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BIG DATA – Boost creativity by crunching the numbers

The use of ‘Big Data’ is the latest, and possibly most powerful, tool in a marketer’s arsenal. More than 2.5 trillion pieces of data are created worldwide each day – but how can it be used effectively, and creatively, to influence marketing strategy, when numerous sources provide never-ending tracts of information?

The Creativity Marketing Centre at ESCP Europe Business School’s London campus is exploring these questions at a one-day conference on June 28, 2012. More information about the conference can be found at www.creativitymarketing.com.

Speakers at Big Data and Marketing: from analytics to creativity include leading players in the fields of data warehousing and business intelligence, online retailing, pharmaceuticals, financial services, marketing analytics, and consumer segmentation.

They will debate and discuss how companies can interrogate the seemingly unfathomable amounts of data collected from consumers and retailers, interpret the findings and integrate the results into a marketing strategy.

Conference chair Professor Marie Taillard, Director of the Creativity Marketing Centre at ESCP Europe, explains the impact creative data analysis can have:

“Big data is literally any piece of information that is captured in any format – text, images, audio, video. While technology is vital in harnessing this treasure trove of detail but you cannot underestimate the importance of the human touch in bringing the data to life, using the results creatively to maximum effect. These are issues we will be examining at our conference.

“The use of ‘big data’ has become so prevalent that a consumer’s ever click online, purchase in store, web search or phone inquiry becomes part of a data mine of information that companies can use to determine buying habits and behaviour. But it is not just retailers who can benefit from harnessing big data.

“Healthcare organisations have reduced patient mortality by analyzing patient data and utility companies can predict power consumption more accurately by utilising the millions of meter readings they collect. Big data is all around us all the time and by capturing it, investigating it and thinking creatively about how we use it, the outputs become a powerful tool.”

The keynote speaker at the conference will be Edouard Servan-Schreiber, Director of Solution Architecture, 10gen, and former Director for Cross-Channel Analytics at Teradata.

Confirmed speakers include:

  • Duncan Ross, Director of Data Science, Teradata
  • Judy Bayer, Director of Strategic Analytics EMEA, Teradata
  • Max Jolly, Global Head of Digital, Dunnhumby
  • Laure Reillier, Head of Seller Propositions, Europe, eBay
  • Mark Boyt, Director of Solutions, Xerox Europe
  • Kenneth Cukier, Data Editor, The Economist
  • Peter Abraham, Executive Vice President, Econsultancy
  • Jerome Couturier, President, 3H Partners; Associate Professor, ESCP Europe

Roundtable themes for the conference include:

  1. ·         How to be creative at getting value from Big Data
  2. ·         Finding the right combination of analytical and creative skills in a team
  3. ·         Ethics and privacy issues around creative uses of Big Data
  4. ·         Using creativity to avoid “analysis paralysis” in marketing and sales

To date, the utilisation of big data has been firmly in the grasp of large corporations with the resources to analyse huge data sets, but the landscape is changing. The UK government has announced the creation of the Open Data Institute, led Sir Tim Berners-Lee, to help entrepreneurs build companies using the growing volume of freely available public statistics.

Professor Taillard says:

“As well as data collected from consumers, there is a wide range of data publically available that companies can utilise – if they have the skills to interpret the information and develop creative strategies with the outputs. We want to encourage organisations to use data in imaginative ways.”

More information about the conference can be found at www.creativitymarketing.com.

To register to attend the conference, which is free of charge with limited places, please e-mail kwolenska@escpeurope.eu.

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