I-COM worldmeasurementnews

Does Big Data Mean the End of Intuition? No Way

David Edelman [pictured], McKinsey partner leading Digital Mktng Strategy Practice writes: From data discovery through design and then delivery, great "intuition" will still drive the winners who shape the customer decision journey to their own advantage. Yes, you can optimize search terms, display ad placements, and personalized interactions, but that is no substitute for intuition, judgment, and innovation. More...

In APAC, India’s TAM Sets Up Independent Monitors

May 21 2013 - In India, Nielsen / WPP joint venture TAM Media Research has set up a ‘vigilance desk’, headed by a former senior policeman, and a ‘transparency panel’ of regulation experts, aiming to guarantee the impartiality of its methods and ratings.

The accuracy of TAM’s television panel has been called into question in the past year by broadcaster New Delhi Television (NDTV), which launched a suit nine months ago claiming that TAM staff took bribes in exchange for overstating ratings. Recently, NDTV received a setback when New York’s Supreme Court ruled that the $1 billion case should be heard in India and not in the US as it had wished. 

TAM CEO L.V. Krishnan [pictured] said in a statement that the new desk and panel were aimed at safeguarding the agency’s operations. More...

In US, EdgeSpring Raises $11M Funding; Unveils the World’s First Big Data Analytics Platform Built Expressly for the End User

EdgeSpring announces series A financing from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and Lightspeed Ventures

SAN MATEO, Calif. – May 16, 2013 – EdgeSpring today announced general availability of its Business Intelligence and Analytics Platform designed from the ground up to empower users to rapidly derive business insights from data of any size or structure, without dependence on overburdened analysts and IT specialists. The company has raised a total of $11M in financing including a $9 million series A from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and Lightspeed Ventures. EdgeSpring’s platform enables users to drive timely decisions by asking and easily answering first and second order questions across structured and semi-structured data, like never before.

“From day one, our vision was to democratize information access in the enterprise,” said Vijay Chakravarthy [pictured, left], founder and CEO of EdgeSpring. “We are thrilled to have a fast growing list of engaged customers, such as Equinix, Lithium, and Xactly, to name a few, validating our vision through their rapid adoption of EdgeSpring”

“EdgeSpring is a dramatically disruptive Business Intelligence platform,” said Brian Lillie [pictured, right], CIO of Equinix. “They have enabled us to rapidly build easy-to-use analytic apps that our users love.” More...

In US, New Kantar Solution Gives Advertisers the Power to Go Beyond Reach and Optimize Campaigns Based on Impact

Compete, Dynamic Logic, DoubleVerify integrate audience, ad viewability, brand and behavioral data into a single measurement and optimization solution

Boston, MA, May 15, 2013 — Leading digital insights and Kantar Group companies Dynamic Logic and Compete have teamed up with DoubleVerify, the pioneer in online media verification and viewability, to launch Advance™ − an integrated solution that provides marketers the insights needed to optimize digital media campaigns based on brand, behavioral and sales impact. Advance is the only solution in the industry to combine exposure metrics (audience composition, reach and viewability) with effectiveness measures (brand, behavior and sales outcomes) into a unified reporting and optimization system.

“While digital media is thought to be more measurable than traditional media, there have been blind spots preventing advertisers from really understanding their digital media ROI,” said Yaakov Kimelfeld [pictured, left], Chief Research Officer of Compete. 

“Until now, optimization solutions have focused primarily on campaign delivery; but GRPs or TRPs alone are not sufficient,” said Michelle Eule [pictured, center], SVP of Digital Solutions at Dynamic Logic. “Advertisers and planners now have a more complete formula for evaluating the success of their campaigns using unique metrics such as Impacted Audience and Cost-Per-Impact to optimize how they reach their target audiences.”

“We’re excited to partner with Compete and Dynamic Logic to help solve the performance measurement gaps that exist in online marketing today,” said Wayne Gatinella [pictured, right], CEO, DoubleVerify. More...

Choosing Sides: VivaKi Backs comScore; ABC Throws In With Nielsen

Joe Mandese (pictured), Editor in Chief at MediaPost writes: In a battle to control the future of the ad industry’s currency, Nielsen and comScore each added to their sides this week, with comScore tilting more in Madison Avenue’s favor -- at least a big chunk of it. On Thursday, one of its biggest buyers of media, Publicis’ VivaKi, threw its hand in with comScore, giving it a multibillion-dollar vote of media-buying confidence. On Nielsen’s balance sheet, it got deeper into bed with ABC, which announced a deal to back the development of a new service that would extend Nielsen’s dominance into the mobile video ad business. More...

In US, ANA and MarketShare Launch New $50,000 Marketing Analytics Leadership Award

New York, NY – May 15, 2013 – As analytics become increasingly important in every marketing practitioner’s life, the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) is launching a first-of-its-kind award recognizing leadership in applying smart analytics to successful marketing programs. Open to ANA member companies, and sponsored by leading marketing analytics firm MarketShare, the award offers a $50,000 cash prize to the individual or team demonstrating the most effective application of analytics to benchmark and improve marketing investment ROI.

“Marketing analytics is a critically important part of demonstrating the return on marketing investment, and this new award will recognize individuals leading their companies in adopting credible, practical analytic practices,” said ANA President and CEO Bob Liodice [pictured, left]. “The ANA is fully committed to accelerating the role of analytics in benchmarking and improving advertising and marketing effectiveness.”

“Analytics aren’t just about making short-term contributions to marketing measurement,” added Pat LaPointe [pictured, right], executive vice president at MarketShare. “Today’s advanced analytics help marketing organizations build long-term asset and shareholder value, and this award will help marketers who are true leaders in the field gain recognition for the value they are delivering.” More...

In US, BBVA Ventures Invests in Radius

May 9, 2013. BBVA Ventures, the BBVA Group’s corporate venture arm which operates in the U.S. through BBVA S.A.’s San Francisco representative office, announced today that it has invested in Radius, a leading provider of sales and marketing intelligence for targeting the small business market.

“BBVA is an active Small Business Lender and our ability to pinpoint and track the success and health of small business relies on the integrity and cleanliness of data available to us, which Radius provides via an innovative set of data on small businesses that allows us the ability to understand our customers better while also discovering new customer opportunities through social insight,” said Thomas Whiteaker [pictured, left], Executive Director, Corporate Development and Strategy at BBVA.

“Having BBVA invest in Radius is a testament to our reach and data integrity. It makes sense that they would want to ensure the data they need to make key investment decisions is accurate and up-to-date. Radius does that and more,” said Darian Shirazi [pictured, right], Founder and CEO of Radius. More...

Attribute That!

Yaakov Kimelfeld [pictured], Chief Research Officer at Kantar Media Compete writes at MediaPost: Attribution is ad-centric. That is, the unit of analysis used is an ad placement. Marketers use the data generated from tagging these placements to understand the degree of influence each ad has on the consumer. More...

In Europe, Havas Media Group Acquires Pan-European Data Analytics Consultancy ElisaDBI

17 May 2013 - Havas Media Group has acquired the pan-European data analytics firm ElisaDBI (branded Elisa Interactive in Spain) to further develop its connected digital and data capabilities. The acquisition means that Havas Media Group will now offer its clients improved methods of collecting, organising and using data as a strategic asset to drive business insights and marketing engagement.

ElisaDBI, a data analytics and optimisation specialist was launched in Barcelona and Madrid before opening offices in London. Their client roster spans the UK, Spain, Ireland and Andorra. The business specialises in converting data into client focused intelligence through the application of analytics and as well as offering conversion optimisation, web analytics and training.

Paul Frampton [pictured], CEO Havas Media UK comments: “The teams at ElisaDBI ensure that media is better measured, marketing investments better made, and that data is more effectively used. This is the smart way to drive improved brand experiences and more profitable client businesses.” More...

Lucky Sort Acquired by Twitter

May 13, 2013. Noah Pepper [pictured], Chief Executive Officer at Lucky Sort Inc posts: Today I’m very excited to announce that our journey has entered a new phase: Lucky Sort has been acquired by Twitter! Several of us will be moving to San Francisco to join Twitter’s revenue engineering department. We’ll be helping current customers transition off our system in the coming months such that we can focus fully on our future at Twitter. More...

Twitter tweets: Welcome aboard, @luckysort! More...