We wrap up our April guest blog series on Big Data with a great post from John Stauffer, CTO of True Fit. John discusses the great point of how to properly use big data to target customers but not spook them with the data collected about them. As a reminder, our next guest blog series starts in May and the topic is Mobile, if you are interested in contributing please e-mail me at taylor [at] MITX [dot] org.

John is a pragmatic software development leader with a 20+ year track record of developing successful product and architecture strategies and leading teams to execute on them. Prior to True Fit, John was Chief Architect at 170 Systems where he led the transformation of the company’s existing product architecture to a modern, scalable, and maintainable java-based architecture, leading to an acquisition by Kofax. Prior to 170 Systems, John was Chief Architect for Oracle’s Retail Business Unit after its acquisition of ProfitLogic. As Chief Architect for ProfitLogic, John was responsible for the creation of products for Retail Markdown, Pre-season Planning, Allocation and Promotion Forecasting and Optimization that are used by the world’s largest retailers.

The catalog sitting on my counter was the single creepiest piece of mail I had ever received. It was full of dog-oriented chotskies aimed at overzealous dog owners. 

As the owner of a pair of English Bulldogs filling out our nearly-empty nest, my wife and I are certainly the target market. I have a Bulldog statue proudly sitting on my desk, and I've given up the fight against the Halloween costumes that my wife insists on buying each year for our bulldogs (Knight and Princess last year, Greaser and Poodle Skirt before that).

For the July blog series, we asked some of Boston's greatest thought leaders to speak on a particularly complicated (but relevant) subject: tracking, targeting, and privacy. Their responses were surprising, fascinating, and applicable - and we think you'll find this series quite interesting! This post is by Tyler Sandler. Tyler a BIMA member and Senior Director of Sales for Evidon. Don’t let his New York area code fool you, Tyler is a native New Englander, graduate of the University of New Hampshire and a Sox fan. He can be reached at tsandler (at) evidon (dot) com.

The irresponsible use of consumer data is the rogue trader lurking in our industry. If unfound this trader can blow up years of hard work and investment. Online targeting options abound but, until recently, little thought has been given to consumer privacy when it comes to tracking and targeting. This is why I challenge you to do something.

Whenever the subjects of targeting, tracking, and privacy come up in the context of our industry, there is always controversy, heated debate, many sides of the story, and opinions mixed with facts. When I miss a few days of headlines I feel like the whole world has changed. The next few years will bring about some of the biggest changes that our industry has faced.  Now is not the time for complacency - it is a time for action. This is our industry’s issue to solve. Given the exponential growth of technology, my children will live in a world where access to information is beyond our wildest sci-fi dreams and, as such, digital privacy could be nonexistent. We are in the early days of setting the standard of what privacy means in our always on, networked, and connected society, and this is why I challenge you to do something.  

For the July blog series, we asked some of Boston's greatest thought leaders to speak on a particularly complicated (but relevant) subject: tracking, targeting, and privacy. Their responses were surprising, fascinating, and applicable - and we think you'll find this series quite interesting! This post is by Chris Emme. Chris is the VP, East Coast for RadiumOne, an innovative digital media company that harnesses social interaction data through its own first party products and delivers audience scale for today's Intelligent Web. In this role, Chris is responsible for all Sales, Marketing, and Operations functions for the NY, Atlanta, Dallas and Boston offices. He works with senior leadership at all major agencies and brands across the East Coast and Southwest to bring innovative media opportunities for their digital marketing objectives. He has grown the team, revenue and regional presence from the ground up and has been a digital media devotee for over 14 years. He  is an avid tri-athlete and new father to his son, Tyler.

Via.me/ChrisEmme @chrisemme Linkedin.com/in/cemme About.me/chrisemme

I rarely speak to people outside our [digital media] industry about the details of what I do. The reason I don’t is that when I get to the part about how consumer data is collected to target ads more effectively, their eyes get really wide and I can see a wave of anxiety come over them. No matter how many times I say that only non PII (Personally Identifiable Information) is collected and that the data is used to deliver targeted/relevant messages to them which about things they may be interested in, it doesn’t matter. Their mind is already in a place thinking about what they posted, commented on, shared, surfed or searched and they’re wondering what “they” know about him.

This post is part of our June series on start-ups. We reached out to some of our favorite local start-uppers to find out how they're innovative. This post is by Spencer Bramson. Spencer is a charismatic and young influence marketing leader who is passionate about connecting brands with college students. As a serial entrepreneur, Spencer left school after sophomore year to co-found Buzz University, a marketing agency that he and his business partner grew to $200k in revenue by age 21. At BuzzU, Spencer managed a team of 180 university ambassadors across New England and personally engaged with hundreds of thousands of students where he captured leads, distributed swag and steered the strategy of college marketing campaigns for ROCKSTAR Energy Drink, MilkyWay, Zumba, and Proctor & Gambel among other well-known consumer packaged goods brands. Spencer has been a presenter at the 2012 Social Media Week and the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), has been awarded the 2011 Future Forward Game Changer and the 2012 Most Likable Entrepreneur and holds 3 WOMMA certifications.

Think back to the last product you decided to purchase. A cool new soft drink that just hit the market or a new brand of shoes perhaps. Now consider what prompted this purchase decision in the first place. If you’re anything like the 18 to 24 year old demographic there is a strong possibility that your peers played a large part in influencing your choice.