Andreas Weigend

Leading Behavioral Marketing Expert; Former Chief Scientist, Amazon.com

BIG IDEAS

• The Social Data Revolution
  In 2009, more data will be generated by individuals than in the entire history of mankind through 2008. What are the implications for marketing? The world has witnessed two revolutions in the way consumer data has been solicited and collected. Consumers have changed the way they use the web to converse, shop, and transact. As a result, people have elevated their expectations for good, healthy customer relationships and exchanges. This has put pressure on marketers to forge astute, coherent strategies for how they engage people, what data they gather, and how they use it.
  
  Andreas examines the origin of the first data revolution, revealing how successful companies initially gained power by collecting, aggregating, and analyzing customer data. Finding actionable insights turned out to be harder than expected however and most companies ended up burying their data in tombs. A new dimension to data creation began to emerge in a second data revolution, when users started to actively contribute explicit data such as information about themselves and their friends. In the last few years, users have continued to enhance their role in the contribution of metadata to the place where they have in fact created a shift in the center of the consumer economy from e-business to me-business—the Social Data Revolution. As these consumer expectations shift, companies that want to stay relevant have no choice but to accept and embrace the ideas of the social data revolution as swiftly as possible.
  
  Andreas helps organizations understand the deep questions that are beginning to emerge: What does it means to own data in an intrinsically networked world? What are the trade-offs individuals want to make? How are customer expectations shifting? What remains constant in these rapidly changing technologies? Understanding and applying the principles of the social data revolution empowers companies to leverage relevant data created and shared by individuals.
• The Unrealized Power of Data
  Technology affords companies unprecedented opportunities to interact with customers and employees. In all of these interactions, data is created around consumer choice, purchase decisions, pricing, location, and attitudes and beliefs. Yet most firms neither capture nor fully utilize those data to impact their bottom line and strengthen relationships with their customers. Social recommendations and behavioral targeting are early examples of leveraging new sources of data. The next iteration of these interactions, for example mobile phones, empowers owners to access richer data, discover new opportunities and share more information. Secondarily, location data also enables companies to understand mobility patterns for marketing and planning purposes. Learn from the former Chief Scientist of Amazon.com how to create a comprehensive data strategy through: Leveraging the data you’re already collecting, but not using; Identifying data that you could and should be collecting; Providing your customers and employees with a new platforms to express themselves, show their preferences, and make known their relationships. A passionate and energetic presenter, Andreas offers concrete examples from Amazon and other companies.

SNAPSHOT BIO

Andreas Weigend is the former Chief Scientist at Amazon.com and an expert in data mining and computational marketing.  He currently teaches the graduate course Data Mining and Electronic Commerce at Stanford University, and the executive course Technology, Information and Innovation in Shanghai.  As an independent consultant, he now helps data-intensive organizations make strategic decisions based on analytics and metrics. His applied research is in fields including behavioral economics, time series analysis, and computational finance.  His career as a scientist, data strategist and quantitative methods innovator gives him a unique ability to bridge the gap between industry and academia.

He served as Amazon.com's Chief Scientist until January 2004, where he developed data mining techniques including session-based marketing, and designed applications ranging from heuristic cross-selling to customer network and lifecycle analysis.  Previously, in 1999, he co-founded MoodLogic, voted "best music organizer" by C|NET. He was also the Chief Scientist of ShockMarket, creating information products and trading models based on real-time data from online brokerages, leveraging principles of behavioral finance. 

Andreas has published more than one hundred scientific papers and co-authored six books. He has  also served as a full-time faculty member at New York University's Stern School of Business, and at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  He received an IBM Partnership Award and a National Science Foundation Career Award.  Andreas studied electrical engineering, physics, and philosophy at Karlsruhe, Cambridge (Trinity College), and Bonn University. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in physics in 1991, and was a researcher at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) and at the Santa Fe Institute.

A Closer Look at Andreas

FOCUS AREAS
What's on Andreas's current research agenda?

Andreas expertise arises from his academic background in computer science, machine learning, cognitive science, and behavioral economics and has been honed for the real world through his consulting experience. He spends a great deal of time researching the following areas:

• Personalization and Recommendation:  Delight the user and create true loyalty based on perceived value.
• Hypertargeting and Discovery:  Leverage new data sources (intention, attention, location, etc.) to dramatically improve response and monetization.
• Metrics and Measurement:  Base decisions on data, not gut beliefs.
• Incentive Design:  Create interaction and community. Use a systemtic approach when designing incentive schemes.
• E-business, Me-business, We-Business:  Learn from Amazon.com for e-business. Learn from craigslist for me-business. Levage the social graph for we-business.
• Marketing in Web2.0:  Understand the drivers of viral marketing asocial media: customer serivce is the new marketing!

ENGAGEMENTS
How have other organizations utilized Andreas's expertise, and what's ahead on his schedule?

Andreas works with some of the most brilliant entrepreneurs and executives around the world, helping them to leverage the staggering amount of data created by web and mobile device users. He helps his audiences understand the underlying principles of the consumer data revolution, and teaches them how to derive actionable insights from these principles.

Andreas presents his ideas and insights in a variety of formats including:

Consulting
With a unique combination of insights from academia and extensive industry experience, Andreas works closely with innovative organizations and is able to provide frameworks, relevant examples and concrete stepping stones for businesses in areas ranging from data strategy (both external and internal across multiple touch points) to collective intelligence. Organizations Andreas has advised include:

• Social platforms (MySpace, match.com)
• Digital devices (Nokia)
• Travel (Priceline, Lufthansa)
• Commerce (Amazo, Alibab, Metro Group)

Speaking
Andreas has shared his vision on the new consumer data revolution at events including:

• Fortune BrainstormTECH
• IBM Almaden Institute: "The New consumer Data Revolution: Who Pays Whom?"
• O'Reilly's Web2.0 Expo: "Data - Your New Competitive Advantage"
• Digital Life Design: "The Future of Digital China"

Teaching

• UC Berkeley/Hass: Marketing in Web2.0 (MBA)
• Standford: Data Mining and e-Business (Statistics)
• Tsinghua/INSEAD (Executive MBA)