Tag Archives: Analytics
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It started with 2,600 people packed into a Salt Lake City hotel ballroom eagerly awaiting the show to begin. This was my first year attending, so I didn’t know what to expect. The room looked like it has been set up for rock concert rather than a business conference. As a voice came over the loud speaker letting us know that the show was about to begin, Daft Punk started playing, the lights dimmed and the opening keynote for Adobe’s Omniture Summit began.
The annual event is a three day marathon of training, keynotes, breakout sessions, networking and, of course, partying with some of the best web analysts, advertisers, developers and digital marketers in the world.
The theme for this year’s summit was that digital marketing was the new extreme sport. If you think about it, the concept makes a lot of sense. Digital marketing, similar to extreme sports, is a combination of art and science. Whether you are analyzing a snowpack or spinning 180s over 120 foot gaps in the back country, you can’t (and shouldn’t) do one without the other. Summit takes all that is awesome about digital measurement and crams it into a very short time period. This makes for some very late nights and a lot of early morning coffee. But it is all worth it to spend some time with some of the world’s best and brightest marketers.
So what did I learn from the experience? Lots more than I care to write, but below are my four biggest takeaways.
Web measurement and web analytics programs can be complex and face many technological, process and cultural challenges. We here at Critical Mass Marketing Science help our clients overcome these problems using a combination of best practice modeling, innovative thinking and the latest technology.
Problem #1 – Unreliable Data
Are the numbers you’re looking at accurate? Do they represent what you think they represent? Is everything being captured that should be? Data collection systems, especially web analytics, are complex and as a result they are also easy to mess up or break.
So what causes web analytics data to be unreliable? There are couple of common reasons, but they both relate to how the coding is done.
Most commonly we see analytics “tagging” that is incomplete or wasn’t customized correctly. This can happen for several reasons, but more importantly, how can we fix it?
Last month, I visited Los Angeles for Digital Hollywood, a fascinating collision of the entertainment, technology, and marketing worlds. Each of the 16 sessions I attended featured a panel of smart thinkers from amongst digital and traditional agencies, behemoth entertainment studios, teensy web startups, content providers – and even entertainers themselves.
The conference offered four days and thirteen tracks’ worth of topics. The discussions I saw ran the gamut from devices, platforms, consumer innovations, and new media to advertising, social media, content, analytics, distribution and others. In the multimedia wrap-up at right you’ll find several intriguing, dare I say provocative, insights:
- Apple vs. Android: The Mudwrestle
- Disruption is Dying
- Utility is the New Advertising
- The Name of the Game is Game Mechanics
- Tomorrow’s tech: Touchless
- Content is King, but Distribution is King-er
- Screw the Masses. Let’s Bring Exclusivity Back.
- Social Media: The Modern Marketer’s Swiss Army Knife
- iTV. Really? Yes. Finally?? YES.
All in all, we Critical Mass-ers will be regular visitors of upcoming Digital Hollywood conferences. What about you? Which events interest you these days?
Pulling directly from Shaina’s CMVP nomination last October,
“She’s done an amazing job of juggling multiple client demands, team demands and office demands over the past couple of months. Marketing Science thinking is a key component of our new business wins and a growing component of day-to-day client deliverables. She delivers great insights, is a strong team leader, and continually reinforces her delivery with an attitude that clients and team members really appreciate.”
So it’s no question she is the Critical Mass CMVP of the Year for 2009. But let’s spend some time getting to know her a little better. Here are 10 Qs with Shaina.
1. What is your role at CM? How do you spend your days?
I am the Group Marketing Science Director, running the line of business for all offices. CM was in need of a more advanced analytics practice, so I wrote a business plan from my experience and research and executed against it. The vision was to ensure our clients get the most for their money working with us, our consumer gets the best experience, the product is the best we can deliver and our analysts have a highly engaging/challenging career at CM. Those were the 4 key components to drive the whole line of business. To date, we have 65% of CM accounts covered, a team of 15 people (and 6 more open positions).
I spend my days talking to people on the team [management] and selling during the day, planning operations and bigger picture analysis/strategy at night. 75% of the time I am travelling. I even have my own apartment in Calgary because I spent 6.5 months there last year. (Plus1 month in Amsterdam. Only 4 month at home here in Chicago!)
In a nutshell, it’s like I get to run my own business inside of a massive business and it’s very motivating.
2. Why do you think you were you nominated as a CMVP?
I suppose it’s because I built a successful line of business. Or maybe that’s why I was picked as CMVP of the Year. I think I was originally nominated because I had a very challenging month last fall. Sometimes, survival is extraordinary. That was when I was taking over solitary ownership of the entire group. It was challenging, but it helps that I love what I do so much.
3. What is the greatest thing about CM culture?
The people, themselves. I couldn’t work this much if I didn’t really like everyone who works here. I’ve worked at many agencies and with hundreds of people over the years and no one is like this collective group. The executives are so supportive and friendly. The Canadian heritage is rare and wonderful. Great work. Amazing roster of clients. All in all, it’s just a unique and ideal environment.
4. What drives you? What are you inspired by?
Finding the answer to “why?” and proving that what we’re doing is actually bringing value. Showing that everything we do at this company is actually worth something and can always be improved. That’s very compelling. Another big one is getting people to think–stop them and get them to think before they take action.
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
I can’t stand that quotation.
Even today, it is bandied about as though it has any meaning in the current world of (online) marketing. It contained some truth when it was first said, but today it just identifies the lazy marketers in our midst.
Why the vitriol? It’s because almost everything is becoming measurable. Now, there is no reason to claim ignorance to analytics – we are swimming in data.
But that might be the problem. As the recession continue to apply pressure to all industries (and on advertising and marketing more than most I would venture) there is a redoubled focus on return on investment (ROI).
And this is wonderful. The online channel is made to justify advertiser’s investments. But the advent of social media has thrown a monkey wrench of sorts into the works. How do we define ROI in a web 2.0 world? How has the landscape changed and how can we plan for tomorrow?
