Making the most of insight ActiveXchange’s James Ellender explains how delivering insights to industry decision-makers will shape a more informed, connected and active industry
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oined in 2006, the metaphor ‘data is the new oil’ and the 2011 inference that ‘information is the oil of the 21st century, and analytics is the combustion engine’ sings true amid the myriad of challenges to date in capitalising on ‘data’ throughout community aquatic, recreation and sport industry. Ahead of what is likely to be a truly exciting decade, finishing with the Brisbane 2032 Olympics, if ‘data is the new oil’ can it be part of the step-change required to deliver the Australian Government’s bold vision for sport and ensure we are the ‘world’s most active and healthy nation known for its integrity and sporting success’? Separating the metaphor, oil is consumed, but data is created. When oil is used it’s consumed once and permanently destroyed. Data, on the other hand, is created and does not have to be destroyed even after it’s used for analytics. However, we continue to see this so-called ‘growth fuel’ locked away in silos, fragmented, unrefined and with relatively low value. Like oil, data is only valuable if it is in a usable form. Just as crude oil is transformed into more useful products such as petroleum in oil refineries, raw data needs to be preprocessed before it can be used for analytics.
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The popularity of the phrase, “data is the new oil” in Google searches. Image source: Google Trends.
So where do we start with data? In the information age, human action generates data every day and here are some industry examples: -When someone joins a gym, swimming program or sport, they are creating data. -When someone brings a friend, they have created data that can be used to grow participation. -When someone swipes their membership card or checks in for a game, they are creating data for a recommendation algorithm.
