Analytics & Research

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 26 may 2015

As businesses continue to pile-up huge amount of data there are opportunities for data scientists to provide meaningful insights to help them grow and succeed. Even startups at their early stages have substantial data that can be utilized for business value. Tianhui Michael Li, Data Scientist and Executive Director of The Data Incubator, gives his view on how a skilled data scientist (DS) can be a catalyst of growth for entrepreneurial ventures - (1) Growth Hacking: DS can utilize social data and web analytics to implement low-cost, high impact marketing campaigns. (2) Customer Retention: Bain & Co. found that 5% increase in customer retention increases profits by 125%. DS can analyze customer behavior and target communication for customer engagement, retention and even identify brand advocates to bring new customers. (3) Personalizing Products and Services: DS can utilize sales, marketing and web data to identify customer needs and wants. This will assist in customizing offerings. (4) Marketing Optimization: DS can optimize every aspect of marketing and advertising from ad budget to ad clicks to actual conversions and purchases, and much more. Read on...

Entrepreneur: 4 Things a Data Scientist Can Do for Entrepreneurs
Author: Tianhui Michael Li

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 25 may 2015

The value of big data lies in extracting insights and its meaningful use in solving business problems. In recent times organizations have made big investments in technologies associated with it to store, analyze, report and visualize data. Stuart Frankel, CEO and co-founder of Narrative Science, provide his perspective on why these investments haven't got expected returns, limitations of human-powered data science as it is not a scalable solution, unaffordable data scientists and, opportunities and prospects of scalable automated solutions to analyze and interpret data, and obtain hidden insights for business value. According to him, 'Artificial intelligence (AI) is beginning to transform data and analysis into relevant plain English communication. AI is shortening employees' data comprehension-to-action time through comprehensive, intuitive narratives.' Following are some examples which he shares regarding use of AI in data analysis - Some mutual funds are using advanced natural language generation (Advanced NLG) platforms, powered by AI, to automatically write fund performance reports in mere seconds; In medical billing, AI scours thousands of billing records across hundreds of hospitals and generates narrative reports that immediately provide the desired analysis; AI solutions are improving customer experience. AI is the first technology to make personalized, "audience of one" communication a reality; Wealth management is beginning to use "Robo-advisors", the automated financial advisor that can offer a low-cost alternative to expensive, human advisor. Moreover AI is being embedded into existing advisory platforms, delivering personalized portfolio reviews and recommendations in natural language to customers. He further explains, 'The commonality across all of these new technologies is that they offer something additional humans cannot provide: the power of scale...In the near-term, the adoption of AI within business intelligence platforms and customer-facing applications will accelerate...The key to all of this is the intersection of AI and advanced natural language generation. We're at the beginning of the next phase of big data, a phase that will have very little to do with data capture and storage and everything to do with making data more useful, more understandable and more impactful.' Read on...

Harvard Business Review: Data Scientists Don't Scale
Author: Stuart Frankel

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 apr 2015

PR is undergoing transformational shifts. In this year's Agency Business Report, the main themes are integration, convergence and the enhanced value of digital and social media. The new PR firm is highly influenced by these factors as they change the dynamics of agency leadership roles, the structure of the firms, and the talent that is recruited and retained. Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman, defines the largest PR firm in the world as, 'It's a Venn diagram where the overlaps of the four [media, PR, social media, advertising] are becoming more present. It used to be distinct valleys and now the roads are crossing. We're going to try to have stronger creative, stronger planning, and look at problems differently.' Inspite of recognition of advertising agencies for their PR work and some ad-shops 'integrating forward', most PR agency leaders still believe PR has a unique mentality and heritage to bring to the modern content marketing mix. They don't see the need to rebrand as something other than PR. According to Andy Polansky, CEO of Weber Shandwick, 'Some advertising firms, like Mullen, have a strong PR capability - others do it around the edges. The key is to develop depth and have a credible, strong offering. PR has never been held in higher regard by the C-suite, and there's a lot more dimension to our business now. We've emerged as leaders in content marketing and social.' He further believes the sweet spot for PR agencies is the ability to engage multiple constituencies across different platforms and stakeholder groups. Fred Cook, CEO of PR firm Golin, says, 'It's getting harder to define what a PR agency is...We're competing with different types of agencies in different categories. You can call yourself anything you want, but it is how your clients define you. Our clients still define us as a PR agency, but a PR agency that does a lot more than before.' According to Dave Senay, CEO of FleishmanHillard, the principles of PR have never changed. He cites Edward Bernays' definition of PR as informing, persuading, and connecting people with people. He points out, 'PR is no different than it's ever been. If you take the two schools of PR, the behaviorist or socially responsible or conscious side, they are converging like never before. The wind is completely blowing into our strengths.' He believes modern marketing communications is all about how and why people behave the way they do, which requires an understanding of their culture, media consumption habits, and the global push toward shared value. Online video is at the forefront of new PR services. Although it has been mostly associated with ad agencies, but PR firms are now effectively utilizing the medium to construct engaging narratives. The change in skill sets required at the "new PR agency" is changing the people who come into the business and inevitably resulting in legacy personnel leaving at the other end of the talent funnel. It is also evolving different workforce structures more suited to the new environment. Many agencies have restructured their practice offerings and tried to inculcate collaboration across disciplines, geographies, and offices. Compensation structures are being amended to better reflect overall results at agencies, rather than being based on individual office P&Ls. Bonus pools are increasingly tied to individual objectives aligned with strategy and client goals rather than offices. Skeptics about this new age of PR and subsequent delineation for PR agencies may highlight the issue of measurement and how these new skill sets are producing return on investment for brands and clients. But in reality the payback and return on investment of content-based executions built from smart data can totally be monitored in real time, via measurement and social analytics. Effectiveness is measured on criteria such as the number of people who link to, share, view, or create their own content using the source material. Social metrics are much more powerful because they show someone is actively involved in the content and sharing it with their community. Rob Flaherty, CEO of Ketchum, points out, 'And now with the Internet of Things you can link these metrics to visits in-store and to purchases, which is the Holy Grail for every communicator and marketer - and also for the new age of PR firms servicing those clients' needs.' Real-time marketing is fueling a new range of skills, services, and ways of working at PR agencies. Read on...

PRWeek: What is the new PR agency?
Author: Steve Barrett

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 23 mar 2015

Customers are one of the most critical component of today's business ecosystem. Organizations need to understand and analyze customers with diligence and deliver the best customer experience and value to stay relevant and successful. According to Corrine Sandler, CEO of Fresh Intelligence Research, 'We are living in the age of the customer and customers are now the only source of sustainable competitive advantage - and the only thing you should be measuring.' She advocates digital transformation of businesses, use of big data and analytics tools to get customer and business insights and predictive analytics to anticipate customer's requirements. Moreover she emphasizes need of emotional engagement to achieve customer value. She points out an interesting customer behavior - 'About 96% of unhappy customers don't complain; however, 91% of those will simply leave and never come back. It takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience.' Read on...

ITWeb: Customer intelligence boosts competitive advantage
Author: Regina Pazvakavambwa

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 10 oct 2014

Social media presence provides organizations multiple opportunities to better connect and interact with their audience and customers. Social media analytics gives them insights about what their customers think and how to serve them better. But the challenge is to process and make sense of this huge data effectively. The text is unstructured and requires use of specialized natural language processing techniques and tools for analysis and data inflow is continuous. According to Sarah Biller, president of Capital Market Exchange, 'It's a misnomer that all this data is at our fingertips now and big data has made it available. Organizations need talented individuals in-house who can normalize and structure all the data being collected so it can be run through analytics engines.' Lack of available talent in the field is further adding to the woes. Jiri Medlen, senior text analytics specialist at PayPal, says 'ROI from social media sentiment analysis can be questionable.' He adds, 'The biggest question is what to do with this kind of data. How is this going to impact the bottom line of the company? We still have to answer the question of value.' Another challenge is related to technical difficulties with social media data. According to Usama Fayyad, Chief Data Officer at Barclays PLC, the rapid streaming and unstructured nature of social data makes integrating it into analytics systems a big headache. Early tests of social media analytics applications showed promise, but dealing with the complexity of the unstructured data proved difficult. We really don't know how to deal with variety. You can enhance any data set with all this and it makes it better. But it's a monster.' Read on...

TechTarget: Social media analysis has promise -- but also pitfalls to avoid
Author: Ed Burns

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 10 oct 2014

As big data requirements of companies in finance, retail, healthcare, education etc continues to grow, there will be corresponding growth of companies providing innovative analytics tools and services to store, analyze and monetize the big data. This inturn propels the need of workers at various levels to have big data talent and skills. Business leaders with strong understanding of business, analytics, technology and communications skills would be in high demand. A 2011 report of McKinsey estimated that by 2018, about 140000 to 180000 big data jobs will remain unfilled due to lack of experience and expertise. The 2014 CDO Talent Map predicted that the number of Chief Digital Officers will double this year increasing to 1000 by the end of 2014 and the number of Chief Data Officers will be more than 200 by year end. Due to this imminent need of big data talent, both educational institutions and technology corporations are collaborating on curriculum and project-based learning opportunities for students. Large number of universities globally are incorporating new courses related to predictive analytics, machine learning, data analysis and infrastructure. These initiatives range from full degree programs and addition of new courses in existing curriculum, to short-term skill-specific certificate courses that are available online. Moreover, professional organizations are also offering free courses, training programs and hands-on learning projects to fulfill the knowledge and learning needs of their members. Read on...

Umbel Blog: Big Data Equals Big Jobs: New Educational Programs to Help You Snag the Sexiest Jobs in the Industry
Author: Thrupthi Reddy

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 sep 2014

The next-generation of social media analytics is moving beyond static engagements like followers & likes. Both digital marketing and customer care are converging on the social media platforms and the marketing strategy need to be based on accuracy and speed by using advanced real-time analytics tools. Futuristic social analytics should be able to highlight who, what and why of the brand's consumer engagement dynamics. This will provide real value to marketers as they are able to measure the campaign effectiveness based on data and ROI. Pernille Bruun-Jensen, Chief Marketing Officer at Netbase, provide examples of what next-generation of social analytics can do for brands - (1) Boost campaign performance in real-time (2) Discover what influences your customers purchases (3) Get an edge on the competition (4) Fix problems before they escalate (5) Learn about customers' interests outside your brand. Read on...

ADWEEK: Next-Gen Social Analytics Are Transforming Digital Marketing
Author: Pernille Bruun-Jensen

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 27 sep 2014

Market research, empowered by technology, is now within the reach of even small companies and startups as cost has come down considerably. There are numerous tools and services that are considerably within the budget to do essential marketing research to test ideas, collect data & perform analytics. Customer-centric approach helps companies provide better products & services. Use of right information assists to structure business model, shape marketing campaigns, design products and markets, in a way that efficiently serves customers and grows the business. Here are some of the ways in which market research helps businesses - How market research intersects with content & SEO: In the online world, analytics & traditional market research are converging to provide data-driven business decision making; Launching a market research initiative to support your digital marketing campaign: Two main focus (Decoding your audience's most urgent concern. Focusing your content). Important information gathering techniques (Keyword Research. Website analytics. PPC-based research. Auditing existing buyer data. A/B testing); What's the role of competitor research: Understand competition's positioning and unique selling proposition. In SEO, it is about understanding competitor's online presence, content strategy, target keywords, link porfolio, social media presence etc; Market research impacts your product or service mix: Concept testing the product ideas with public before investing in it. Determine purchase intent and market potential; Optimal use of data collection and analysis: Take a lean approach to data collection advocated by Eric Ries in 'The Lean Startup' to perform the right amount of data analytics based on the requirement. Read on...

Forbes: Why Knowing Your Audience Is The Key To Success
Author: Jayson DeMers

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 10 mar 2014

Marketers are always trying to find innovative ways to connect and build relationships with the consumers. Experiential marketing does the same and assists brands and companies, by creating events in public setting like malls, stations, conferences etc and even online, to directly interact with their prospective customers through experience with products and services. The relationship building can be a two way process and companies can utilize experiential marketing to gain customer information and data in return. The article explores this value exchange by utilizing experiential and marketing research to build and retain customers and cites various examples of companies that are doing it right. Experiential marketing can provide opportunities for data capture through use of latest technologies and attractive deals in return for interaction with the brands. Read on...

CREAM: How experiential will become a new form of market research
Author: Will Northover

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 oct 2013

With advancements in analytics technologies and availability of big data, marketers have valuable tools and information on various aspects of customer interaction with their businesses. This information can be used to get insights and generate ideas for delivering better products and services. Moreover it can provide an opportunity to experiment and validate ideas at faster pace (accelerated business innovation). All this is creating new principles and dynamics of market behavior and giving rise to a new science, 'Customer Science'. To better observe, analyze and understand customer behavior and apply it for the benefit of businesses and customers, requires talented and skilled pool of 'Customer Scientists'. These scientists may not all come from the traditional marketing fields and would need to be diverse in skills - analytical, cumputer literate, digital natives, creative and thoughtful at the same time factual and pragmatic. Moreover knowledge of all the principles and methods of the past for analyzing and understanding customers and obtaining learning lessons like outcome driven innovation, balanced scorecard, GOAL, Six Sigma etc are now being utilized by enterprises to obtain insights from customer data and this will finally evolve into a mature field of customer science in future. Read on...

Business 2 Community: Birth of the Customer Scientist
Author: Ian Tomlin

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