditional data collection. With these capabilities, teams can move faster, test smarter, and plan with more confidence, without relying on real personal data.
Why Use Synthetic Data?
Traditional datasets are messy, fragmented, and increasingly restricted. Synthetic data offers a smarter, more flexible alternative , especially when built using academically validated methods.
Here's how the Synthetic Society gives you a better edge:
1. Flexibility Without the Noise
Rather than digging through layers of unrelated data, the Synthetic Society lets you define what matters most, so you're working with the right variables from the very beginning.
2. A 360° View of Your Audience
Most datasets offer fragments. Synthetic data offers the whole picture. From physical routes people take to the products they use and the attitudes that guide their choices, you get a complete, nuanced view of behavior on each target individual or group.
3. Built-In Privacy
Synthetic data is inherently privacy-safe. It doesn't contain real personal identifiers, so there's no need for consent management or complex compliance processes. Teams can freely share insights across departments, platforms, or partners.
4. Faster, Cleaner Decision-Making
With synthetic data, there's no waiting on collection windows, approvals, or legal reviews. You can simulate outcomes and test ideas immediately, speeding up decision cycles and reducing guesswork.
5. Bias-Resistant by Design
Human-generated datasets often reflect the biases of those collecting and labeling the data. Synthetic data, built from statistical models, minimizes these distortions and offers a more objective foundation for analysis.
6. More Reliable Than Anonymized Data
Anonymization techniques often strip data of the very patterns that make it useful. Synthetic data preserves complexity while protecting privacy, meaning your insights remain sharp and actionable.
7. No More Data Cleaning Headaches
Traditional datasets often come cluttered with irrelevant or messy information. Synthetic data eliminates the need for extensive cleaning, providing you with analysis-ready data from the outset.
Why Brands, Agencies, and Marketers Should Use Synthetic Data
The Synthetic Society offers a new way forward.
- For Brands: Gain a richer, real-time understanding of your customers' lives without breaching their privacy. Know where they go, what they value, and how they behave so you can shape campaigns, products, and placements that truly resonate.
- For Agencies: Deliver sharper strategic guidance with fewer resources. Whether you're optimizing media plans, refining audience segments, or testing creative, synthetic data gives you high-resolution insights without waiting on clients or third-party data providers.
- For Marketing Teams: Move faster with confidence. Instead of spending weeks cleaning messy data or waiting on approvals, simulate performance, validate ideas, and adjust your plans in real-time, with a dataset you can trust.
In short: Synthetic data removes the noise, the lag, and the legal friction, so you can focus on what matters most: making better marketing decisions.
Key Takeaways
- Traditional data is breaking down. It's messy, delayed, and limited by privacy constraints. Synthetic data offers a faster, safer, and more flexible solution.
- The Synthetic Society by Arima reflects real-world dynamics without relying on real individuals, making it privacy-safe by design.
- Synthetic Society data is ready to use, no cleaning, no waiting. It's built for rapid testing, sharper segmentation, and smarter decision-making.
- For brands, it unlocks deeper audience understanding without compromising privacy.
- For agencies, it delivers powerful insights without the lag or overhead of traditional research.
- For marketers, it accelerates planning and optimization with data you can trust, anytime and across teams.
