The Economist uses "bigger data" to read its audience better

The Economist is using more data than before to know it's audience better. The magazine is using sales data to find correlations between readers, for example.

"We store data, aggregate with other data, and then analyze it," says Neelay Patel, Vice President from The Economist.

The magazine is using registration details, event tracking details (city, country, IP address etc.) and campaign details (emails received and opened). The data is stored with DataMart and then aggregated to create a marketing operations machine.

"We have moved from an old marketing funnel to a new marketing funnel. We can now work with a self-selected audience," Patel says.

With the new data The Economist can create personalized mobile ads. The magazine is planning on adding external layers (other websites and publishing partners) in the system.

"In the print era we have been sharing customer lists, for example. It would be great to share data in the digital era, as well," he says.