2008 Huddles

HUDDLE DESCRIPTIONS

Campaign Analysis and Attribution Modeling: Dangerous Assumptions
Experienced analysts are well aware that LAST-based campaign attribution is risky at best but unfortunately this model persists, in large part because of technological limitations inherent in the most popular analytics tools. Join Dylan Lewis of Intuit’s TurboTax division to explore the current state of attribution analysis and discuss emerging strategies to improve our collective visibility into how our marketing efforts impact customer behavior.

Establishing a Web Analytics Center of Excellence
Many people believe that the web analytics industry is one data privacy disaster away from being profoundly changed forever. In the era of Phorm, FTC legislation, and increasing consumer awareness of tracking and behavioral targeting, having a clearly defined data privacy policy is critical. Join Bob Page of Yahoo’s Strategic Data Solutions group to examine the current legislative landscape.

Web Analytics and Data Privacy
Is the web analytics industry one privacy disaster away from being changed forever? As web analytics gets more mainstream, we get more sophisticated in how we collect activity data and how we use it. We used to be concerned with users deleting their cookies, but today we need to be concerned with much more. What rules should apply? Does trust count? In an era of increasing consumer awareness of tracking and behavioral targeting, having a clearly defined data privacy policy is critical. How you collect, process, store, exchange and retire consumer information is becoming a center-stage issue, and the legislature can't be far behind. Join Bob Page of Yahoo’s Strategic Data Solutions group to examine the current legislative landscape and discuss your and your peer’s current approach towards consumer data privacy.

Slicing and Dicing Visitors: Segmentation Strategies
Most analysts agree that segmentation is critical to creating a truly useful view of the visiting audience. Unfortunately there is great disparity in the segmentation capabilities across different web analytics platforms, disparity that occasionally leads to segments going un- or underutilized in the analysis process. Join Seth Holladay from Rodale Publishing, publishers of Men’s Health magazine, to discuss how visitor segmentation can be leveraged across a variety of types of web sites.

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Tracking Non-Traditional Conversion Events
The web analytics industry has an almost unnatural obsession with tracking conversion. But what if you’re one of the thousands of sites not dependent on traditional transactions as a measure of success, what can you do to leverage some of the otherwise useful goal-based technology provided in popular analytics packages? Join Seth Holladay from Rodale Publishing, publishers of Men’s Health magazine, to talk about the definition, tagging, and use of non-traditional conversion events.

Emerging Trends in Online Video: Measurement, Monetization, and Mobilization
The online advertising community has clearly fallen in love with video as a delivery vehicle, perhaps rightly so given recent data showing much higher ad recall and click-through rates for the medium. But video is creating many questions for those of us challenged with rolling it out online and on-phone, and even more questions for those of us being asked to measure its success. Join David Cronshaw from MSN Video to discuss the deployment and measurement of online video across the Internet.

The Metrics of Video: Cost per Engagement and Beyond!
The increasingly widespread use of video on the Internet has created something of a measurement vacuum, forcing advertisers and marketers to explore a whole new set of metrics and measurement platforms. Video Measurement is unstandardized and unfortunately very little has been written about the measurement of online video to date. Join David Cronshaw from MSN Video to explore the current state of video metrics and measurement strategies.

Getting Analysts to Produce Analysis and Getting the Business to Listen
Experienced analysts know that there is a profound difference between publishing reports and producing analysis. Unfortunately simply being able to produce analytical insights doesn’t guarantee that the business will listen and respond. Join Steve Bernstein from PayPal and discuss successful strategies for making the shift from reporting to analysis and communicating the results out to the larger organization.

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Driving Visitors Up the Value Chain
Like PayPal, most businesses build high-value relationships with their customers over time through a complex series of interactions designed to reinforce the brand, products, and services. Unfortunately, most web analytics applications in widespread use today do a poor job at characterizing multi-session visitor behavior and surfacing patterns that describe how high-value visitors actually evolve. Join Steve Bernstein, Director of Analytics, User Experience, and Design at PayPal and explore how he’s importing raw data from Omniture into PayPal’s customer data warehouse and mining for clues about how to predictably drive more customers up the value chain.

Searching for Success with SEO and SEM
There is a natural relationship between web analytics and search engine marketing and search optimization, one having tremendous potential to influence the entire ROI equation online. Unfortunately the measurement of SEO and SEM is often complicated by limitations inherent in analytics packages, primarily in the area of goal definition and attribution. Join Linda Hetcher, head of Avaya’s global web analytics operation, and explore this relationship and what can be done to improve the level of insights provided.

Bridging the Gap from Web Analytics to Marketing
Web analytics is increasingly considered a marketing initiative, designed to measure and improve the return on investment in the online channel. So why is it that so many marketing organizations fail to take full advantage of their measurement efforts, despite significant investment in technology and resources? Join Dennis Bradley from Charles Schwab to discuss the relationship between web analytics and marketing and share tips on what is working and what’s not.

Justifying the Need for Advanced Visualization Tools
Few experienced analysts are truly satisfied using mass-marketing reporting interfaces like SiteCatalyst, HBX, WebTrends Web Analytics, and Google Analytics. Fortunately most vendors now provide some type of advanced visualization and segmentation tool appropriate for expert-user use. Unfortunately, these applications are typically very expensive and only likely to be used by a limited set of internal users. Join Dennis Bradley from Charles Schwab to explore strategies for convincing management that these tools are worth the investment and then proving your point.

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Measuring Web 2.0: Interactions, Events, and Consumer Generated Content
The accurate and useful measurement of common Web 2.0 technologies like Rich Internet Applications and consumer-generated content is very much in a state of flux in 2008. Some vendors have taken the lead in event-based measurement, others are still lagging behind; unfortunately few sites are waiting for measurement to improve before making investment in these technologies. Join David Yoakum from Gap Inc. Direct, one of the first online retailers to move into AJAX and Web 2.0, and discuss the state of measurement today and where capabilities need to go in the future.

Using Web Analytics to Inform Personalization and Remarketing Efforts
Web analytics data is a hugely valuable source of information to create more personalized user experiences, both on the site via testing and targeting and off via behavioral targeting of ads and email marketing communication efforts. But the volume of data involved inevitably creates challenges, especially when working in a real-time or near real-time environment. Join David Yoakum, Product Manager for Business Intelligence and Analytics at Gap Inc. Direct, and explore what is required to be successful with data driven personalization and remarketing efforts.

Where Does Web Analytics Stop and Customer Analytics Start?
One of the most pressing questions for our industry in 2008 is “Where does web analytics stop and Business Intelligence and Customer Analytics start?” Unsurprisingly, depending on whom you ask, you get a dramatically different response to this question. Join Marston Gould, Vice President of Database Marketing for Classmates.com, and explore the relationship between these disciplines, perhaps determining for yourself where our industry is going.

Analytics Across the Enterprise
While some in our industry still declare that "web analytics is easy", Jim Hassert politely disagrees. Jim is responsible for analytics implementations across AOL, and faces a set of challenges that are surprisingly common, even in companies significantly smaller than AOL. Join Jim to discuss the nuances of rolling out web analytics across a large organization, including the definition of metrics, the distribution of reports, and providing ongoing support to a potentially global audience.

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Managing Expectations: Panel-Based and Census-Based Methodologies
While perhaps not considered “traditional” web analytics, few would argue that panel-based measurement systems like comScore and Nielsen have a profound impact on how the numbers are received. Unfortunately, different data sources and analysis methodologies have a tendency to paint a very different picture of success, one that needs to be constantly explained to some organizations. Join Jim Hassert, AOL’s Senior Director of Metrics Forecasting and Analysis, and discuss with your peers the best strategies for managing expectations and using these types of data together successfully.

Integrating Online and Offline (Market Research) Data
Business does not happen in a vacuum and neither does web analytics; there are a multitude of sources for visitor information coming from both online and offline channels. Perhaps one of the most interesting sources of information comes from primary market research, research that is unfortunately difficult to integrate directly with web analytic data. Join Rachel Scotto, Executive Director for Sony Pictures Imageworks Research, CRM, and Email Marketing as she explores the relationship between primary research, secondary research and web traffic data and how these various source.

Measuring Web 2.0: Widgets, Gadgets, and Social Networks
As your business moves increasingly off your site and into the social sphere of the Internet in the form of widgets and gadgets the measurement challenge you face increases seemingly exponentially. Suddenly the session starts at Facebook, moves to your site, and continues via a Google Gadget or RSS subscription. Join Rachel Scotto, Executive Director for Sony Pictures Imageworks Research, CRM, and Email Marketing as she discusses the challenges associated with tracking your business in an increasingly fragmented world.

B2B Analytics: Challenges and Opportunities
Most people believe that web analytics does a moderately good job tracking B2C retail environments based on nearly a decade of focus from the major vendors. But what of the B2B environment? What if you sell complex engagements and multi-million dollar solutions? Join Mark Malatesta of IBM as he discusses the challenges and opportunities that every B2B site owner faces on a daily basis.

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Building the Business Case for Change
Great business cases rely on data to describe the current situation, and serve as the foundation for estimates of what might happen if that situation was improved. For Web site improvements, Web analytics systems are a key source of that data. Unfortunately, many business case authors are hampered by the quality and availability of data in their organizations. Join Forrester Research analyst Megan Burns as she outlines the process used to develop business cases for major Web site improvements, and discuss how Web analytics and can be used most effectively to create a compelling argument for funding. Key topics of interest include data quality, combining behavior and attitudinal data to understand the current business situation, and how external benchmarking can – and should – be used to create context for internal statistics.

Industry Standards or a Lack Thereof …
The Web analytics industry has experienced tremendous growth and innovation in its near 15 year existence, despite a lack of unifying industry standards. It is remarkable that we can communicate at all given the void of common definitions on which we agree upon and work against. Join JupiterResearch analyst John Lovett and discuss the current state of industry standards, proposed definitions and our collective understanding of analytics terminology. Topics will include WAA and IAB definitions, vendor interpretations, demarcation guidelines and how to attain common ground within the Web analytics lexicon.

Data Integration: Myths and Realities
Experienced practitioners know that web-collected data usually only reveals a fraction of the story and requires analysis and insight to paint a bigger picture. Additional information is often required to illuminate business issues making data integration increasingly critical. But depending on what platform you’re on and what you’re trying to do, even just importing basic metadata can be a hassle, much less integrating customer data gathered via multiple channels. Join John Lovett from JupiterResearch to explore the realities of integration and discuss how to find revelations within your blended data.

Evolving Your Use of Analytics
No business just “jumps in” to web analytics and gets it right the first time. More than anyone Bill Gassman of Gartner gets this, given his tenure working with hundreds of clients worldwide as they strive to improve their use and approach towards online measurement and optimization. Based on his work, Bill has developed an analytics maturity spectrum that appraises how companies use technology at different stages in their evolution. Join Bill and explore this spectrum and learn where your company currently is, where you need to be and how to develop an action plan to get there.

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Data Collection: Implementation, Utility, and Ongoing Integrity
It is one thing to “want” data collection and another thing to get the data collection deployed and tested, especially in large or globally distributed organizations or in situations where consultants and/or offshore resources are involved. But not having high integrity data is simply not an option, so what do you do? If your I.T. organization has ever struggled to support your web analytics efforts, join Ron Pinsky, VP of Corporate eBusiness for AIG, and examine the data collection process as a critical input into your analytical efforts.

Integrating Customer Experience and Marketing Data with Web Analytics
While click-stream data is undoubtedly a valuable source of information about customer interactions, it does little to inform us about the whole customer experience or about the success of marketing efforts that transcend the online channel. Increasingly companies are turning to data integration projects to combine site performance, marketing, and customer data with click-stream to create a more complete view of the customer. Join Ron Pinsky, VP of Corporate eBusiness at AIG, to discuss how AIG has approached data integration and how a combined view of the customer is driving their business.

Building a Successful Web Analytics Team
Every experienced practitioner knows that web analytics depends far more on the people using the technology than the technology itself. But who should be on the web analytics team? How should that team grow over time? And how should the web analytics team be integrated into the larger organization? Join Judah Phillips, Director of Web Analytics at Reed Business Interactive (a member of the Reed Elsevier Group) and explore the critical intersection of people, process, and technology and how it impacts your own measurement success.

Knowing When You've Outgrown Your Current Web Analytics Solution
Despite vendor claims, no one web analytics solution “does everything”—or at least does everything well—and so from time to time each of us needs to reassess our commitment to technology and ask, “Do I need to upgrade?” Perhaps you need to upgrade because you need better segmentation, or better support, or because you need better data privacy and want to run things in-house. Join Judah Phillips, Director of Web Analytics at Reed Business Interactive (a member of the Reed Elsevier Group) and discuss how to know when you’ve outgrown your current solution and which are the best steps to take when you realize you have.

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The Mobile Landscape: Challenges and Opportunities
Without a doubt the next big revolution in connected technology will be mobile as evidenced by the tremendous explosion in interest and investment in the topic. But like any new area of study, mobile creates as many challenges as it does opportunities, especially in the area of measurement. Join Bob Schukai, Vice President of Wireless and Broadband Technologies at Turner Broadcasting and discuss the inherent challenges and opportunities associated with the mobile Internet and digital ubiquity in general.

Mobile Technology: Development, Deployment, and Measurement
Despite the intense interest in mobile platforms, most of us still have a great deal to learn as we attempt to translate our bosses and shareholder’s desire to “get mobile.” The same cannot be said for Bob Schukai, Vice President of Wireless and Broadband Technologies at Turner Broadcasting—Bob has been working in wireless for nearly a decade, both here in the U.S. and overseas. Join Bob and discuss the nuances of mobile development, deployment, and measurement and accelerate your own program for moving onto the small screen.

Using Real-time Survey to Improve the Customer Experience
Quantitative data is only one way experienced web analytics professionals assess the quality of customer experience. Voice of Customer technologies are commonly leveraged towards this end, reflecting the fact that qualitative inputs are required to truly “know” the customer. Join Jared Waxman, Web Analytics Group Manager at Intuit, and discuss the use of Voice of Customer data and real-time survey as an input in our efforts to optimize the overall customer experience.

Competitive Intelligence Tools and Methodologies
Business owners have a natural tendency to ask “how does our performance compare to that of our competitors?” A different suite of tools and data sources are required to answer this question and thusly the practitioner is forced to turn to the likes of Alexa, HitWise, Quantcast, as well as benchmarking data from companies like Coremetrics and Fireclick. Join Jared Waxman, former Director of Product Management at Alexa and current Web Analytics Group Manager at Intuit as he discusses the pros and cons of this diverse set of tools.

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Mobile Marketing, Mobile Measurement
Many people believe that the future of marketing is already in your pocket and that even unimpressive mobile devices are opening the gateway to profound opportunities for smart advertisers. But what will this future look like, and how will we take advantage of the mobile Internet without alienating our visitors and customers? Join Michael Wexler, Vice President of Marketing Insights for Yahoo and discuss the how marketing is evolving and what we’ll need to do to measure our marketing efforts in an increasingly mobile world.

Web Analytics for Brand Marketers
Brand marketing is a big business on the Internet. Unfortunately it is something that web analytics does very little to measure, or at least measure well. But given the data we have at our disposal there must be something we can do to appease the brand marketers and amaze them with our depth of insights, right? Join Michael Wexler, Vice President of Marketing Insights for Yahoo! and explore the relationship between web analytics and brand marketing from one of the best in the business.

You Can't Improve What You Won't Change: Testing Strategies on the Internet
A core component of any web analytics effort is the ability to test hypotheses and measure the results of those tests. Good technology exists today from companies like SiteSpect, Omniture, Interwoven, and Google to enable testing, but experts agree that testing requires more than just technology. Join two pre-eminent champions for testing, Dylan Lewis and Jared Waxman, both from Intuit, and discuss firsthand what is required and what you should expect from your own multivariate testing efforts.

Measuring Social Media and Its Enterprise Impacts
There is growing interest in understanding the role of social sites on the core enterprise site traffic and branding effort. A host of tools exist for measuring your buzz, exposure and engagement on social networks. Tools like MyMetrix even let you assess the traffic impact on your site. Understanding how these tools integrate with and supplement your core web analytics effort will become increasingly important. Join Marshall Sponder of Monster to explore the tools, techniques, pitfalls and opportunities in measuring social media and its enterprise impacts.

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