In order to build engagement and loyalty in a climate of intense competition and distraction, media companies have to understand their customers, viewers, and readers as fans.
In 2014, I spent a lot of time around soccer fans. I regularly hung out at the sports bars frequented by Los Angeles’s official Real Madrid supporters club. My friends constantly shared with me, via email and social media, soccer-related websites, articles, and videos highlighting soccer fans and their love of the sport — and I clicked on them. I posted on soccer blogs, and rang up a bunch of credit card purchases in Brazil in July, during the World Cup. If my phone, the sites I visited, and the merchants I patronized had been collecting all the data associated with the places I went, the people I spoke to, and even the purchases I made, an analyst could easily have concluded that I was an ardent soccer fan (or, as people outside the U.S. would say, a football fan). But I’m not; at least, I wasn’t. At the time, I was studying sports fans as part of a research project with Havas Sports and Entertainment, to understand their passions and how they engage with brands — especially the brands that sponsor players, teams, and events in hopes of giving sports fans the experiences that they want. In doing so, I wound up becoming a case study in my own project.
My data trail marked me as a soccer fan, and continues to do so to this day. As I go about my business online, I am continually served automatically generated soccer-related recommendations and ads.
My experience is, of course, not unique. The widespread use of mobile devices has shifted the way we think about, understand, and participate in the world. Sometimes by permission (but often without our awareness), we continually funnel our locations, habits, desires, and selves into a pool of knowledge that every company wants to drink from in order to better understand and serve us. Each of us increasingly leaves behind trails of data that become crucial in shaping our digital identity.
This story is from the Autumn 2016 edition of strategy+business.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the Autumn 2016 edition of strategy+business.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Transforming information into insight
Focus on six organizational elements to build a world-class data and insights capability.
THE URGENT NEED FOR SOPHISTICATED LEADERSHIP
The pandemic has highlighted a series of paradoxes inherent to the work of leaders. What comes next will depend on how well leaders face up to them.
The road to successful change is lined with trade-offs
Rather than trying to convince people your change initiative is the right one, invite them to talk openly about what it might take to implement it: the good, the bad, and the frustrating.
Sustaining productivity virtually
Maintaining productivity levels among remote employees is an enduring challenge. Here are five ways to help businesses and employees thrive while people work at home.
FORWARD TO normal
Entertainment and media companies are building business models that are resilient to the enduring changes in consumer behavior ushered in by COVID-19.
How leaders can promote racial justice in the workplace
Embrace four principles to turn today’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives into sustained progress.
CREATING THE OFFICE OF THE FUTURE
In a remodeled world, it is vital for companies to reinvent ways of working.
Consumer companies must take leaps, not steps
As shoppers show how quickly they can adapt to external shocks, retailers will need to radically reconfigure their business models.
Businesses can fast-track innovation to help during a crisis
“Unrealistic” timelines can actually work. Here’s how.
Agility and experience management work better together
Many companies achieve early wins with separate transformational efforts, then stall. But if combined and enhanced using “return on experience,” or ROX, measures, these two programs can unlock each other’s potential.
