John Squire is IBM’s director of Digital Marketing and Analytics.

Updated Post
AN UPSET IN THE MAKING
3 February 2012, 11:30 AM Eastern

Just like on the field, Eli Manning is riding a late surge to overtake Tom Brady in the IBM and USC analysis of Super Bowl XLVI social media sentiment.  Overnight results of Super Bowl Twitter buzz drove Giants quarterback Eli Manning’s ‘T score’ for positive sentiment ahead of Tom Brady. Manning now leads with 66% vs. Brady’s 61%, which represents an 8-point shift compared to the previous day. In another interesting development positive sentiment for Giants head coach jumped dramatically with his score rating increasing to 76% positive. That places Coach Coughlin above all of the players and coaches on both teams.

This day-to-day shift in Super Bowl fan sentiment illustrates the speed at which consumer sentiments can shift online — a factor that businesses are watching closely due to the potential impact on their brand equity and sales.

By applying analytics in social media settings we can identify nuances – positive, negative, irony, snarky vs. sincerity, in real-time.  That’s enough time to help an organization, or in this case professional athletes, adjust their comments and actions to dramatically (and positively) impact their brands.

Original Post
SUPER BOWL ANALYSIS TAKES US BEYOND THE TWEETS
2 February 2012

One of the most dramatic NFL games ever played was Super Bowl XLII pitting the undefeated (18–0) New England Patriots led by record-setting quarterback Tom Brady against the surprising NY Giants with young, unproven Eli Manning at the helm.   A thrilling, some say shocking victory for the Giants ended the Patriots bid to be the only 19–0 undefeated champion in league history.  And now Super Bowl XLVI –  The Rematch —   anticipated to be the most watched American television show in history, promises to take social media to a whole new level.

As my colleague, and former NFL player Kevin Nosbusch posted on Wednesday, IBM and the University of Southern California Annenberg Innovation Lab are conducting the first sentiment analysis of the two Super Bowl quarterbacks to illustrate how new analytics technologies make it possible to quickly assess the positive, negative and neutral sentiments shared by fans.

Why is this sentiment analysis important to IBM? In addition to being a longtime partner of the NFL, IBM recognizes that its clients, just like football players, are closely connected to their brand presence.

Using advances in analytics companies, academics, journalists can gain new insights into consumer perceptions via social media on endless topics from football and baseball to movies and retailing. Technologies can even distinguish irony and figure out which tweets are just background noise and those that are truly important.

Branding Upset on the Digital Playing Field

The Super Bowl analysis shows us that today the two quarterbacks, Tom Brady and Eli Manning are in statistical dead heat:  Brady earning 65% positive sentiment and Eli Manning earning 62% positive sentiment.  That actually represents a big branding upset on the digital playing field. Most sports and marketing followers would assume that Brady should be far ahead given his lofty status as an elite QB for many years and three championship rings.

Other noteworthy findings show that wide receivers have upstaged the quarterbacks, who are being positioned in the news media as the chief protagonists — Wes Welker is #1 in positive sentiment and Victor Cruz is a close 2nd.  Interestingly Brady leads by 3% points, exactly the point spread Las Vegas oddsmakers have favored the Patriots.

So while it looks like Tom Brady is going into the game as the Social MVP, now is not the time to get cocky.  Eli Manning is holding his own against the more experienced Brady in terms of positive sentiment.

The IBM USC analysis illustrates the potential insight and benefits that social media analytics can deliver to a brand — whether you’re an professional football player or a global enterprise.  Businesses that ignore the impact of social media will be stuck on the sidelines.

Learn more about IBM and USC AIL social media analysis projects.

Technorati Tags: Analytics, Big Data, business analytics, Education, entrepreneur, IBM, IBM Research, Jeopardy, nfl, picture stories, predictive analytics, retail, smarter commerce, Smarter Planet, social business, storytelling, twitter, Watson

Editor’s note: Vol Pirrukh leads one of the contestants in the IBM SmartCamp competition world finals this week (Jan. 31, Feb. 1 and 2) in San Francisco. Nine startups from around the world will compete for fame and expert advice. To follow the event virtually, return to A Smarter Planet for liveblogging, view livestreaming video and follow the Twitter hashtags #IBM SmartCamp and #startups.

Yes, it’s true; our company name did come from those delicious little cakes – profiteroles. When we were brainstorming the name of our start-up we all liked “profiteroles” because it has “profit” and “the cherry on top” – i.e. sweetness – in it. But it was a bit too long and the domain Profiteroles.com was taken. So we sent a survey to over 100 friends to pick their favorite name from a few alternatives and “Profitero” got the most votes.

Profitero offers an online service to retailers to help them monitor competitors’ prices, stock availability and shipping charges. We help our clients increase sales and maximize profits by leveraging high-quality online competitive data. Profitero simplifies and significantly speeds up the process of collecting and assessing this data and the service can be used by both online and offline retailers.

Our service grew out of the own pain that Kanstantsin  Chernysh (one of the Profitero co-founders) as an online store owner had to go through to monitor his online competition; Dmitry Vysotski and myself saw the huge potential for this service while working at IBM and Google and decided to bring it to the market.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now our clients tell us there was a big gap in the market for this service. “I was looking for something like Profitero for two years and couldn’t find anything even close to it! What used to take me two to three hours each day, I do now with Profitero in minutes!” one client says. Another said, “We were price comparing 1000 products once a week which took one person a full day. Now we price compare over 2000 products, checked daily and all we have to do is analyze the information given to us by Profitero.”

Despite Profitero providing a price monitoring service for retailers and manufacturers, the backbone of our technology is the ability to collect and analyze large quantities of online data. Profitero collects data on 30 million products from 2,800 retailers with plans to grow this to 100 million products by mid-2012. Over the past fifteen months, Profitero has secured contracts with a number of key retailers in the European market. Tesco, Auchan, Worten are just a selection of the high-profile retailers using our software to help them grow their sales and profit margins. We are also partnering with some significant service groups operating in the retail industry e.g. Nielsen.

Why did we apply to participate in IBM SmartCamp? There were two main reasons:

For starters, our business has good synergies with IBM Smarter Commerce. At Profitero we have this vision: Modern day consumers are very smart in their purchasing decision-making: you can go to the store to try the gadget, check the prices online on your smartphone and then buy it where you get the best offer. Price comparison is the industry that has existed for years. Consumers are savvy! The IBM study Capitalizing on the Smarter Consumer found that 49 per cent of consumers use two or more shopping channels during a single purchase. But retailers are lagging behind. We want to help retailers to be smarter: helping them to make data-informed timely decisions on pricing to grow their sales and avoid losing customers. Hence we found that our vision really relates to the IBM Smarter Commerce strategy.

Another reason we participated is we wanted to work with Big Blue. It is very hard for a start-up to begin working with a large company; they have many layers of hierarchies and thousands of constantly changing priorities. Despite some successful cases where we managed to build some really great business relationships, this is a tough area to break into. Thus we find it fantastic that a company of such size and influence as IBM supports start-ups and gives them an opportunity to connect with the right people, offering support to get things moving. Thanks to all IBM’ers who have made it possible to start working with the organisation. We really appreciate your help and support!

Along the way we discovered more benefits than we originally counted on: 1) Excellent mentors during the IBM SmartCamp sessions. The experience and range of mentors was incredible. Entrepreneurs, VCs and IBM’ers were asking tough questions, that we often don’t want to ask ourselves. Thanks to all the mentors we met and will meet during the finals. 2) Networking opportunities. We got some really important contacts during SmartCamp London, but even more came along when we continued working with IBM after the event. 3) Great PR exposure (even writing this blog post!) Every start-up likes to see their name in publications but being mentioned alongside Big Blue goes a long way with clients and leads.

We believe that IBM SmartCamp is really useful for any start-up. Even the story of SmartCamp itself is similar to the stories of successful tech start-ups: with great idea, no money but lots of work and support you can achieve incredible results! We look forward to this week’s IBM SmartCamp Global Finals, which is promising to be even more exciting then what we saw at the SmartCamp London.

Technorati Tags: ibm smartcamp, Profitero, Vol Pigrukh

To see smarter commerce at work, you only have to observe the holiday shopping rush that took place on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  A record number of consumers focused on finding the best online deals using social networks and mobile devices; while the big retail winners were those that delivered compelling, relevant deals that people could easily access from their channel of choice. This is based on findings from IBM’s fourth annual Cyber Monday Benchmark, which tracks more than a million transactions a day, analyzing terabytes of raw data from 500 retailers around the country.

Click on the images below for a larger view, or here for the entire set:

Technorati Tags: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, IBM, mobile, retail, shopping, smarter commerce, social commerce

That’s because they know that decision-making today is an art based on incomplete and conflicting information, and that hunches play a big role in determining which way to go.

Now imagine a company that could look at all of its information at once; Spot hidden trends before they occur; Glean insights into customer sentiment from data in a wide variety of formats; And keep up with consumer conversations and opinions moving at the speed of the Web.

Click on the images for a larger view:

The underlying technology works in three stages. First, advanced analytics algorithms using search and index technologies begin sifting through all the different pieces of information for gems of intelligence.

Second, the information is correlated and analyzed for patterns and trends at more than 200 times a second – faster than a hummingbird can flap its wings.

And third, this advanced analysis is quickly turned into a narrative that people can understand and put to use — generating better market forecasts, and putting customers at the center of an organization’s strategy for what new products and services are introduced.

Imagine what this kind of market intelligence would do for business in terms of reducing the time and risk associated with developing new products. Entertainment companies would be able to take a real-time pulse of moviegoers and record buyers to find out what they think and want.  Investment companies could more easily understand investor concerns about their products and go-to-market strategies.

Pharmaceutical companies could better understand what doctors, pharmacists and patients are thinking about their latest drugs. Retailers would be able to better gauge what consumers will buy at holiday time – which could be linked to suppliers – and reduce lead time in making buying and product inventory decisions.

Organizations that “get it” will capitalize on this deep insight ahead of their competitors, and serve the connected customer’s needs at every turn.

See also: ‘Picturing’ the new world of analytics

Technorati Tags: Analytics, baseball, consumer, customers, smarter commerce, social media, world series

By Vincent Quan, Associate Professor, Fashion Merchandising Management Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)

I had the opportunity to participate in an informative and lively dinner panel hosted by IBM for the retail press in the Big Apple last Wednesday.  Joining me on the panel were Nihad Aytaman, director of Business Intelligence at Elie Tahari, IBM Global Retail Industry Leader Jill Puleri, IBM Retail Analytics Leader Michael Haydock and IBM Enterprise Marketing Management Executive Director John Squire.

A few takeaways from the dinner:

• A fundamental shift has been taking place in retail – power is shifting from the retailer to the consumer through the use of technology.  However, retailers are working hard to maintain, and even grow, market share.  Customer satisfaction is a main focal point.  Now, there are multiple touch points to reach the consumer (through personalized promotions, mobile websites and social sites like Facebook).
• Although e-commerce is posting huge comps (YOY) versus their brick and mortar counterparts, mobile devices are not driving the sales.  Size of screen and limitations on mobile content are some of the primary challenges. When shopping for a fashionable dress from Elie Tahari, or the latest in technology on a site like Amazon.com, the typical cell phone screen just doesn’t cut it. Not surprising, in a “statistically insignificant” but real poll taken of my students (who are Gen Z “trendsetters”) only 8.3% actually use their smartphones to shop.
• Social is becoming a powerful player in the retail space. According to a global survey by IBM, up to 84% of consumers rely on their social networks when researching new products.  When buying online, shoppers coming from a social network convert at 2x the rate of other non-social network channels.

While the majority of what we hear about the economy is gloom and doom, retail sales look like they’ll be fairly healthy this season according to Mike Haydock, who predicts, using decades of Census data and analytics technology, that jewelry sales will be up ( +7.7% Nov. 2011 vs. Nov. 2010 and +4% YOY for December). Clothing and health & beauty categories will also be strong this year, according to Mike.

Another “statistically insignificant” but real poll conducted on my students at FIT yielded a slightly more conservative outlook on shopping habits for the holidays – slightly higher than LY but the poll was based on “holiday gifts.”  Economic uncertainty, including an employment rate remaining fixed at 9.1% for September, announced layoffs of 30,000 at Bank of America, a tumultuous stock market, issues with European debt, and recessionary worries have prompted the response from my students.  The speed at which information flows faster than the aftershocks of the recent earthquake on the East Coast demonstrate that technology is a “game-changer”.  News and information are fast and furious…

Technorati Tags: FIT, polls, retail, Vincent Quan

These days when you check out of almost any retail store, nearly without notice or care, the checker passes your purchases under or above a laser and you hear a “bleep” as the laser picks up the product information from that strange looking set of black bars on each product.  The name and price of the product then pops up on the register – and the register sends that data back over a network to a database for inventory processing and analysis.  All this happens in an instant, all while you’re getting out your credit card, reading the latest scoop on a celebrity, or trying to keep your kids from adding more candy bars to the checkout belt.

Adding a series of black lines to a stick of gum changed the world of retail. Click the image to read the whole story.

Well, here’s something for you: The next time your son REALLY REALLY REALLY needs to have that pack of Juicy Fruit (he just can’t live without), you can pick up the package of gum in the familiar yellow wrapper and show him those crazy looking black bars and on the side and say: “Did you know that on June 26, 1974, the very first bar code – that’s what these lines are called – was swiped by cashier Sharon Buchanan at a Marsh’s supermarket in Troy, Ohio and that the first product swiped was a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum (you point to the gum)?  Did you know that?”  Your son will stop in his tracks, look at you with wonder, pause briefly, and probably say, with a slightly sarcastic tinge: “Mom, you should play Watson!” and continue adding candy to your order.

Oh well, you tried.  It’s alright.  But luckily for you, me, us, and the retail industry the bar code has made checking out quicker and more efficient, and made businesses around the globe smarter in the way they manage data-driven processes like inventory and customer service.  With the advent of RFID tags you see popping up on clothing and other products, the bar code model is being extended even further – bringing it into the digital age.

Norman Joseph Woodland, “the father of the supermarket scanning system”

Today, in recognition of those very facts, the National Inventors Hall of Fame announced it will induct retired IBMer Norman Joseph Woodland for his contribution to the invention of the Universal Product Code (UPC), a.k.a. the bar code. Woodland and his co-inventor, Bernard Silver, who also will be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, were working at Drexel University when they applied for the first bar code technology patent on October 20, 1949.  Woodland joined IBM in 1951 and received a patent for the UPC on October 7, 1952 – some 20 years before it showed up on that pack of Wrigley’s! (There’s another piece of trivia your son can chew on.)

For the full story about the birth and evolution of the bar code and much more, head over to the IBM100 site where IBM has been highlighting some of its achievements in recognition of its 100th anniversary this year.

Jill Puleri is IBM’s vice president and global industry leader.  She leads IBM’s retail consulting practice and is an expert in multichannel and customer-centric strategies.

Wrigley’s®, Juicy Fruit® and all affiliated designs used courtesy of WM Wrigley Jr. Company.

Technorati Tags: Barcode, IBM Centennial, IBM100, invention, Jill Puleri, People for a Smarter Planet, retail, Smarter Planet, UPC

Sustainability is a critical issue throughout the world today, and will continue to be for many generations to come. According to Wikipedia, sustainability is loosely defined as the capacity to endure – and this can be interpreted in many different ways as sustainability takes on social, economic, and environmental dimensions. The conservation of animal and plant life remains at the forefront of sustainability efforts, and is a mission and core focus of many Zoo’s around the globe that are responsible for the lives and well being of animals.

At the Cincinnati Zoo, the main vision is inspiring passion for nature and saving wildlife for future generations. Our commitment to conservation is showcased through our global science and wildlife conservation programs, sustainable approach to the management of our facilities, and dedication to education and public engagement in science and conservation at our exhibits. The Cincinnati Zoo features more than 500 animal and 3,000 plant species, making it one of the largest Zoo collections in the country, and we continue to set the standard for conservation, education and preservation of wild animals and wild spaces.
In order to be able to successfully carry out our mission and overall vision we need to make sure we can provide the best possible care to the animals, maintain and open new exhibits, and keep our visitors satisfied and returning on a regular basis to generate new revenue streams for an ongoing business. About a year ago, we had an opportunity facing the Cincinnati Zoo. More than 1.2 million people a year visit our exhibits, and that number was increasing on a consistent basis. Good news, but we had a bigger challenge longer term — How could we maximize the recent increase in attendance and raise guest spending? Additional revenue would allow our management to provide that additional care for zoo animals and add new exhibits to keep up with growing demand.

To keep our own facility running in a sustainable fashion, we needed to make sure we were maximizing our resources properly. We came to the conclusion that technology was an issue and this is when we turned to what some might think of as a non-traditional helping hand for a Zoo – business analytics. Almost immediately after going live with IBM analytics software – the growing mounds of information was turned into knowledge for our staff to improve operations. We were able to increase our in-park spending by as much as 25% by utilizing 360 degree customer views. We turned that information into customized offers and perks for our visitors that keep them happy and coming back, and are now able to arm our managers with real-time data that allows them to react to a dynamic and fluid business driven by seasonal weather patterns.

The results — business analytics has also allowed us to integrate our operations, which means we are running a more sustainable business ourselves. This has helped free up our staff’s time so they can focus on the day-to-day operations in a more meaningful way, while also focusing on the larger picture of ensuring our animals continue to receive the best care. Further, our revenue has increased 350K per year, which enables us to dedicate more resources to the well-being of the zoo animals. In the end everyone wins, our visitors are getting a more enjoyable experience and we can run a more efficient business that allows us to better promote our overall mission of protecting wildlife and promoting its education and conservation.

You can learn more about our story here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Technorati Tags: business analytics, IBM, Smarter Planet, sustainability, Wildlife conservation

Jill Puleri, Global Retail Leader, IBM Global Business Services, kicked off the opening Super Session for the 2011 NRF Conference. Puleri addressed the crowd of retailers on the importance of capitalizing and understanding the smarter consumer.

Puleri’s opening remarks began with a history lesson on retail and IBM’s role in retail. She discussed how the consumer has changed over the last 100 years and how IBM has fundamentally changed retail with calculating and tabulating machines and the emergence and creation of the bar code. The point of the history lesson is “The consumer is smarter today than ever before,” states Puleri.

In understanding the smarter consumer, technology is a given. Today’s consumers are leveraging mobile devices, Web 2.0, and sharing information on multiple social networks. Consumers are more connected and vocal about their needs and wants. Content for consumers is viral, immediate and highly influential.

According to Puleri, the smarter consumer does not want to be sold to, they want to be served. Sales associates must become services associates where retailers must empower the consumer, placing them in the center of all retail operations.

Smarter retail means leveraging customer data. Retailers can use advanced analytics to better understand the consumer and what influences and motivates them to purchase goods.

As the NRF celebrates 100 years of excellence, retailers need to go back to the basic fundamental roots of retail- service. Service is the foundation of the personalized customer experience and IBM can help retailers offer that experience.

Technorati Tags: Analytics, NRF Conference, Retail, servives, smarter consumer

There’s no shortage of contests for tech startups in this world, but IBM’s SmartCamp is different. The focus is on companies that aim to make the world work better, and is aligned with our Smarter Planet agenda. We launched the program last year in Dublin and conducted regional contests this spring and summer in Stockholm, Boston, Tel Aviv, London, and Silicon Valley. (This video tells the Silicon Valley story.) There are still two contests left, in Paris on Sept. 24 and Copenhagen on Oct. 7, before the finals in Dublin on Nov. 16. So there’s time for entrepreneurs to get involved. Check it out at www.ibm.com/ie/smarterplanet/smartcamp.

Technorati Tags: IBM, smartcamp, Smarter Planet

Here’s a frustrating scenario for a sports fan at any kind of tournament: you’re outside the stadium and hear a cheer break out, but don’t know what action just happened on the court.  At this year’s U.S. Open Tennis Tournament, all you have to do is take out your iPhone and use the IBM “Around Me” application to point your phone at the stadium and “see through the walls” to get up to speed on the score and match statistics.

Around Me is an augmented reality application, developed by IBM, for iPhone users at this year’s US Open that allows fans to get a glimpse of what’s happening on the court and also to find the closest restroom, first-aid stand and pizza vendor in the food-court.  Now when you take a quick break to get one of those giant tennis balls at the Chase booth, or need a hot dog, not all is lost (in fact, Around Me could’ve found you that hot dog).  It works by blending the iPhone’s camera functionality with the global positioning system (GPS) that is embedded in the tennis fan’s iPhone.  All of this is supported by a smart infrastructure of IBM technology at the Open and backed up by our data centers.  See here for a video that shows how IBM mobile technology is making the U.S. Open smarter:

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Of course, augmented reality and geo-location are great for enhancing the tennis experience for fans at the Open, but what’s also interesting is the implication for future innovation in mobile technology that goes beyond sports. IBM researchers are developing applications for mobile computing that span industries and solutions like Smarter Healthcare, Smarter Retail and Smarter Finance.

In healthcare, IBM is developing methods to transmit a patient’s vital signs from a mobile device back to a central location running analytics to evaluate and predict things like heart attacks.  This kind of mobile web technology could actually save lives.  Routine healthcare visits might also be done remotely in the future through sensor technology transmitted by mobile devices – these types of systems could even allow for more current and accurate patient records than what we have today.

In retail, IBM is looking at ways that vendors might leverage data from telecom providers to capture customer information and better reach potential clients.  With data about what a consumer has recently purchased, who their social networks are and their current location, a retailer might be able to know, for instance, that a consumer likes golf clubs, has friends who like them too, leaves work in midtown at 6:30pm and passes by the sports store on his way home.  In this way, retailers can target the right consumers in the right places at the right times through mobile tracking and mobile advertising.

In finance, IBM is evaluating the types of payment systems that will exist in the future.  For example, with digital wallet technology for mobile devices, the role of banks will shift within a new ecosystem.  By combining the data analytics that banking institutions will be able to utilize, along with mobile advertising for retail and GPS tracking capabilities, IBM sees the dynamics radically shifting in the future.

Today, we’re making a Smarter U.S. Open with mobile web technology… tomorrow, we could be making people’s lives better and helping to spur new business opportunities.

Technorati Tags: mobile