NCDM Show – you going?

Next week I will be moderating a panel at the NCDM show. 

Don’t know NCDM?  If you’re a web analyst interested in what happens in BI from a Marketing perspective, this is the show for you – National Center for Database Marketing. 

I’m moderating a “shootout” panel titled Web Analytics Solutions Showdown: How Do You Measure Customer Engagement? with panelists Barry Parshall from WebTrends, John Squire from Coremetrics, and David Kirschner from Omniture (Jon Gibson / ClickTracks had to drop out).

No right or wrong answers for this session, mostly a demonstration of how different WA platforms approach the challenge of “Measuring Engagement” differently.  Just tell us what you believe “Engagement” is and how it is measured with your tool using a case study.

Then moderated audience tears your vendor heart out.  Should be a hoot!

I came up with this idea because I thought it would be quite useful for the NCDM audience to see what web analytics looks like when it mimics traditional offline database marketing thinking.  An “outreach” kind of idea, from a Web Analytics Association perspective, if you know what I mean.  And these BI folks, they can be a very tough crowd, they’ve seen a lot of this before, just from different data / systems.

In fact, there are tons of BI people out there who want to learn as much about WA as they can, because they can see what is coming, they want to figure out how to merge offline and online Intelligence.  And by my way of thinking, “Engagement” – however you want to measure it – is probably the single most important data export WA offers into the BI world.

Why?  Because BI can’t measure the “high funnel” nearly as well as WA can.  But this capability is also the curse of WA, because there’s so much irrelevant data.  So what BI really wants to know is this: How do I define and extract the important events (what Gary calls Magic Moments) from WA data?

If you are going to the NCDM show, hope to see you there!

If you’re not clear why this show could be really important to your web or business analyst career, read the post on Web Intelligence, and then read I am an Analytics God, I want more $$.  How? by Avinash and think about the 4 paths he describes.

Back in 1993, I went with the HSN analytics team to NCDM.  We were the only team talking about getting data in real time (from the live show) and overnight customer updates.  Everybody else was dealing with lags of a month if not a quarter to get data.   On the way home we were all were wondering if HSN was a unique case, that this idea of running a business “interactively, in real time” was something other companies simply would never have to deal with.  How would the systems interact?  How would you deal with the Latency issues between “interactive” and “regular” business? 

What is the value of “transient data” versus “static data”, of group versus segment versus individual behavior?  How much transient data do you need to store, how do you convert transient group and segment data into individual static data that is meaningful?  

15 years later, I’m proud to explore those very ideas in this session with the attendees at NCDM.

By the way, if you’re sticking to the tech track up the BI ladder, the show for the opposite side of the brain to NCDM is the TDWI show.

 

4 thoughts on “NCDM Show – you going?

  1. Darn! I didn’t know about that show!! OK, I am putting it on my next year calendar.

    I see WebTrends is a sponsor, the only WA vendor.

    Have a good show. Maybe you’ll have some time to blog about what’s going on there?

  2. Hi Jacques! Sorry I didn’t bring the show up earlier, my bad.

    WT may be the only sponsor, but I understand there will be a LOT of WA vendors there with booths, at least the ones where ETL of the WA data is a viable option. Otherwise, probably no point…

    Probably should have mentioned this show is owned by the DMA, but it’s really different than their big show, smaller and more focused on the “back end” marketing and operational analytics whereas DMA tends to have a “front end” (customer acquisition) focus.

    Yes, am planning on blogging anything interesting I come across…though I don’t expect any surprises, think most interesting will be what the crowd is talking about, where the C-Level demand is at, how close people are to “doing something” about online / offline data integration.

  3. Update: Below is a copy of an e-mail I just received which highlights the types of vendors exhibiting at this show.

    ClickSquared
    Booth #116A

    ClickSquared is the premier interactive relationship marketing provider of intelligent, multi-channel marketing solutions creating perfectly timed, personalized interactions across all online and off-line direct channels.

    http://www.clicksquared.com

    CognitiveDATA, Inc.
    Booth #112H

    CognitiveDATA is a marketing technology company recognized as the thought leader of emerging technologies that increase direct marketing response. Our award-winning Campaign Optimization technology enables direct marketers to more accurately identify, locate, and reach their branded buyers and targeted prospects.

    http://www.cognitivedata.com

    Decision Intelligence, Inc.
    Booth #117A

    Decision Intelligence is a marketing analytics firm, specializing in increasing your profits via improved advertising productivity. With proprietary analytic tools, we deliver the most advanced marketing contact optimization solutions.

    http://www.dii-online.com

    Nimblefish Technologies
    Booth #123H

    Nimblefish creates software that enables an automated dialogue with customers. Our marketing engines strategically plan for and implement individualized touch plans that help nurture a customer through consideration to a purchase, driving increased response rates and conversion rates.

    http://www.nimblefish.com

    Tiberius Data Mining
    Booth #118D

    Tiberius Data Mining is a boutique company that develops predictive modeling software and provides data analytic services. ‘Tiberius’ is easy to use, very affordable and has consistently shown to be as accurate as any software currently available. We can also build your marketing models in record time for minimal cost.

    http://www.tiberius.biz

  4. Pingback: WebTrends

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