Aurélie and I just got back home after filling in a complaint for lost luggage at the airport… (thanks American Airlines). So we are back in our little Brussels and it’s great to be home, the birds sing this Sunday morning (home sweet home).
This morning, here at Emetrics we had a great panel session with THE 4 most important Web Analytics Gurus (Jim, Bryan, Eric & Avinash). We had over 40 people joining the session from around the world that could not only follow the discussion, but also send questions. The international attendees are members of the Web Analytics Association as this was a members only session (in addition to the lucky ones that were present in San Francisco).
Jime Sterne, Bryan Eisenberg, Vicky Brock, Eric T. Peterson, Brian Induni & Avinash Kaushik.
Thanks to the WAA and specially to Vicky and Brian without whom this wouldn’t have happened (and thank you Lars for coming up with the name of this online event ;-)).
This event was recorded, so if you want to have access to it in the coming weeks, you just need to do one thing: BECOME MEMBER OF THE WAA!
I’ll be posting a little ‘chupachups’ video in the coming days of this session and publish all the questions that were adressed from the attendees (physically and virtually), you’ll see all the answers from this great minds in the members section of the WAA website.
Google has just announced here in San Francisco the release of the Version 2 of Google Analytics. We are very excited at OX2 as we have been testing this new version since a bit more than a month now. As you know part of our Web analytics team attended the GAAC training in Dublin a couple of months ago and they also got trained on this new version.
It is radically different from the current version and incorporates great new features (I love the big bounce rate percentage and the export functionnalities have really been improved). I won’t enter into details right now as you know I’m not an Analyst (as I like to say, I’m just the sales guy ;-)).
Julien will be publishing in the coming hours a post about this new version! And we will publish more insights in the coming days/weeks.
So if you’re using Google analytics expect a radical change (but don’t worry there will be a transition period in which you will still be able to use the previous interface).
I have to admit that for Aurélie and I it wasn’t a big surprise as we were in the secret since a couple of months now when Eric contacted us to propose Aurélie to join his Board of Advisors (Nevertheless, Aurélie got her surprise as before starting his presentation Eric took her on stage and sang Happy Birthday to her -she just turned 29 for the sixth time yesterday- along with the 500 attendees – I’ll post a little video about this ;-)). I remember the day he sent us an email asking us to have a chat with him over Skype. Back then, we were really surprised by his future move and pretty honored to be not only among the firsts to know his secret but also his will to have Aurélie to join his Board of Advisors (thank you Eric, we will always be grateful for your trust and confidence).
So what is it all this about, what Eric plans to do? What are his objectives? What’s his company positioning?
Eric has created his company around what he calls ‘The Truth About Web Analytics”: (more…)
For those of you who do not know Jim Sterne (Who doesn’t know Jim Sterne?), I like to call him the Godfather of Web Analytics. In the WA Industry you have Gurus, Vendors, Consultants and Practitionners, but only one Godfather and that’s Jim Sterne (if you want a proof just view this).
Jim has been in the Web Analytics since it exists. He has not only written about it (you may read for example a very interesting White Paper he wrote in 2000 with Matt Cutler or buy one of his books at Amazon). He has also been the creator and responsible of the Emetrics Summit, the must attend event around Web Analytics that happens 4 times a year (Mmmm, rumors say that he will expanding his operations shortly, so keep up visiting http://www.emetrics.org). The Emetrics Summit are 2 to 3 days events that take place in the US and Europe allowing Web Analytics professionals not only to attend astonishing and outstanding presentation, but also network in order to exchange ideas and points of view.
Jim’s views on the Web Analytics team:
Last Year, during his keynote speach, Jim described the different competences needed in a Web Analytics team: (more…)
A first version of this post has been hanging in the ‘draft’ section since the week after I came back from the Emetrics in London (29-30 March 2007), but as I’ve been quite busy and I actually reached my 3 outcomes since 2 weeks only (since our WAW in Brussels), I feel it is now the time to publish it.
A chance to win Jim Sterne’s Markting Optimization Library made me help to set all the work aside and finish this post as well. You never know 😉 (What do you think Jim? You think I get nominated?)
Let me start by explaining the concept of the 3 outcomes.
Like last year, between presentations, there was the time for a roundtable discussion. Last year one of the discussions was about Web Analytics KPIs, and this year was quite similar. But instead of thinking about the succes factors that need to be measured for a web site, this time you had think about the personal objectives you wanted to meet by attending the Emetrics. Kind of your personal summit KPIs. In addition, these outcomes had to fulfill some criteria, and I quote:
Each of your outcomes will be effective when they meet the following criteria.
S – Specific (the What, Why and How)
M – Measurable
A – Attainable
R – Realistic
T – Timely
S.M.A.R.T. outcomes emphasize what you want, rather than what you don’t want.
So here we go with my personal outcomes of this years Emetrics London: (more…)
Raphael Nolens invited us into a cycling journey into Web Analytics in Düsseldorf, playfully showing us the stages Pioneer Europe went through in order to fully reap the benefits of the online channel today.
It all started out with a leap back in the past where ever since 1996, Pioneer Europe had been going through redesign projects, year after year. Faced with different cultures and quality issues – some sites were down for half a day before anyone actually noticed, which was acceptable at the time – Pioneer decided to set up a European Web Governance Team back in 2001.
The fixing of the leaking buckets started with performance issues, as the websites where too slow. In 2002, 12 new websites where released, running under a single centralised database and a homogeneous web design, across all countries.
Since then, Rafael has been working hard to improve the Internet presence through a continuous improvement cycle.
The challenge mainly relied in the fact that international companies are not organised to work together. That’s where the bicycles started to show up: you have to peddle hard and together, working as a team. A sprinter does not hold the same responsibilities as team members trying to push their team leader across the finish line.
In the light of non aligned strategies across countries, pan European companies tend to follow different strategies ranging from DIY to zeppelins that gobble up a lot of euros, are highly inflammable and need to be rebuilt each year.
Pioneer saw this differently and more specifically in the light of small & effective ways of spending those euros sensibly. Like climbing up a curved road zigzagging through, assuring that onward movement, brought by your team of climbers and sprinters. And indeed, as Avinash would say, small is beautiful 😉(more…)
The first one that I presented was an introduction of the Web Analytics Association as the WAA is the main organiser of the Web Analytics Wednesdays worldwide:
18 people showed up (I hope to increase this number for the next edition in a couple of months). As you know, the agenda included some presentations delivered by Michaël Notté, Julien Coquet and myself (I’ll publish another post with a copy of these later on. You can read the agenda here) and it was followed by a networking cocktail. The audience was mainly composed of practitioners, but we had also 1 consultant (beside us) and 2 vendors (WebTrends and ClickTracks).
Siegert just finished a little video about this event. Enjoy:
“Web Analytics Wednesday is the world’s only distributed networking event for web analytics professionals. Open to everyone, practitioners and vendors alike, Web Analytics Wednesday is a free event allowing you to meet folks with similar work interests.” Eric T. Peterson – Founder of the Web Analytics Wednesdays (WAW)
Jim Sterne, Founding President of the Web Analytics Association pinning Michaël Notté from Toyota Europe (one of the WAW speakers, see agenda below) with the WAA pin.
As some of you might already be aware, we are organising a Web Analytics Wednesday in Brussels capital of Europe this month. It won’t be the second wednesday of the month but the third due to the easter holidays. The Event is organized by the WAA and courteously sponsored by de Persgroep.
As I had already the opportunity to comment on Eric’s blog, we would like to make the event a bit more ‘brainy’ by starting off with some knowledge/experiences sharing (you know us ;-)).
The theme for this WAW will be:
Insights about rolling out a Web Analytics project in a pan European perspective
Regarding this theme we will have 2 presentations coming from a practitionner and a consultant. We believe that these two visions are complementary and thus we hope that you will find it interesting (register).
After a very nice bath, a good nights rest and some usual Saturday grocery shopping, I finally got René out of his week-end siesta and decided it was time to start my first post about the Emetrics Summit we attended, together with Siegert, during the end of this week in London.
As usual, there is a lot to digest after such an event but, in contrary to last year, it was more about networking and confirmation of our own issues and findings than real new knowledge and great surprises. Call me ‘blasée’ or just really focused.
In any case, please allow me to start with some kind of rant through a list of things I heard from vendors and found misplaced, ridiculous, utterly stupid and shows how little some of them (not all by afar) actually know about the business they’re in.
I’m aware of the fact that these are harsh words but as more and more vendors seem to be walking the education path for their own personnel as well (on top of their clients apparently), I would just like their statements to be more than simple words.
Yesterday, during the Emetrics Summit in London we were given the opportunity to ask questions to a panel of Web Analytics vendors that covered most of the top players of the Industry. Jim called it the ‘Vendors Variety Hour‘. It was a pity that Ian Thomas could not participate as Microsoft hasn’t yet launched Gatineau 😉 (looking forward to see you in the panel next year).
Last year during the Emetrics there was a question ‘Vendors name one thing you do better than WebTrends‘. This year I decided to bring again the question, but with a twist ;-):
‘Vendors, what would be your unique selling proposition?‘ And the twist was for Avinash that was actively representing Google: ‘Avinash you cannot say that GA USP is it’s free‘.
It was a great day yesterday here at the Emetrics. We had the pleasure to see some great presentations. If I was to pick only two I would recommend Jim’s and Avinash’s. More to come here in our blog in the coming days.
In the meantime I leave you with a video from Jim as he seems to enjoy the YouTube Video Buzzing 😉
For those of you who don’t know Emetrics, it’s the best WA related event worldwide gathering the best professionals of the sector. We will make some posts afterwards as we use to. In the meantime, you can read our previous posts about Emetrics of view this video that explains the concept.
Following the example of Julien with his research on the web analytics tools used by CAC40, IBEX35 and DAX30 companies, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the 2006 and 2007 BeCommerce Awards winners (see post BeCommerce Awards 2007) as well, to get an idea if the best of Belgian eCommerce is doing any web analytics überhaupt and which is their prefered tool.
To be complete, I also included the companies which were attributed the BeCommerce Label (and this for the first time in Belgium). These companies received this label as their ecommerce website fullfilled different conditions such as respecting the privacy, solving complaints, prtecticting minors, etc.
As they respresent the best of breed, I wondered if they analyse their web site behavior to improve their Return On Investment?
Let’s start with the list of winners and label owners, and the web analytics tool they use: (more…)
OX2 a envoyé un petit comité exploratoire au 1er forum eMarketing à Paris, qui se tenait du 12 au 13 février 2007 dans les bâtiments de la Cité des Sciences de la Vilette, comité composé de Julien et de moi-même.
Voici un focus qui porte principalement sur les conférences du 13 février sur le ROI et les Web Analytics. (more…)
Op 13 februari 2007 werd de 2e editie van de BeCommerce Awards georganiseerd, door Inside en BeCommere (BDMV), en waar WebAnalytcs.be één van de hoofdsponsors was. Dit event ging dit jaar door in de prachtige gebouwen van de Concert Noble, en trok meer volk dan de vorige editie. Een feit waarop we ons alleen maar kunnen verheugen, al blijft er nog veel werk aan de (online) winkel wat betreft wetgeving en standardisatie, zodat de ‘webshop’ ook betrouwbaarder wordt bij de consument.
Maar hieraan wordt volop gewerkt. Hetgeen ook bevestigd werd door de aanwezigheid van Piet Van Baeveghem, kabinetchef van minister Marc Verwilghen (Economie, Energie, Buitenlandse Handel en Wetenschapsbeleid), en de uitreiking van de eerste BeCommerce Certificatie labels. (more…)
One of my favorite former employers, Deutsche Bank, will be holding as from the 12th of February their Securities 2007 Small Cap Growt Conference in Naples, Florida. The reason I’m wirting about this is the mention of Omniture’s participation, during last week’s audio cast. Interestingly enough, they weren’t the only ones I overheard last week that would participate.
As I was researching for an article about Business Intelligence & Web Analytics this week, other companies mentioned the exact same event.
Reason enough to take a peak at who would be there and what would be made available.
The following link sums up the companies attending with links towards their webcasts, if these are made available (which is not clear at this moment).
Companies attending that are currently of interest to me are: RightNow Technologies, Unica, Omniture with Josh James & Michael Herring, Informatica Corp., WebMethods, .. and I’ll leave you discover the rest.
The eMetrics summit held in Washington last week was attended by some 480 participants, of which only 9 companies from Europe were present! Amongst which, Italy was represented by Giovanni (left) from BigBang, Scotland by Vicky Brock* (right) from Highland Business Research and us, little Belgians. Avinash (middle) is an exception, I’d call him a world citizen and one of our greatest inspirators.
The week before attending, I received an email from Brian Induni, Web Analytics Association President, regarding a possible subcommittee about certification or how to define Web Analytics professionals.
During the course of this week, I was reminded of the fact that web analytics products are not a silver bullets, independantly of the one you choose. Some products are better than others, will adapt better to your needs; with the Golden Palm going to what I call the analyst nirvana, Visual Sciences. I mean WOW!
All presentators and attendees agree on the fact that Web Analytics is hard!
Education remains the essential underlying theme of sucessfull web analytics projects and as Avinash pointed out, curiosity and spending at least 20% of your time “providing analysis no one asked for and only you can perform” is actually where INSIGHT can be found. Gosh, that was so true!
Please note I used the term insight and not reporting or reports. It’s not about reports as these can be spitted out by any tool. The WSS whitepaper I commented upon (thanks Eric for your comments) last week defines KPIs for the media sector. Such reports can be set-up of course in WSS’s HBX but also WebTrends, Instadia or Coremetrics, amongst others.
I came to the eMetrics summit with a lot of questions and reflections about my own work over the past few years. Amongst which, some were answered; others emanated into new interrogations. Just like what happened in May in London, when I first attended an eMetrics summit, the first time I heard Avinash Kaushik speak about expensive consultants 😉
Once again, my products related spectrum freshened up, this time in Washington, by attending on the 3rd day the end-to-end presentations of Google Analytics and Visual Sciences.
The spectrum is one of price, reflecting the ungoing discussion about the issue surrounding product pricing and whether web analytics products should be free. I must admit not having a clear opinion on that and can only express my view as an economist. Using Web Analytics tools right, undeniably assures increased utility for your company. Your company would thus be ready to pay for such a service.
The price tag you’ll decide to put upon the acquisition of products and hopefully service, should reflect the commitment your company is willing to take while walking the path towards data driven decision making.
Also note that data driven decision making is about culture. Not all companies have such a culture in them and upper management will have to work hard to establish, or at the least reinforce, it.
A global Web Analytics strategy, that should unfold into data driven decision making, can be adresses in 2 main ways: decentralised and centralised. (more…)
I wanted to thank all the people that presented and that I had the pleasure to speak with during the eMetrics Washington. It has been a great experience!
My first thanks goes to Jim and Mathew (Avinash you’re right in calling eMetrics the Finlay-Sterne show ;-)) for hosting this event. Jim is such a nice guy, as Aurélie says you cannot but love him 😉 There’s a song by Leonard Cohen called ‘The walz’ that springs Aurélie’s mind every time she witnesses a presentation by Jim Sterne. Keep it up and I hope that we will be able to present one of these days at eMetrics our european perspective 😉 (more…)
After a 8 hours long plane trip, I arrived a Washington DC where the weather was magnifient. The sun was shining and the temperature was 16 degrees (Celcius). As always when I come to the US, my first impression relates to size. Everything seems bigger here. So I entered a big cab and went ahead to the Sheraton where the Emetrics conference was taking place, not very far from the airport. Aurélie was already there as she came one day early to attend to the Web Analytics Association Training Day. (more…)
Last week I was invited to make a case presentation at the 9th Database Marketing Conference Day organized by the Stichting Marketing Foundation. It was the first time I attended the event, and I was surprised by its size. I imagined it would be smaller but looking at the attendees list, there are no less than 170 people.
In the afternoon I was addressing a presentation with one of our clients, Thomas Dusart, Franchise & Marketing Director at Deli SA (Panos). We were presenting an online campaign that we did last November called 'Click & Win'. The audience seemed pleased by the presentation and the most interesting slides were the ones around the results and Web Analytics. The idea was to present how a campaign mixing online & offline initiatives could be very successful and not necessarily expensive. Among the objectives, we wanted to collect 20.000 contact details of customers within 1 month. We stopped the campaign after 18 days as we had already over 40.000 which was more than we expected.
This is the blog of WebAnalytics.be, a Business Unit of OX2, a pan-European Interactive Agency based in Bussels capital of Europe.
This Blog has been created to allow our team members to share with you and the rest of the world their ideas thoughts and views on Web Analytics.
Fresh news from San Francisco!!!!
For those of you who do not know Jim Sterne (Who doesn’t know Jim Sterne?), I like to call him the Godfather of Web Analytics. In the WA Industry you have Gurus, Vendors, Consultants and Practitionners, but only one Godfather and that’s Jim Sterne (if you want a proof 
A first version of this post has been hanging in the ‘draft’ section since the week after I came back from the Emetrics in London (29-30 March 2007), but as I’ve been quite busy and I actually reached my 3 outcomes since 2 weeks only (since our 
Are you attending Emetrics in San Francisco next week? Please don’t forget to make Jim happy:
Raphael Nolens invited us into a 
This week, the 
After a very nice bath, a good nights rest and some usual Saturday grocery shopping, I finally got René out of his week-end siesta and decided it was time to start my first post about the 
Yesterday, during the 
Following the example of Julien with his research on the web analytics tools used by 
One of my favorite former employers, Deutsche Bank, will be holding as from the 12th of February their Securities 2007 Small Cap Growt Conference in Naples, Florida. The reason I’m wirting about this is the mention of Omniture’s participation, during last week’s audio cast. Interestingly enough, they weren’t the only ones I overheard last week that would participate.
I came to the 
After a 8 hours long plane trip, I arrived a Washington DC where the weather was magnifient. The sun was shining and the temperature was 16 degrees (Celcius). As always when I come to the US, my first impression relates to size. Everything seems bigger here. So I entered a big cab and went ahead to the Sheraton where the 
Last week I was invited to make a case presentation at the 
OX2 Web Analytics Blog 