At SES San Francisco, Andrew Edwards will be talking about all things convergence analytics – trends, technologies, and challenges. Here, Edwards offers an introduction to convergence analytics and why it's changing business analytics forever.
SES San Francisco is next week, taking place September 10-13. The comprehensive agenda of this conference will walk you through the new marketing landscape of converged media will be led by industry practitioners and innovators. The program is designed to help marketing professionals meet their needs regardless of their experience level.
Prior to the conference I was lucky enough to interview various experts, including Bill Hunt and Bryan Eisenberg. Another expert that I had the pleasure of interviewing was Andrew Edwards, who is the managing partner at Efectyv Marketing. He will be speaking at SES San Francisco on Multi-Channel Analytics: How Convergence Analytics Changes Digital Marketing Forever.
Victoria Edwards: What is convergence analytics?
Andrew Edwards: Convergence analytics is an emerging field that takes up where web analytics, mobile analytics, and any other siloed data analytics leave off. Some have also called it Multi-Channel Analytics, but this does not describe the single-view outputs that are common today.
There are at least a hundred vendors today who offer applications that can measure many different channels and display them in an elegant fashion. We believe the trend towards converging many data inputs and creating a flexible output model is accelerating – and changing business analytics forever.
VE: Who should attend your session on multi-channel analytics?
AE: Anyone who wants to know the latest on emerging digital analytics trends, technologies and challenges.
VE: What tools does an individual use for multi-channel analytics?
AE: There are so many choices in so many measurement fields that it’s a challenge to even begin listing them without leaving out key players. If we can suggest a common denominator like Google Analytics and apply that across many channels with many different ways to collect and review data, that might come close to a broad description.
VE: If someone is new to convergence analytics where is a good place to start gaining more insight?
AE: Certainly our session would be a great place to start. But they can also go to the Convergence Analytics section at ClickZ to see more content about it.
VE: You’re currently the CEO at Technology Leaders. What was your career-path that lead you into that role?
AE: I founded Technology Leaders in 2002 and continue to run the enterprise digital analytics practice there. My most recent focus is on digital analytics strategy, including the writing of the next Convergence Analytics Report with Efectyv Digital.
I got started in digital as a computer-illustrator, and I got to know the creative side during the late 1980s with the advent of desktop publishing. I created the first DTP group at the Yellow Pages. Then I moved on to interactive television that led to CD-ROMs and finally website development.
As the Internet became more of a commercial venture, I got interested in how to measure its effectiveness in the marketplace. That’s how I got involved with analytics. I have a book coming out in the spring with Pearson Publications called “Digital is Destroying Everything, and What Comes Next”.
VE: I see you’re also a painter? What’s your favorite medium and are there any places online we can see your work?
AE: Yes, I do love creating actual things in the world sometimes – so I paint with acrylics on canvas. They tend to be surreal-mythical in nature with a focus on mid-20th century iconography. You can see them here.
You can meet Andrew Edwards at SES San Francisco. You can also follow him on Twitter @AndrewVEdwards.