The Search for Meaning in Big Data

Big Data has been around long enough now that it’s clear that analyzing big data can deliver some sweet benefits. What’s less discussed are the challenges companies face in finding those benefits.

A Key Challenge:  Irrelevant Data. My friend Shahin Khan recently tweeted about one of the key challenges with big data.

@ShahinKhan The ratio of relevant data to irrelevant data will asymptotically approach zero. #BigData

Lets Hold the Panic About Retail Showrooming – It’s Driven by Research Errors

I discovered an excellent blog post (link here) this week about marketers being mis-led by major research mistakes. One of his main examples? How “showrooming” fears have been blown out of proportion..

Social Media Research: Tunnel Vision on Steroids

Social media research is one more “fad” that’s sweeping the world. (I even read in Media Post recently that someone at Intel loves it. More on that in a minute.)

Sadly, these fads come so rapid these days that marketers, designers, and engineers everywhere dash from ill-considered fad to ill-considered fad – never learning the fundamental weaknesses undermining their work.

Neuroscience: The Hot New Advertising Research Myth

A new ad research messiah has appeared with claims that it answers all the most fundamental questions about advertising. (Meaning, mostly, that agencies are interpreting this research to tell them what they want to hear rather than the complex and uncomfortable things they hear through other research.)

Today’s savior is neuroscience and the research that records activity in various areas of the brain. MRI’s, CAT scans, & PET scans are now casually thrown around advertising discussions. And we are told that these colored pictures of the brain reveal everything about what motivates consumers. Right…