M+E Daily

By Lyndsey Schaefer

Executives from Hollywood studios, their IT and marketing departments, and their service provider partners discussed how data and analytics are impacting the entertainment industry at Wednesday morning’s Hollywood IT Society (HITS) Big Data Breakfast in Century City, Calif.

The morning kicked off with a keynote presentation from Gil Elbaz, chief executive officer of Factual, whose love of reference books as a child led him to follow a career of tracking information. Factual provides an open data platform to improve accessibility for machines and data scientists to accelerate discovery and innovation with APIs for advertising on mobile data. The cloud-based data and algorithms find patterns in nature and society that scientists can observe and businesses can learn from.

Elbaz observed that with such immediate accessibility to data, innovation can happen at a much faster rate. “The data game is being changed by new forces bringing liquidity to the data market,” he said.

Elbaz added that the company builds global  patterns of consensus by collecting as much data as possible: “There is no ceiling on the amount of data which can be fed into decision systems.”

Following Elbaz’s remarks, a panel presentation examined “Advanced Analytics and Big Data: Operationalizing for Profitability & Growth.” The panel featured Anthony Dina, Enterprise Technologist, Server Solutions, Dell; Brendan Handler, Director Business Development and Strategic Planning, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment; Jason Hunter, Chief Architect, MarkLogic Corp.; Colleen Quinn, Global Program Director, Interactive Advertising and Media & Entertainment, Teradata; Bryan Rockoff, Director of Enterprise Data Warehouse, NBC Universal; and Wendy Wakamoto, Director of Information Technology, Walt Disney Studios. The panel was moderated by Devendra Mishra, Adjunct Professor, Decision Sciences & Marketing, Graziadio School of Business & Management; and Chief Strategist, MESA.

Panel participants varied on their definitions of big data.

Dell’s Dina said that the big data helps the company with getting to know its customers, because customer intimacy equals loyalty, and better prediction creates efficiency.

“Big data means being able to unlock what the consumer is saying to us and have that conversation,” added Teradata’s Quinn.

Other panelists noted that big data refers not only to the size of the data, but also to understanding the audience in a new way. As a result of advanced analytics, NBC Universal’s Rockoff said, the content company is able to identify individuals that are engaging with its programs on second screens.