WARC (April 13)
“Search marketing is on the cusp of its most consequential transformation since Google first introduced its sponsored keyword search auction over 20 years ago, and the more recent introduction of the use of data and algorithms to provide greater personalisation in search results.” As we move into the Search 3.0 era, it will be “defined as much by image or video as text, and by artificial intelligence and natural language processing, in which marketers shift from targeting keywords to targeting intent and context.”
Tags: AI, Algorithms, Auction, Consequential, Data, Google, Image, Intent, Keywords, Marketing, Natural language processing, Personalisation, Search 3.0, Transformation, Video
New York Times (February 2)
The “disconnect” between cautious Fed statements and “investor expectations” is rooted in the tension between current data and projections. “Many forecasters expect the labor market, as well as inflation in many kinds of services, to weaken this year as the full effect of the Fed’s rate moves plays out; the Fed, on the other hand, is waiting for clearer signs in the data.”
Tags: Data, Disconnect, Expectations, Fed, Forecasters, Inflation, Investor, Labor market, Projections, Rates, Services, Tension
Institutional Investor (August 29)
“Now that investors can get factor-based funds on the cheap, they’re pushing quants in new directions.” This presents new challenges. “One is a move away from a heavy reliance on decades of historical data and back tests to tying this in-depth research to the realities of the current economic and market environment.” Another challenge is “getting the right people” to do this. “Many quant managers historically hired people with expertise in data,” but “now it’s the background in economics and finance that’s become critical.”
Tags: Back tests, Challenges, Cheap, Data, Economic, Economics, Factor-based funds, Finance, Historical data, Investors, Managers, Market, Quants, Realities, Reliance, Research
WARC (April 14)
Marketing spend is set to grow across all 15 major types of media. “Social media sees the largest net budget increase, at +53%, while print and AM/FM radio see the smallest net budget increase, but still at +13%.” Taken as a whole, “WARC Data forecasts global advertising spend to grow by 12.5% this year.”
Tags: Advertising, AM/FM, Budget, Data, Forecasts, Global, Increase, Marketing, Media, Print, Radio, Social media, Spend, WARC
USA Today (November 30)
“People are in for an anxious couple of weeks as data is collected, patient records are scoured, hospitalizations are tracked and blood samples are tested. Only then will we know whether this is another delta variant, fast-moving and highly contagious, or something like a gamma, which appeared, sputtered out and quickly disappeared.”
Tags: Anxious, Contagious, Data, Delta, Disappeared, Fast-moving, Gamma, Hospitalizations, Patient records, Sputtered, Tested, Tracked, Variant
Wall Street Journal (August 12)
“The rapidly-spreading coronavirus Delta variant and its impact on the global economy mean the world will consume less oil this year,” Lowering its forecast, the IEA’s latest market report notes that “the worsening of the pandemic, as well as revisions to historical data, mean its global oil demand outlook has been “appreciably downgraded,” with some of this year’s forecast recovery shifted to 2022.”
Tags: Coronavirus, Data, Delta variant, Demand, Downgraded, Forecast, Global economy, IEA, Impact, Oil, Outlook, Pandemic, Recovery, Worsening
Institutional Investor (February 2)
“What happens when a company gets an A from one ESG rater and an F from another? With the explosion of ESG data and ratings, there’s little agreement on what makes a company good or bad.”
Los Angeles Times (November 27)
“A lack of data hides the pandemic’s true toll on American main Streets because many small businesses simply board up without going through Bankruptcy Court.” Vaccines promise hope, but more immediately these businesses face uncertainty and hardship. “As virus cases soar, small businesses at the heart of communities ponder their survival.”
Tags: Bankruptcy Court, Data, Hardship, Hope, Pandemic, Small businesses, Survival, Toll, Uncertainty, Vaccines, Virus
Financial Times (July 22)
“As their booming share prices testify, technology groups have been brimming over with new business during the pandemic. For banks, there has been a special tech awakening…. After years of foot-dragging, many have been abandoning their cautious approach to cloud-based services and signing up with gusto to outsource their storage of data and other activities that demand high-intensity computing power.”
Tags: Awakening, Banks, Booming, Cautious, Cloud-based, Data, Foot-dragging, Outsource, Pandemic, Services, Share prices, Storage, Technology
Reuters (July 8)
“Europe’s data police have new fangs that are turning out to be pretty sharp. British Airways was told on Monday it faced a 183 million pound penalty for the theft of customer information from its website last year.” The record hacking fine did reward BA for coming forward and owning up to the breech. Under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) the penalty could have been up to “4% of global revenue. Yet the fine announced by the ICO amounts to 1.5% of British Airways’ 2017 sales.”
Tags: BA, Customer information, Data, EU, GDPR, Hacking fine, Penalty, Record, Revenue, Theft, Website
