If you take the big theme in corporate boardrooms- ROI, add onto it the possibility of brilliant data viz and then think about the iPad as the device of choice for high flying CMOs, with this you have to think that the Excel spreadsheet is going the way of the dodo as a measurement tool and interface,
Instead you are going to have a real-time live feed that looks glorious and tells you everything you need to to know at a touch of a button. There will be no need to wait for this week's numbers, the hourly numbers will be right in front of you and not only that, they will be correlated and comparable with your media investments, your daily brand performance and your social media stats.
Data is the new gold and those who find ways to make it more user-friendly and relevant are going to be onto something big.
Everyone knows the social media measurement industry has expanded to the point where there are now a variety of options and choice, further evidence of the maturity of this business is that we are now seeing services develop for specific verticals.
One nice example, comes from Next Big Sound, you can see their key dashboard visuals at the top of this post.
They describe what they do as follows:
We believe in the power of data to transform the music industry.
The listening, discovery, and purchase decisions of millions of consumers has moved online and the pace of this transition is only accelerating.
Next Big Sound provides a centralized place to monitor all the behavior and activity happening for artists both online and off.
This is just an example that shows one piece of the puzzle heading down a very vertical avenue. We are likely to see more of this because industries will want to benchmark their performance against category rivals.
We are still a long ways from the single real-time dashboard, but when this arrives, it's going to be very interesting to see what happens. Marketing teams are going to have the data to make informed decisions like never before and this new future offers both promise and peril for those in the communication business, depending on how clients to choose to use it.
There's going to be a real broad need for disciplined data teaching, learning and transfer of best practices with clients and inside communication agencies.
Data Analytics will have to move from the back office to the front of the house.
Posted by Ed Cotton
(1) Our clients are demanding more and more interesting looks at data from us, so we better have a nice way to communicate all this stuff. Aside from the creative department, not many of us have the visual skills to make this work, so we are going to rely on existing tools to make this happen.
One example is Modest Maps which requires a little bit of technical expertise, but can be used to great effect. Take a look at this which shows the spread of Wal-Mart over time.
Going back to the seductiveness of data visualization, at it's best it can become great content as this BBC series, Britain from Above shows. If you get it right it can fascinate, delight us and help us to better understand our world or our business.
Posted by Ed Cotton