Influx

Watch Sheryl Sandeberg’s presentation at this year’s ANA Conference and you come away with the impression that Facebook believes its the leader in a communication revolution that’s transforming consumers from listeners into broadcasters. Consumer broadcasting manifests itself in...

Dave over at ETF Digest (a required read for planners) posted an interesting chart yesterday that shows how the correlation between consumer confidence and spending, that had been so reliable, has broken apart. The logical assumption obviously being that the less confidence consumers had in the...

With a world increasingly moving towards mobile gaming, there are interesting opportunities to create more personalized and relevant experiences using data about gamers and their behavior. This suggests a world of individualized gaming experience and advertising that aren’t constrained by...

Nicholas Feltron , Ben Willers (shown above) and others are examples of “artists” who are  collecting and using their own personal data to find ways to showing patterns and rhythms in their own existence. It takes time and an obsessive mind to get to this level of painstaking detail...

Here's a great initiative from Nokia for snowboarders, it uses Bluetooth linked sensors to provide boarders with detailed data on their runs. It's like Nike+, but designed with snowboarders in mind and a great example of the new world of rich consumer generated data.  Every brand should take a...

If you're a food manufacturer, a restaurant chain or just an average consumer in the US and especially the developing world, the above graph has to have you worried. Not only does it show the recent rapid increase in the costs of both food and oil, but it shows the closeness of the relationship...

A few days back, Nick Denton of Gawker fame issued a new proclamation to the world which identified 7 key drivers that will define the future of their media brand.1. The power of the scoop- getting a big story first can change your brand2. Aggregate or die- you've got to be out there on Twitter and...

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...

It used to be that only very few areas of business got to sprinkle the creative magic dust- these were the marketing folks and they did cool sales events and if they were really lucky they got to do the big prize, television commercials. For many, this was the chance to bask in the headlights of...

There was a time when data was a passive thing; it took time to look through and by the time you had done the analysis, the world had moved on and it was kind of outdated. With advances in computing power, we are now about to enter a new phase in which data, instead of being a component of dusty...

Most of us have seen how something like Mint can be useful tool to better understand our spending habits when we compare it with others or Nike+ also us to compare our training performance with others. We are obviously going to see more of the benefits of collective data over time and especially...

The BBC has decided the web is now worthy and has made it the subject of a detailed documentary series, The Virtual Revolution, that explores its origins, evolution and examines the implications of the technology for society. It's a highly ambitious, well-researched and thoughtful look at what 20...

While it seems to be culturally ingrained into our DNA that you need mass scale for success, it's possible that you can find success in the niches. The Long Tail suggests you need have a hit or you risk sinking into oblivion, but we've heard of artists doing surprisingly well utilizing their...

An amazing example of a brand using data to create an experience. In this case it's Lufthansa in its brand academy in Frankfurt. Posted by Ed Cotton

I have written in the past about the new world of data visualization and the fact it has almost become a new art form. I am going to change my tune here a little and suggest that is going to become an essential tool for anyone working in the agency, strategy, media space. Our clients are demanding...