Thank you very much for inviting me，I’m really honored to be here. I’m going to tell you something about advertising in the era of big data，taking an European perspective. I believe the European perspective is relevant as the EU consists of 28 different countries，each with their own culture and often also language. This means that we have a lot of companies that focus on reaching customers across countries and cultures，so I think there might be some examples which will be interesting to you.

I’m going to start with a picture of the buildings of the Dutch government. This is where our government is located. The little tower here，this is our prime minister’s office. The reason why I show you this picture is that a few years ago some colleagues were hired by members of the Dutch parliament to investigate how much information was send from a mobile phone. They wanted to know：“If we use our mobile phone how much information do other people get about us？” Their goal was to get relevant information to make legislation to deal with data privacy. Software was installed on their phones to track for a week how many messages were sent from their phones to an outside party. It turned out that over 20000 data points were transmitted. The data indicated things such as where they took the train，where they walked，when they were home，how many emails they send etc. It was quite shocking for them to see how much information was shared. It seems like we live in a waterfall of data. And this trend is only continuing：with the Apple or Android watches they monitor your heart beats or how often，where and how well you exercise when you walk. More and more information is known about is and increasingly smart devices will get into your homes. For instance，this is Nest；a smart device that controls the temperature regulation in your house and that can be controlled with your mobile phone. Using data transmitted from your mobile phone，the system can see when you are approaching home and can start to heat or cool the house accordingly.

All this data and information on people is great from an interactive marketing perspective. Finally，we can really understand customers. In the old days，advertisers hoped their message would reach to people through mass media and would afterwards research the effects of their campaigns on customers. Nowadays，we have real time information on how customers interact with marketing campaigns. Modern marketing demands deeper understanding of customers and their behavior and how they like to interact with the company. Interactive marketing wants to deliver personalized experiences which customers find useful and engaging. Big data is fantastic because it can help you do all these things.

In reality however，very few of all the data collected is actually analyzed. Around 5% of the captured data by European firms is organized and of that only 10% of the data is used. So this means that 90% of the organized data is not analyzed. So the reality is that we don’t yet know what to do with big data. We don’t know how to make information out of all the data that is at our disposal. So we need to think about what big data actually entails. I think the name big data is really a bad name because we always think big data refers to the amount of data that is out there；all these enormous information sets. I think we should call it smart data instead of big data because this is what it is really about. Smart data focuses on the ability to search，aggregate and cross-reference data on various levels of analysis. So I don’t just want to know the effects of an ordinary campaign in terms of how many times people press play on a website. I want to know what customers do，I want to know what the customers did in the previous webshop，I want to know their family situation etc. I want to combine information about my customers so I can deliver them personalized experiences.

If you look at big data，there are a few things that are really changing the future of advertising. I think the first point is if we start to understand what we can do with big data we can also understand the customer journey from multiple touch points. So we really start to understand what consumers do on their mobile phones or websites，laptops，etc. When we understand the customer journey，we can optimize campaign efforts because we know what people do what people need and want. In that sense we are moving from a broadcast model to a more interactive and personalized model. Having said that，it is good to note that advertising is not just about mathematical analysis of data files. Creativity and empathy remain keys to surprise people with new communication messages and forms.

Here are some examples from European companies of what they are doing. Has anybody here ever heard of a company called Rocket Internet？They want to become the largest internet platform outside the United States and China，because they say these markets are so big we don’t want compete there. Their focus is on Europe，Africa，Southeast Asia and Latin America. Rocket Internet calls itself a factory for startups，and in their companies there are over 24000 people employed. They are very good in supporting start up companies to get to market quickly and to market themselves. For this they use a lot of big data，for instance on AB testing where two options of a product feature are shown to end users. As they invest in so many start ups and some of them have grown really large like Europe’s largest fashion etailer Zalando they can also use data collected by different companies on the same customers to have an even more tailored approach.

Another example is a start up company called Cirqle. You might know Europeans tend to be obsessed with fashion. Nowadays，many people get a lot of their information on the latest trends via bloggers. Cirqle connects brands with bloggers. They devise campaigns，send them out to different bloggers that can opt to use them on their blogs or social media accounts. Their system tracks everything that each blogger and campaign does，giving real time transparent insight into what’s happening to brands. Bloggers are only paid based on results.

Another company that I don’t know if it is available in China is called Spotify. It’s probably the largest streaming music company in the world. They have a very good interface that helps you to find information and the music you like. Spotify uses a lot of data on their users to give suggestions on music，and allow people to check what their friends are listening to. In addition，based on your listening preferences they offer you personalized playlists. The free version of Spotify features advertising. The data on the users who are their friends，what music are they listening to etc.is again used to develop targeted advertising. For instance，someone that listening to running playlists might be interested in shoes from Nike and Adidas.

Another example is Dutch Airline KLM that uses a lot data to optimize customer experiences. At one point，they decided to look into their data files to see what passengers were always late on planes. Based on the insights they got from this，they changed the checking-in procedure to ensure people were on time. Another example is Philips，the Dutch electronics company. One of their products is tooth brush for children. As many children don’t like to brush their teeth，they developed an app that children can play with while they are brushing their teeth. A game character encourages kids to brush their teeth. The game allows Philips to have a communication connection to their target audience on a daily basis and helps them to collect data to further refine their offering.

As a last example，I want to talk about the Holiday Doctor，an app developed by an insurance company. In the summer，many people in the Netherlands go on holiday to countries such as France，Spain and Italy. The app allows everyone that feels sick abroad to connect to a Dutch speaking doctor instantly. Rather than focusing on a traditional campaign，this insurer focused on offering a useful service that offers them the opportunity to connect directly to their target audience. Additionally，the app helps them to generate data on they types of illnesses people face on holiday.

The question is whether advertising in the future will mimic the creative geniuses in the hit TV show Mad Men or whether the Math Men will take over. I believe that even though analyzing data measures behavior，we still can’t always explain why we see certain behavior. Going forward，we need more theories，explanations why we find certain patterns in the data. Furthermore，creativity remains crucial. If you make decisions purely based on data you actually ignore customers because often time customers don’t know what they want until they see it. You must show it to them. And creativity，empathy and imagination are crucial for this.

Another important point surrounding big data usage in advertising at least in Europe is privacy. To what extent will citizens tolerate companies and governments collecting data on them？

Concluding：In a world dominated by social media and mobile connectivity，every single customer is a segment.

Thank you very much！