The100: Chaos, data and the sticky stuff of life

The Master at Work

For those of you lucky enough to be at our Power of Finding Your Truth in Marketing event the other week, you’ll realise why we started with the mighty Martin Weigel and his case for chaos revisited.

It was a worthy winner of post-of-the-month on Only Dead Fish, and when Martin kicks into the 7 Ways to Resist the Dead Hand of Order, it really starts to fly, with the opening:

1. Escape the machine and get out into culture.

Boom! (And here’s that link again.)

“Data is leading to the end of marketing”

Tom Goodwin is telling us to treat data like a friend down the pub, not an idol to pray to. I especially loved his points on how feedback surveys aren’t about feedback, they’re about measurement.

“We must not let success come to those who practice poor methodology, frame data irresponsibly and tell good old-fashioned lies. Instead, let’s learn to torture data, question routines, understand bias and most of all examine the intentions behind what’s shared. With virtually endless data there is always a way to cut it to make a point.”

Thanks Tom. 10 out of 10. But what does that scoring even mean?

“Abysmal” is the worst, and “perfect” is the best

YouGov in the UK looks at how good is good.

Loved this:

“Comparing the results with those of an identical study published by YouGov US reveals that the stereotype of Britons being less enthusiastic generally holds up – except for the very most positive words.”

Excellent (and now you know I mean that).

Data’s got it in for itself

Kantar has used data to show that marketers struggle to create insight from data – 78% apparently.  It really does seem like a bad time for data.  There’s probably some data on that somewhere.

Wiping away my crocodile tears, perhaps we should all focus more on Thick Data. Tom Eldridge calls this the sticky stuff of life itself in his article on the 5 rules for getting insight right.

Yup, that gets a vote from the Watch Me Think towers.

Balls in round holes

Anyway, who wants to think about data all the time (not me), so I invite you all to take 5 minutes and either watch some of these deeply satisfying videos – I emphatically guarantee you’ll play at least one of them… go on, see if I’m right…

Or browse NYC’s interactive map of trees – come, come, did you think you’d get an edition of The100 without mention of a map in it? You should know me by now 🙂