The Power of Online Video

First, a few numbers for you to wrap your head around:

• 1 hour of video is uploaded to YouTube every second
• Over 3 billion hours of video are watched on YouTube each month
• Canadians are among the most active viewers in the world, watching an average of 303 videos per month
• Canadians aged 25-34 watch 44 hours of video per month

Sources: (YouTube Statistics, comScore Data Mine, comScore 2012 Canada Digital Future in Focus)

Online video allows us to reach and engage with audiences like never before.

That's a lot of video, to say the least.

The Language of Data Visualization

In a previous post, I talked about how we're drowning in a sea of big data. In that post, I shared some thoughts about how marketers can maximize the value derived from available data. But knowing how to use the data is only half the battle. Knowing how to communicate the value from that data is what takes you to the next level. Projects often break down because of miscommunication. It's a tremendous waste when the most brilliant insights are lost because they aren't expressed in a way that makes sense to others, especially to those who are in a position to make use of them.

Enter data visualization. In his TED Talk on the beauty of data visualization, David McCandless, a London-based author, writer and designer, talks about the impact that visualized data can have in solving the world's informational problems. Indeed, visualized data, if done right, can instantly display answers to some of the most complex questions.

What makes data visualization effective?

The Billion Dollar Gram puts into perspective the billions of dollars spent by
different organizations around the world. (Source: informationisbeautiful.net)

Drowning in the Sea of Big Data

To say that we are now swimming in enormous amounts of data is in itself an enormous understatement. To get an idea, this video from The Economist says we'll be creating 2,720 exabytes of data in 2012. With the sheer number of numbers being tossed around, it's no wonder why Big Data keeps CMOs up at night. As a result, we're now seeing a proliferation of research/analytics/datasolutions companies that aim to make sense out of Big Data for us. But will investing in Big Data really generate value for marketers?

Welcome to the Marketing Cruncher

Hello marketing community!

There are a lot of marketing blogs out in the blogosphere today, all with lots of great content about marketing's hot topics. This is not your typical marketing blog. This is one written by a numbers geek, which is to say one written with a unique perspective on data.