Four passes left to attend the Digiday Publishing Summit
No doubt the digital age is ruled by data. We give off bits of data with every act in digital media, from paying for things with a credit card to using a mobile phone to doing an Internet search. That’s led to the buzzword du jour: Big Data. Yet not everyone is buying into Big Data. Alan Mitchell, strategy director at consultancy Ctrl-Shift, thinks the term is misplaced because there’s not all that new in how we’re gleaning insights from data — and the real challenges of information flows aren’t being addressed.
Even with the vast amounts of data it deals in, it’s actually only skimming the surface of a deep sea of computation. There are more connections between the neurons in the brain of the average Joe than there are atoms in the universe (or so I am told). Big Data doesn’t touch what’s going on in peoples’ heads – their motivations, their intentions, their goals, priorities and so on. All it does is collect after-the-event data about what they do once they turn these thoughts and feelings into actions – and then it’s only those actions which register on some particular data gathering system. So Big Data never goes to the source – the fountainhead of Really Big and Important Data: human beings and what they want to do right now, or plan to do in the future.
Read Michell’s full post on the Ctrl-Shift blog.
More in Media
How Mars decides where to spend its retail media dollars
Ron Amram, the senior director of global media for Mars, gave a glimpse at the company’s playbook for selecting which retail media network partners.
DEI work continues – if covertly – people managers emphasize
Companies are grappling with how to preserve the essence of DEI work under changed circumstances.
In Graphic Detail: Virtual influencers click with young audiences, yet brands’ interest wanes
In spite of the increased prominence of top virtual influencers, brands’ demand for this type of creator has declined in 2025. This is part of the natural boom-and-bust cycle that occurs around disruptive cultural or technological forces.