The Data & Analytics advisory council for ad:tech Sydney 2011 met to discuss the issues that are affecting the market and the content that should be on the ad:tech programme. Here is a summary of the key areas discussed:

Resource / Resourcing
• What is best practice on resourcing data and analytics management?
• Strategy and execution of data techniques / management should be separated so that there’s a better focus
• How to define data and where it sits with clients / agencies
• Data is a form of intellectual property so should it therefore leveraged / managed in house or is outsourcing ok? But the lack of skills, resource, innovation in house means that the data won’t get managed as well as possible.
• There aren’t agencies that can deliver a data service; there’s a lack of specialist agencies
• There is a huge knowledge gap in what people think they know about data (and everything to do with it) and what they actually know.
• Clients need to define what they want and they need to drive the program and the results

Investment
• Ideally clients would look at spending on data at the start of a campaign in order to target, then the middle of the campaign in order to change / adjust the direction of the campaign, then at the end of the campaign to understand the results.
• Agencies (or someone) need to tell clients what to spend on what and how much

Theft / Fraud
• Data theft is prevalent. Trade or theft of email addresses is prevalent; lots of value is attributed to these things
• There isn’t a lot of ‘policing’ of data theft / fraud / management
• Regulators are concerned with breaches and infringements of data management and this in turn leads to over zealousness in use of legal teams and how to service consumers
• Advertisers / brands / marketers need to know how to work with regulatory authorities and still be able to do their job

Data Visualisation
• Visualisation piece is interesting – how to make the data mean something
• How do marketing actually use data?
• What are the interesting ways of using data?
• What are the real new ways of using data?
• How is data processed by people?
• What different tools are used for visualisation?
• It’s really important to look past just the part about making data pretty and also consider what is the data based on, what was the field research? Visualisation tools are good but where does data come from?

Trust / Mistrust of Data
• Data isn’t trusted. Where did the mistrust come from?
• What data can you trust?
• Who do you trust to come up with the numbers? Can you trust what comes off / out of your own site?
• We’re collecting heaps of data – how do we clean the rubbish?

Use of Data
• What does the future look like? If marketers use data really well then people will be prepared to pay for it

Comparisons / Benchmarking
• IAB standard and certification will lead to comparison from one business to another as opposed to just doing the best you can, and this is possibly not the best approach for business. Measuring against each other can be irrelevant.
• Benchmarking is better than standards
• Marketers need to ‘watch out’ for data that is used in particular ways – comparisons, headline statistics that are not representative, drawing one set of conclusions compared to another
• Insights are lost because companies don’t standardise their metrics internally (they compare differently year on year for example)
• Benchmarking and knowledge transfer are gaps / poorly managed and so a lot of potential intel is lost in organisations
• There needs to be clarity on the different aspects of the campaign, what’s important about those aspects (ROI, revenue, other return or value)

‘Return’
• Time spent on site is misunderstood as a form of measurement
• Different forms of measurement mean different things to different businesses

Tools & Their Capabilities
• Reality check chart of data management platforms
• Understanding the technology, innovations and explanations (of them) in the market. What are the opportunities for marketers and how they affect consumers?
• Platforms, technologies, systems are seen as ‘rubbish’ but is that because nothing else exists?

Have your say

This is a summary of the points that were made in the meeting. We’ll be working on this and integrating these topics and themes into the ad:tech Sydney 2011 conference programme. If you have feedback on these points or want to make suggestions about additional topics or speakers for the programme then please leave comments or get in touch with me here.

Notes from the other advisory council meetings

Social Media Strategy
Digital Strategy
e-Commerce / Online Retail advisory
Monetising Digital
Unwired Media
Creative & Brand
Entertainment & Experience
Core Digital Media

Who’s on the other advisory councils:

Social Media Strategy
Unwired Media
Digital Strategy
e-Commerce / Online Retail advisory
Monetising Digital
Brand & Creative
Core Digital Media
Entertainment & Experience
ad:tech Sydney advisory council groups named

I don’t know about you but I can’t go for a cup of coffee without someone talking to me about data and analytics. Maybe I need a new coffee shop… And it’s not just in digital media and marketing, the Economist has run two feature sections on information & data this year, it’s pervading all industries. The key is not just in acquiring the data, it’s in transforming that data to something readable, usable, actionable. Those who can achieve that in digital media & marketing are likely to be the ones who win the big budgets and the big wins going forwards.

The ad:tech 2011 CONFERENCE program will feature presentations on Data & Analytics and we’re delighted to be working with this group of local industry executives to shape and guide the content:

Andrew Eckford, Industry Analyst, Retail, Google
Christian Bartens, Managing Director, Datalicious
David Whittle, Managing Director, Mark
Jason Adessky, Head of Retail Partnerships, Qantas Frequent Flyer
Jennifer Reddington, General Manager, UsabilityOne

Have your say on the ad:tech program. Use the comments box to suggest topics and speakers that you think would add value to the program. We look forward to hearing from you.

Read about the other advisory councils:

Social Media Strategy
Monetising Digital
Unwired Media
Digital Strategy
Creative & Brand
e-Commerce / Online Retail
Core Digital Media
Entertainment & Experience
ad:tech Sydney advisory council groups named

The topic of audience measurement has been hotly debated for many years. Whether it be the debate about how accurately a media property can measure its reach, how many people in Australia REALLY use the internet or how many people were touched by the message of a campaign. For equally as long, the evangelists of online marketing have sung the praises of the medium because it is so measureable. The challenge is that although as a medium, it is infinitely more measurable than any other medium, there is no consistency in that measurement. No common currency on which the media can be bought and sold and no universally agreed standard for counting eyeballs.

Sometimes it seems like we tie ourselves up in knots worrying about the exactness of the number and lose sight of the reason why we care. Is online the right channel to reach people, what is the right place to put our message and do the people who will see it even care. Perhaps the question we should ask ourselves is whether or not we can measure that.

Increasingly, marketing activities demand accountability. Did it work? In order to assess this, we need some sort of yardstick. Statistics and measurement are our only tools for assessing this but just as it is difficult to compare two lengths when one is measured in imperial standards and the other in metric, the current inconsistencies in measurement make any true comparative assessment of reach or effectiveness pretty hard to do.

Our industry, as it has matured, has turned more and more focus on developing a unilateral standard around this topic. I spoke to Monique Perry from Nielson who promises that a consistent measurement currency is very close to launching in Australia so perhaps we are starting to see some light at the end of this tunnel.

The challenge however still remains that whether or not we can decide on a consistent way to measure the audience on one site, or even the web universe as a whole, how can we measure the cross platform effectiveness.

Measuring the interactions between platforms remains a problem. Although we have agreed currency around TV and radio audiences and by integrating these with a standardised online measurement tool we will get half way there, it does not solve the entire problem. When we start to consider other online channels such as social media, mobile, email and outdoor, the measurement task becomes even more complex. When we decide we want to look at how the interactions between platforms may have a multiplier effect on a consumers propensity to respond, measurement of this becomes almost impossible.

It is always an interesting area of debate and one which is a constantly evolving. The ad:tech panel have certainly got their work cut out getting to the bottom of this and I’m looking forward to hearing what they’ve got to say. Here are the panel details:

Wednesday 17th March The Evolution Of Audience Measurement

• How do we get a fixed method of measuring and reporting online audiences?
• What are the steps towards cross platform audience measurement: can we get a true view of the consumers’ activity
• Beyond reach and frequency: how do we move to measuring advertising effectiveness, not audience numbers

Session Leader: Megan Brownlow, Editor, Entertainment & Media Outlook, PriceWaterhouseCoopers

Gai Le Roy, Programmes Manager, IAB Australia
Stuart Pike, Asia Pacific Research Director, Nielsen
Gordon Towell, CEO, Audit Bureau of Circulations
Lisa Walsh, Head of Audience Research, ABC

Registration closes Friday 12th march 5.30pm. Register now.

I spoke to Christian Bartens, Managing Director, Datalicious about the debate of free v.s paid analytics tools. Here’s a video of our chat, and my thoughts below:

I mentioned in my last post the importance of data in any truly customer centric strategy. The problem we have in digital marketing however is the sheer volume of data that we can gather. It’s easy to be obsessed with the collection of it and then become overwhelmed once we have it.

While the technology enables us to get more and more sophisticated, the key to making use of data is the collection of the RIGHT data, the analytics of it and a culture of adapting based on what you learn. It’s an ongoing process. Putting proper analytics in place is not necessarily an expensive business. Google’s free analytics tools have opened up the power of analytics to a much broader audience. This has been a great thing for our industry as it has raised everyone’s awareness of what is really happening on their websites. However it also raises the debate of the benefit of free vs. paid tools.

An article I read recently claimed that Omniture’s market share of paid tools has grown from 18% to 42% in 2009 and WebTrends has dropped from 27% to 19%. It went on to claim that 80% of companies are using Google Analytics compared to 66% the year before. The conclusion they drew was that the market is rapidly polarising into two camps, with free Google Analytics at one end and tools like Omniture at the other.

The difference between paid and free tools seems to come down to the degree of personalised detail you want to be able to get and the integration you want with other systems such as data warehouses and CRM systems.

The decision of whether to go free or paid however extends beyond pure cost and integration requirements. One of the most critical components in an effective data strategy is the resources capable of interpreting the massive quantities of data available. It takes a special kind of skill to be able to unearth the real secrets that data holds and there is often an assumption that you will know what you are looking for once they find it. Perhaps the question that an organisation should be asking itself before they worry about what tool is who will be using it.

Christian Bartens will be moderating a panel discussion on this issue at ad:tech Sydney, other panellists sharing their view on the paid vs. free debate are:

Matt Langie, Director Product Marketing, Omniture (Global)
Alex Crompton, Senior Manager, Web Marketing, Aussie
Jonathan Kerr, Associate Director eCommerce, Budget Direct
Rod Jacka, Managing Director, Panalysis

You can share your thoughts and feedback on this issue right here, and keep checking in to see what others have to say and how the debate is shaping up.

We’ve just announced that Sean Finnegan, President, Chief Digital Officer, Starcom MediaVest Group will be key-noting at ad:tech 2010

ad:tech, 16-17 March 2010

Sean will be talking about how Starcom have worked to get to know their consumers, markets and audiences as closely as possible so that they can deliver really on-target messaging.

The ad:tech keynotes are FREE to attend when you register for an Expo pass. You can see details of the exhibition and keynotes here.

We’ve also released the first details of the program with content and speakers announced online. Register for the full conference before Friday 18th December and you can save over $500.

Any questions, just give me a shout: lucy@ad-tech.com / 02 8923 8334

In the past we have seen various aspects of digital marketing rise rapidly in importance, from the development of video, the explosion of social media and of course we are still all waiting for the year of the mobile. Given the state of our economy though, and the need for more intelligent use of marketing dollars, 2009 has got to be the year for analytics.

This is a video interview I did with Ben Mangold, Analytics Director with Mangold Sengers who is hosting the “Designing Data Centric Approach to Evolve your Digital Strategy” discussion on the ad:tech program.
Ben

The bottom line is that marketing costs money and everyone is looking to save money. The only way that marketers and agencies will be able to retain and increase their budgets is with hard, definitive proof of what’s working and why.

Many people have predicted that digital marketing will not suffer from the recession in anything like the proportions of the more traditional channels. This we hope is largely because of the infinite measurability we are able to achieve and the very specific tracking that digital enables.
Although many marketers still aren’t analysing at all, some are at least starting on the journey of analysis. Unfortunately once you get into it, you realise that we are capable of producing data at a phenomenal rate, and we have an increasing need to analyse this within shorter time frames. The most important questions then become: what to measure, how often and what tools should you use.

It doesn’t stop there though, there are a plethora of analytics tools available but these also cost money and often measure different things making them hard to compare. Perhaps another question for this panel should be how to measure and justify the ROI on analytics tools themselves.

Let us know any other questions you might have around the subject of data analytics for the panel and we will be sure to include them on the day.

In the mean time, we have some interesting new speaker updates:
Fionn Hyndman, (CEO of dgmAsia Pacific), Jennie Bewes (Head of Online for Vodafone) Anton Sher (Director at Front Foot) and Justin Baird (Senior Product Specialist at Google) have now joined the speaker line up

Also, don’t forget about the competition we are running, submit a question for a panel and get entered to a prize draw, the winner will be announced COB Friday 20th February

Book for ad:tech here

Social media has emerged as a powerful force for brands, both from the perspective of engaging consumers and in the ability for brands to conduct a two way dialogue .

One of the cornerstones of any social media strategy is the use of communities to bring people together either to share ideas or to generate content.

When thinking about a social network though, the question is often asked, should a brand build their own community or take part in an existing community like facebook or myspace…or both

Creating your own social network can help with branding, drive incremental repeat visitation to a brand site, provide a direct channel for customer feedback, and will provide a valuable source of insights into your customer base.

There are a number of white label social networks around that help brands get up and running fairly easily without the need to complex technical builds however, building a community is far from straight forward and requires a clear insight into why you are doing it, the different segments that exist in a community and how and why they would engage. It also requires dedicated resources to support the community, consistent focus and a certain degree of critical mass in order to be successful.

The mainstream social networks (myspace, facebook etc.) also represent viable alternatives to building your own. They are becoming more like media properties in that their main power is the number of eyeballs that they attract, the length of time those eyeballs stay on the site and the level of data that the network has on the individual enabling greater levels of targeting to build community rapidly.

While it would seem that most social media strategies need to incorporate a component of both, I am interested in hearing from brands and agencies that have been involved in attempts to build a community around a brand, either in a third party site or in their own environment to understand what the key learning’s and pitfalls are.