social data

Guest Post by: Chris Holmes

Last week I read a fascinating article on Fast Company about C&A Marketing. The company sells a diverse range of products – from speakers to egg timers – and they’re growing at a fantastic rate, citing figures of 30% per year. But how can they have achieved such impressive growth? The answer lies in their innovative approach to new product development. They’ve done away with using lengthy product testing with consumers and are instead using Amazon reviews to inform the features of their products.

As consumers, we have long left trails of data behind us. Our credit card firm has known what we spend money on where; and our mobile phone firm has known where we are whenever we have our phone with us. And both sets of data have been used by brands to personalise how they market to us, and the products and services they offer to us.

I just mentioned this in my weekly email but I really liked Colin Nagy's (exec director of The Barbarian Group) Realist's Guide to Marketing in 2013.

by: David Armano

Upon recently talking about micro-interactions to the folks at Citi, I had a “micro-epiphany.” It occurred to me that companies really need to be looking at the social revolution for possibly one reason over everything else. Insights into human behavior that can lead to future innovations or even product/service improvements.

by: Dominic Basulto

Largely as an outgrowth of client work over the past quarter, I've put together a brief overview of four business trends that are worth keeping an eye on over the remainder of 2008:

(1) Social Data
(2) Micro-Payments for Online Social Experiences
(3) Content Mashups
(4) "Live" experiences (that really aren't "live")