Top Takeaways on Big Data Talk from Don Hinman

Big Data versus Small Data

Don Hinman from Epsilon Data Services was the keynote speaker yesterday at the +Marketing Edge Marketing EDGE Research Summit. Don spoke about big data versus, small data (how we used to do data analysis).  Don said data has four elements, which are volume, variety, velocity and veracity. The volume and velocity of data is increasing exponentially and at a rapid rate.  Hence, we have a need for analyzing large data sets.

Therefore,  big data allows company to take data from and about their customers and put it together in such as way as to get new insights and revenue streams.  Big data sets are data that is too large for traditional analysis and also includes not only numeric but unstructured data that might be text information from customer interactions, videos, etc. 

Data Explosion Means New Analysis

Marketing data has exploded with  new data types, such as web logs and addressable TV. For example, soon the number of cell phone users will exceed the population. Don gave some examples of a big data application using tools Epsilon has to understand the effects of social media on other marketing channels, using big data techniques.  Epsilon can help companies take customer records, match to Facebook, connect the information on the email records and CRM to target ads more effectively on Facebook.  By appending Social URLS the company can match likes and followers  to identify the pattern of friendship and target and segment more effectively.  

Don joked that he did not realize until recently he was a Data Scientists, in spite of being in the field of statistical analysis, playing with data,  for 30 years.  Big Data will require Data Scientists, those who can work with math, statistical  computer science and marketing and have healthy curiosity and skepticism,

What's Next?

He also said that the future holds

• More focus by government agencies on regulating data firms
• The Internet of things,  which connects the physical world to the internet
• New versions of Internet protocol and use of more sophisticated ways to locate resources on the web

Thanks Don for taking the time to speak to us.  It was an informative talk and we appreciated your time.

By Debra Zahay-Blatz.
You can find Debra on Google+ and Twitter as well as LinkedIn.