Analysts here at Praescient Analytics work to bring data solutions to our clients everyday, but to the average person, big data and data analytics seem like daunting practices reserved for the highly skilled professionals in government and the corporate world. Exciting news coverage of the emerging practices tend to emphasize the fundamental changes they may bring to everyday life. However, new uses of data analytics are already influencing the lives of regular people in much more subtle and unique ways. From optimizing your route to work to correcting your running form, the applications of data analytics stretch far and wide.
Arguably the greatest application of data analytics to date, Beverage Analytics presents bars from all over the world with a plethora of new opportunities. Beverage Analytics thoroughly analyzes the sales, products, and consumption of bars and provides important insights to the owners allowing them to optimize output. Bars can see their real time performance, their rankings among other bars, and can even see the quality and waste of beer using sensors connected to taps. Bartenders can be notified when they are over-pouring or under-pouring beer giving them the chance to correct mistakes in real time. Furthermore, owners can see statistics describing which beer is the most popular and predicting the likely average sales they will encounter on a week to week basis. Data analytics could be the reason behind the success of the most popular bar in your hometown.
The rising influence of data also may have had a hand in creating some of your favorite shows. Back in the early 2010s when Netflix was diving into the creation of original content they relied heavily on the use of data analytics. Netflix wanted to be in the same conversation as television giants such as HBO and AMC, yet their assets regarding compelling original shows were severely lacking. HBO had Game of Thrones, The Wire, and The Sopranos, while AMC had Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and The Walking Dead. Netflix could only boast about Lillehammer and recently acquiring the rights to a reboot of Arrested Development. To bridge this gap, Netflix needed a hit show that was both critically and commercially acclaimed. Their final solution was throwing down over 100 million dollars on a show they had not even watched a preview for, let alone a single second of the actual content.
Netflix acquired the show House of Cards purely on the insights of data analytics. They utilized data on how many people watched Kevin Spacey films, films directed by David Fincher, and political thrillers and then hypothesized the size of the potential audience. They were so convinced that this show would be a hit that they outbid their rivals at HBO and AMC using pure analytics instead of the conventional procedures of Hollywood. That gamble ultimately paid off as House of Cards gained mainstream popularity and received multiple nominations and wins from the Academy Awards from its very first season. Unfortunately, Netflix has yet to develop a way of using data analytics to figure out how to make a show that stays good for more than a few seasons. But rest assured, through their dedication to analytics they will.
If you think data analytics only affects your everyday life by getting you buzzed and making you binge watch TV, don’t worry because it also has healthy applications. Japanese researchers at the University of Tsukuba analyzed 2000 separate runners of all skill levels and found their specific movements in joints throughout the body. Using sensors on the elbows, knees, and ankles the researchers found differences in movement between high-performing marathon runners and more intermediate and beginner runners. Runners were then placed in skill groups to refine and master proper form and style. Data analytics can provide insights into activities humans have been doing for all of history, the scope of its potential is truly amazing.
Data analytics are not just tools for figuring out how to target voters and deciding entire election strategies. They can benefit small businesses and everyday people in more ways than most think. From helping your local grocery store to ensuring Netflix offers you the best series possible, data analytics have improved our daily lives in a variety of ways. At Praescient, we value how we apply our data analytics to serve the public sector as well, advancing and optimizing complex systems in order to make the world a little more streamlined. We are passionate about delivering these solutions to our clients because we have seen how effectively analyzing data can brighten our world. Once we have done our part, we would love to sit back and crack open a beautifully poured beer and watch a perfectly curated Netflix show, all made possible by the incredible uses of data analytics.