CopperKey blog

Making Analytics and Modeling a Campaign Standard

2007-07-11T23:45:05Z

As companies seek to ensure that their messages are received, marketing strategy is increasingly being driven by insights into unique customer segments or individual customers. Based on this need, investment in analytics is growing, but is not always as effective as desired. This is because the mainstream method of delivering analytic services within the direct marketing industry still mainly relies on the use of human analysts. Yet a growing shortage of skilled analysts plus the cost and time of people performing basic analytics and predictive modeling (taking at least several hours, often days or weeks depending on workload), prevent the integration of analytics and modeling as a campaign standard. At the same time, the idea that agencies and marketing services firms can specialize in any one area – analytics, technology or pure marketing – is vanishing. Clients need these disciplines integrated, and that's why they look outside their organization – because it's hard to do it internally This is triggering a remarkable shift in the marketing services world. Direct marketing agencies and database service providers are in each other's knitting more than in the past (this is also encouraging consolidation with more than $33 billion spent on 208 marketing sector deals in the first half of this year). The agencies come from the creative and program management sphere, while the database crowd starts with enterprise technology they've invested heavily in. That leaves a fight in the middle, over analytics and modeling. For the direct marketing industry, having access to these capabilities in an automated, cost effective way is becoming increasingly critical. In turn, this represents a major market opportunity for us at CopperKey. We are in a unique position, able to provide an affordable, easy-to-adopt platform that utilizes data from any source and automates key marketing analytics and predictive modeling functions. This solves a looming issue for both direct marketing agencies and database service providers and, if our market penetration is swift and sustainable, ensures that Copperkey will become a required tool – and therefore a standard – within the direct marketing industry.

A Warm Welcome To Our New CEO

2007-04-27T18:23:24Z

We're delighted to announce that Rick Gibson, an experienced, entrepreneurial professional who has been serving our board of directors, has accepted our offer to take over as President and CEO of CopperKey. This appointment was championed by our founder and Chairman, Dr. David Castillo, who will now be 100% focused on our technology platform and helping develop our key partners. This is an important step forward for our company. With demand growing for our predictive marketing software, we’re being approached by a number of major players within the direct marketing industry. We have the opportunity to set an industry standard by partnering with, and supporting, these companies, but this will require rapid expansion of our service, marketing and customer support capabilities Rick, with more than 30 years experience building fast-growth technology companies, is the right man for the job. He co-founded Knowledge Adventure, which was sold to Cendant for $100 million, and GNP Development, which was sold to Lotus Development Corp. He also worked alongside high tech pioneer Bill Gross in building Idealab, which incubated and launched a series of successful technology companies, and was one of Idealab’s first company CEOs. Rick understands that we’re at the frontier of a major shift in how companies use data. Instead of just capturing and storing data, leading organizations are building competitive strategies around data-driven insights that are actionable. The key to obtaining those insights is through the use of analytics – sophisticated quantitative and statistical analysis, and predictive modeling, that is typically executed by teams of highly trained analysts. Taking aim at this explosive new market, we’ve leapfrogged vendors who sell software tools to analysts and have instead automated key analytic and predictive modeling functions so that end users can get real-time, on-demand results without taking up scarce human analytic resources. It will be up to Rick to show us how to convert our technical advantage into rapid and sustainable market growth. Our BizFusion™ software, as a web-based product, is positioned in a growing new category known as software-as-a-service (SaaS). This means our solution does not require clients to purchase hardware or software and the service can be rapidly deployed through the Internet. BizFusion™ automates the critical process of identifying an organization's best customers. Essentially working like an intelligent search engine for customer data, end users can use point-and-click options to search a customer database to obtain insight about key attributes and rank customers against up-sell and cross-sell opportunities. BizFusion™ also allows end users to search pre-defined third-party databases, and based on best customer attributes, obtain ranked lists of "look-a-like" prospects. In the press release announcing his appointment, Rick points out, “These days, the Internet has created increasingly fierce and fluid competition that is forcing companies to learn more about their customers and prospects so that they can become more efficient and effective in targeting and communicating with them. The era of shotgun marketing, where less than a one percent response rate was considered acceptable, is quickly coming to an end. We now can provide an easy-to-use, but sophisticated, tool that enables sales and marketing professionals to target prospects most likely to buy at local, regional and national levels, and tune their campaigns in real time, on the fly.” We look forward to working with Rick, learning from his experience and enjoying the rewards of his leadership.

Accenture Research Shows Analytics Driving High Corporate Performance

2007-03-01T18:01:50Z

In the February issue of DM Review, Shari Rogalski's column calls attention to a recent study by Accenture that confirms the critical role of analytics in customer relationships and demonstrates a clear linkage between analytics-based decision-making and high performance. The study shows that there has been a dramatic increase in the importance of analytics to businesses of all types through the past four years. In fact, higher-performing businesses described analytics as being a key element of their strategy and were confident that their investment in analytics is creating a competitive edge in the market place. Ms. Rogalski’s column makes the point that data analytics, today, presents a huge opportunity for companies to improve their performance. She notes that what was once thought to be a vision of the future – the delivery of personalized marketing messages to specific individuals – is now possible. Its starting point, she says, lies in the wealth of customer transition data that customer-facing businesses of all types collect. But the enabler that is turning the data-rich present into future reality is the application of sophisticated real-time analytics to business intelligence drawn from accurate, timely and accessible transaction data. No doubt this is why, according to International Data Corporation’s Worldwide Business Analytics Software 2006-2010 Forecast, the business analytics market grew at a rate of 11% to $16.5 billion in 2005. IDC predicts that the market for business analytics will grow at a rate of 10% over the next five years, and that the technology segment has become a top spending priority for many companies. At CopperKey, we are participating, and contributing, to this market growth. We have a growing list of customers who can attest to the value of analytics – especially as delivered through the use of our automated predictive marketing software BizFusion�. While we don’t do all the things envisioned in the column, we do address one of the concerns raised by Ms. Rogalski about a growing shortage of skilled analysts. BizFusion is unique because the software is aimed at the end user, easy to implement, and automates key functions that would otherwise take up scarce human analytic resources. BizFusion software automates the critical process of identifying an organization's best customers. Essentially working like a Google for customer data, end users can use point-and-click options to search a customer database to obtain insight about key attributes and rank customers against up-sell and cross-sell opportunities. BizFusion also allows end users to search pre-defined third-party databases, and based on best customer attributes, obtain ranked lists of "look-a-like" prospects. So what was once a vision of the future, is very much available today.

Invest Southwest VC Forum Has CopperKey Inside

2007-01-10T22:20:24Z

The Invest Southwest Capital Conference completed its search for the 13 most promising early-stage and emerging growth companies seeking equity capital in the region, and CopperKey made the list! In late February, CopperKey will join the other 12 firms in making a presentation to a group of venture capital, private equity and angel investors. To get us and the other firms "in shape" for that event, Invest Southwest organizers have provided mentoring teams for each company made up of legal, operations and marketing experts experienced in helping firms raise capital. The value of this assistance is proving itself through every meeting with our mentoring team. We've received constructive and pragmatic advice about our company that ranges from how we best protect our intellectual property to improvements we can make in our operations and marketing efforts. On marketing, we were urged to make our message more meaningful for our product, BizFusion™ Prospector. So while “predictive marketing and automated analytics” is meaningful to us and other industry insiders, those terms might be stopping us from reaching our full potential in the marketplace. That said, here’s our new proposed “elevator pitch”: CopperKey's first-to-market BizFusion software helps focus and optimize marketing campaigns by automating the critical process of identifying an organization's best customers. BizFusion works like Google for customer data, allowing end users to use point-and-click options to search a customer database to obtain insight about key attributes and rank customers against up-sell and cross-sell opportunities. BizFusion also allows end users to search pre-defined third-party databases, and based on best customer attributes, obtain ranked lists of "look-a-like" prospects.
If you think we can still do better still, let me know! Please send suggestions to pvanderlee@copperkey.com or use the comments section of this blog. Peter Vanderlee is Executive Vice President with CopperKey Inc.

InfoWorld's Ephraim Schwartz on Predictive Analytics and CopperKey's BizFusion

2006-12-15T15:48:44Z

The evolving practice of predictive analytics recently caught the eye of InfoWorld columnist Ephraim Schwartz in his Reality Check column.

While maintaining his healthy skepticism for predictive analytics being able to forecast murder, when opining on how predictive analytics might be useful in more benign areas such as business and IT, Mr. Schwartz discovered CopperKey. He points out that CopperKey’s “black-box approach” with BizFusion Prospector represents a new trend in predictive analytics, bypassing the analysts and the putting tools in the hands of end-users.

He also mentions the success financial planning firm Senior Advisors Wealth Management, has enjoyed with BizFusion Prospector, increasing direct mail campaign response by nearly 40 percent. For the full story on how BizFusion Prospector’s automated predictive modeling helped this financial services company, click here.

It's significant when influencers like Mr. Schwartz, a specialist in identifying new forces affecting business and technology, understand the positive impact of CopperKey's software. That's why if you check our Web site's press room, you'll find we're getting increasing attention from the media across many markets.

Most recently this includes motorsports, as a result of Main Event Marketing (MEM) packaging a complete sponsor activation strategy that offers the power of BizFusion to the ARCA RE/MAX Series, teams and sponsors.

Stand by for even more CopperKey and BizFusion news in 2007! Until then, our best wishes for a safe, happy and healthy holiday season.

Peter Vanderlee is Executive Vice President with CopperKey Inc.

Predictive modeling in action for financial services

2006-11-02T13:57:50Z

Josh Mellberg is nothing less than a business wunderkind. At 26, he is in the top three percent of U.S. financial advisors.

His company, Senior Advisors Wealth Management, has used Bizfusion predictive marketing software to increase the response rate on financial seminar direct mail campaigns by 40%, and save nearly 19% a year on annual mailing costs.

While we have more spectacular ROI results in our client base, Mellberg’s success shows the solid, incremental gains our customers take advantage of when they automate predictive modeling and client profiling with Bizfusion Prospector. Click here to read the full case study on Senior Advisors Wealth Management.

Peter Vanderlee is Executive Vice President with CopperKey Inc.

DMA06. We came. We demo'd. We conquered.

2006-11-01T14:38:22Z

DMA06 brought the cream of the Direct Marketing Association's crop to San Francisco, and for CopperKey this was a significant event.

Not only did we demo our hosted predictive marketing platform, Bizfusion Prospector, we also demo'd Bizfusion for Salesforce.com to secure beta customers for what we believe to be the first application of automated predictive modeling in an industry-standard CRM package.

The image above from the show floor pretty much sums up our experience. We demo'd Bizfusion constantly on two screens, often to CEOs, and then a short time later to CTOs and marketing or business development executives sent for due diligence. We were told we were "the buzz of the show" or "the coolest thing we’ve seen in some time".

Our CEO David Castillo was also in a steady stream of meetings with press people at publications like Direct Magazine, Multichannel Merchant, Electronic Retailer, plus partners and strategic prospects eager to sign up to our new short-term trials that are applied against a full-year subscription to Bizfusion (so far our batting average on converting trials to subscriptions is 100%).

In the direct marketing industry, most people understand predictive modeling. What they often don’t believe when we first tell them is that we’ve automated the process of predictive modeling and customer profiling with a simple-to-use Web-based portal. And it’s a hosted service to boot.

What this means is that a handful of data analysts can become an army of data-modeling managers and executives using Bizfusion to both speed up and increase ROI on campaigns. And of course the more you use Bizfusion, the smarter your customer lists become and the greater your returns.

One quick way to learn more about Bizfusion is to have a look at our new CopperKey video podcast with David Castillo, our CTO Don Kridel, and the lead investor on our latest round of VC financing, Rick Gibson. You’ll soon find out why CopperKey and Bizfusion were the toast of DMA06.

Peter Vanderlee is Executive Vice President with CopperKey Inc.

CopperKey live at DMA06!

2006-10-16T15:25:52Z

If you’re lucky enough to be here in San Francisco with us at the DMA06 show, you’ll feel the buzz we’re making at the CopperKey booth (#2708). Every hour on the hour we’re giving out a iPod Video Player with our DMA06 podcast. And our CEO David Castillo is busy doing media interviews and meeting both with existing customers and partners, as well as many soon-to-be customers attracted by the tradeshow buzz we’re generating with the launch of Bizfusion Prospector and Bizfusion for Salesforce.com.

What people are reacting to is not so much that we have predictive modeling software. It’s that we have predictive modeling software that ordinary marketing managers and executives can actually use in a simple (but oh-so-powerful) Web-based interface. Stop running down the hall to the overworked data analysts in your company! Get on board with Bizfusion and “roll your own” predictive marketing right now.

Peter Vanderlee is Executive Vice President with CopperKey Inc.