Big Data - keeping it real

Just this week we spent a great couple of days in Chicago at the Pass Business Analytics conference, presenting our thoughts and technology around digital attribution. 

 

In the space of 'Big Data' scale does have its advantages – especially in modelling with the ability to keep those "outliers" in the data set, however there are key principles that still apply when working with 'Big Data' in marketing.

Using the 80/20 rule

20% of the data giving 80% of the value.   

This philosophy I believe should never change, just because the technology allows us sometimes to reverse this rule

Engaging early with the business

Ensuring KPI’s and metrics are agreed and quantified up front – simply thinking you can define these after the event because you are capturing all activity will only lead to complexity, cost and challenges further on.

Causation VS Correlation

They are different.  You must have the context and understanding.

Defining Insights that are actionable

This goes back to my point of early engagement with the business for this to be possible.

People

Data is after all just data – it is the insights that are derived from this data which is key.

Speed

Getting the data in, getting it analysed to make meaningful recommendations in a timely fashion is critical, especially when the window of opportunity is small – we are looking for many incremental improvements, not big bang.