I-COM worldmeasurementnews

In Singapore, NUS and IBM to Launch Analytics Training Centre

June 10 2013 (MrWeb) - IBM has announced a partnership with The National University of Singapore (NUS) to establish a Centre for Business Analytics, offering both students and mid-career professionals training for business analytics roles.  The two are working in partnership with the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), to address industry demand for business-focused big data skills.

Rajesh Nambiar [pictured], General Manager of IBM Services Integration Hub East, comments: ‘We are pleased to partner with NUS and the EDB to mentor and educate the next generation of business analytics professionals and data scientists." More...

In US, USC's New Program Funded to Measure Media Impact and Audience Engagement

USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center to house new global hub for media metrics research

LOS ANGELES, April 29 – An ambitious new project aimed at measuring the social impact of media is being launched by the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. The Lear Center Media Impact Projectis supported by grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Announced today, the $3.25 million in funding over the next two-and-a-half years will establish the Lear Center as a hub for best practices, innovation and thought leadership in media metrics.

Welcoming the support, USC Annenberg dean Ernest L. Wilson III [pictured] said, “We’re delighted that Gates and Knight have recognized the Lear Center as a leader, and the Annenberg School as a center of excellence, in measuring media engagement and impact.” More...

In APAC, Public and Private Partners Open Big Data Hubs

October 19 2012. Posted on mrweb: Two countries have new centres devoted to business analytics this week: partners Deakin University and IBM have launched Australia’s first while in Singapore, Accenture and the island state’s government are opening an Innovation Center.

Deakin University’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Jane den Hollander [pictured, left] says the centre will give the University an edge over its competitors, and that the University ‘aims to be in the forefront of using the digital enhancements to enable our staff and our students to be at the forefront of this exciting new field.’

Mike McKee [pictured, center], Business Analytics Business Unit Executive, IBM Australia and New Zealand, comments: ‘Big data and the explosion of business information systems are creating more complex work environments. The Australian business leaders of tomorrow will need the skills and training to harness these information and technology tools to turn the data into business insights.’

Meanwhile Accenture is collaborating with Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB) on the opening of its new Analytics Innovation Center (AAIC), which will both develop assets and serve as a research and innovation hub. Teo Lay Lim [pictured, right], Accenture’s MD in Singapore and ASEAN, says the state is ‘the ideal location for this new center because of the alignment with the country’s focus on pioneering advances in innovation, driving competitive advantage for growth, and maintaining a high level of citizen engagement.’ More...

In US, Nielsen Launches Innovation Lab to Advance Research, Solutions for Advertising Effectiveness

Stanford Graduate School of Business to Participate

NEW YORK—July 11, 2012—Nielsen, a leading provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy, today announced the launch of the Nielsen Innovation Lab, a program designed to spur pioneering ideas and better, faster advancements in the area of advertising effectiveness. The Innovation Lab will incorporate assets from across Nielsen with external resources – from clients, industry groups and academia – to enhance understanding of the value of advertising activities across media platforms. Stanford Graduate School of Business has signed on as the first collaborator and will contribute creativity and academic rigor to Lab initiatives.

“Understanding the true value of advertising represents something of a holy grail for the industry, as we strive to provide metrics that accurately capture how an ad impacts a consumer’s short- and long-term brand perceptions and purchases,” said Scott McKinley [pictured, left], Executive Vice President, Advertising Effectiveness, Nielsen. “We are excited to work with Stanford and other collaborators through the Nielsen Innovation Lab to develop game-changing research and solutions.” 

“In today’s fragmented and results-driven marketplace, the need to assign metrics to ad performance is more important than ever,” said Associate Professor of Marketing Wesley Hartmann [pictured, right] at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. “While marketers have many tools at hand, there is more to learn about how and why some advertising works. We look forward to working with Nielsen.”  More...

MediaMath & DMA Launch the New Marketing Institute

MediaMath, DMA Push To Institutionalize Digital Marketing, Create Institute To Do It

June 1, 2012 - Joe Mandese at Media Post writes: Aptly named the New Marketing Institute, the ad technology education initiative is being launched by DSP (if you really want to understand what that acronym is, you’ll have to attend one of the sessions) MediaMath, and marketing trade group the Direct Marketing Association, to fill the educational void needed to keep digital media buyers up to snuff within an industry that is being transformed by rapid advancements in technology, especially computerized systems for targeting the best consumers, and so-called “programmatic” methods for buying them.

“Our hope is for it to provide a broad foundation in terms of all the things going on, both in terms of platforms and programmatic stuff, but mostly in terms of the best practices in buying digital marketing,” MediaMath CEO Joe Zawadzki says, adding: “The idea is to provide a place where people can get a 101 in digital marketing.”  More...

In Singapore, Nielsen Sets Up R&D Hub

AsianScientist (May 8, 2012) – Nielsen, a global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy, today announced the launch of its innovation hub in Singapore. NielsenLAB, the first-of-its-kind innovation hub in Asia, will develop new technologies and methodologies in neuroscience, shopper technology, and measurement science to enhance consumer and market insights for companies working to reach consumers in Asia. A team of Nielsen experts in the fields of neuroscience, shopper technology, and measurement science will be based in Singapore, and NielsenLAB will also engage experts across industries, academia, and government.

“NielsenLAB underscores our continuing commitment to deliver innovative solutions to help companies identify and capture new opportunities to meet the burgeoning consumer demand in Asia,” said Cheong-Tai Leung [pictured], Nielsen’s President of Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa. More...

The Age of Big Data

Steve Lohr of The New York Times writes: To grasp the potential impact of Big Data, look to the microscope, says Erik Brynjolfsson [pictured], an economist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. The microscope, invented four centuries ago, allowed people to see and measure things as never before — at the cellular level. 

Data measurement, Professor Brynjolfsson explains, is the modern equivalent of the microscope. More…

The Benefits of Data Talking to Data

Robert Plant [pictured], Associate Professor at University of Miami writes at The Wall Street Journal: Companies have been collecting business-related data for decades—enough by some estimates to fill a stack of books reaching to Pluto and back.

It used to be that all of that information—things like credit-card receipts, customer preferences, inventory records, etc.—would be organized and stored in giant databases, where it often sat, collecting virtual dust. When needed, the data were analyzed using special "business intelligence" software, but the reports that were generated weren't always useful and, depending on when read, not always timely. More…

In US, Study Finds Marketers Struggle with the Big Data and Digital Tools of Today

NEW YORK — March 7, 2012 — At Columbia Business School’s annual BRITE conference March 5 (http://briteconference.com), Columbia Business School’s Center on Global Brand Leadership and the New York American Marketing Association (NYAMA) unveiled the first BRITE–NYAMA Marketing Measurement in Transition Study. The study surveyed senior marketing executives from large corporations in order to gain a better understanding of changing practices in the following areas: data collection and usage, marketing measurement and ROI, and the integration of digital and traditional marketing. The full report can be viewed at http://j.mp/MarketingROIstudy. The results focused on three main findings:

• The failure of big data for marketing
• Marketers are quick to adopt the newest digital tools, but struggle to measure them
• ROI — marketers know they need it, but cannot agree on its meaning and implementation

More…

Why Nobody Is Actually Analyzing Unstructured Data

Bill Franks [pictured], Chief Analytics Officer for Teradata’s global alliance programs and a faculty member of the International Institute for Analytics writes: Unstructured data has been a very popular topic lately since so many big data sources are unstructured. However, an important nuance is often missed – the fact is that virtually no analytics directly analyze unstructured data.

Unstructured data may be an input to an analytic process, but when it comes time to do any actual analysis, the unstructured data itself isn’t utilized. More...