How essential customer insights and engagement are made possible by Big Data

Jonathan Lyon, Global Director of Strategic Insight in DigitasLBi, a global marketing and technology agency, is focused on how to better engage with the consumers.

The new imperatives of publishing and marketing are to know your audience better beyond measuring and counting, he said at the Big Data for Media conference on May 8 in London, sponsored by World Newsmedia Network and Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism,

So how can we level the playing field? Understanding people individually, in depth and at scale, he says.

Lyon's company has mapped 1.3 billion individuals' engagements with 50 000 brands, TV shows, media, celebrities, musicians, bands in near real time of the last two years with People Pulse survey software.

People engage differently in different platforms, so it's important to survey all the different platforms.

Some case studies from DigitalLBi:
1. Volvo and creating context, showing Volvo ads with suitable content after mapping the consumers interests.
2. eBay, matching email and social media using habits. Showing the customer the products, which he is interested.
3. TV engagement by brand by program within broadcast content clustered by affinity and engagement between brand and TV show.
4. Movie taste is broadly reflective with the people's gaming habits.

"Digital information is just people in disguise", says Lyon.