Businesses today have access to more data than ever before, bringing deeper insights and more informed decision-making to organizations across every industry. Knowing how to wield the power of that data, however, remains a challenging task.
As trends evolve and new tools emerge, the professionals charged with parsing that data have to be ready to move fast, embrace new methodologies and adapt to shifts in both data analytics and, more specifically, their industries.
We talked to two local data experts to see how they stay up to date on the latest trends and how those trends influence their work.
Digital marketing agency Booyah Advertising has been in the game since Ask Jeeves was around, so they’re no strangers to the regular shifts in marketing trends — including when it comes to data. Account Director Alex Namatevs shared how the company’s impressive roster of clients keeps her team on their toes and empowers them to try new things.
How do you stay up to date on the latest data trends in your industry?
We’re fortunate to work with clients who have very large advertising data sets. Our exclusive access to this first-party data gives our analysts remarkable insight into the drivers of success. At Booyah, we embed our analytics team with media planners to build forecasting models that reliably predict future performance.
How do you adapt your methodologies or technologies as trends evolve? Can you share a specific example of a time when new trends influenced your work?
We’re supported by a group of very adventurous clients that challenge us to test new techniques and ideas. Their large budgets open doors to exclusive access and beta opportunities with partners like Amazon, Facebook and Google. It’s been a thrill taking established 30-year-old retailers powerfully into the Amazon marketplace for the very first time and succeeding. All this combined gives us a front row seat to a fast-moving industry.
For Broomfield-based Return Path, big data is kind of their thing. The company’s data exchange platform helps businesses optimize their email marketing campaigns by delivering critical insights into user behavior, brand affinity and consumer preferences. Senior Manager of Data Analytics Brianna Connelly explained how she and her team leverage new technology to continue driving better results for their clients.
How do you stay up to date on the latest data trends in your industry?
I stay up to date on the latest trends by engaging with other leaders in the industry. I use several methods for this: the first (and easiest) is visiting a company’s tech blog; the second is engaging with our tech vendors and seeking out other users who are working through tough problems like us; the third is connecting with strategic leaders at tech and diversity conferences.
How do you adapt your methodologies or technologies as trends evolve? Can you share a specific example of a time when new trends influenced your work?
At Return Path, we are always engaging with the latest and greatest processes and technology. Since we have been in big data since, well, the beginning of big data, we constantly look for tech that allows us to gain better solutions and insights for our clients. The largest and most impactful trend to influence our workflows was our migration to the cloud. We left a lot of languages, processes and vendors in the past and adopted new methods to help us reach our clients’ goals faster.
