Data becomes more valuable when you share it.
Waze users share traffic data to help each other to have better car journeys. Uber users generate information about taxi journeys which can help town planners. Medical devices may share data to give doctors a more complete picture of the patients’ situation.
The earlier a customer is along their journey, the less marketers know about that person. But early on is when you can best influence shoppers.
We are all sharing more data than ever before with other organisations in our emerging Big Data Society. Sharing lets us use our resources much more precisely and produce completely new services.
But misusing customer data risks destroying customer trust. Still, we all need that missing piece of the Big Data puzzle, so we all need to share more.
There has been a lot of excitement about Google Now but the real story is about how it opens up a window on users’ whole lives.
If ‘data is the new oil’ then Google just found a much bigger oil field.
I recently gave a talk at Marketing Week Live about what Big Data analytics was starting to do for marketers and how new data sources are massively expanding this.
There’s an analytics revolution going on right now with loads of new analytical toys, a massive increase in board-level interest and lots of new data to work with. This revolution is powering many of the new mobile and social media start-ups.
But do not get distracted by the service when it is what’s under the hood that counts. The really clever thing about Google Now is not the magical but-slightly-creepy-and-telepathic service suggestions but the chance that it gives Google to know you much better and more deeply than any other firm on the planet.