A panel (TBD) and freeform complaint session for the audience, where we rant and monologue about what's wrong with our industry today. This is a safe/sayf space for all curmudgeons to put aside the niceties, and receive validation for what irks them. Hosted by Sayf Sharif of Media.Monks, who is known far and wide for his unabashed rants, stern monologues, and general orneriness when people or things just don't do what they are supposed to do. Bring your angry opinions and/or popcorn.

Have you ever been at a loud party, or a bar, and you suddenly pick out your name being said by your friend down the end of the bar? Your brain exists to find the signal in the noise and pluck out personalized experiences. It's rooted deep in our psychology, and our need for control and to reduce information overload, but at the core... it's just how our brains physically work. There are a number of (expensive) systems that can help you employ personalization on your website, but did you know you could use personalization techniques on your site essentially overnight using free tools, and get some pretty insane results? Using free Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, we helped one client increase their conversion rate by 32X (from 1% to 32%) using free tools, without even having to go through their developers. We'll walk through why humans do the things we do, and then dig into how you too can employ a similar personalization scheme using tools within the Google Marketing Platform to hopefully get some similarly crazy results.

The top speed recorded by an F1 car is currently 372.6 km/h (231.5 mph). Juan Pablo Montoya of the McLaren-Mercedes F1 Team achieved that after racing professionally for 13 years (and 'Karting' most of his early life). The F1 car itself is an amazing tool, but does anyone think that you could put just anyone behind the drivers seat and achieve the same results as Montoya? Tools are only as good as the people using them (at least until said tools learn how to murder us). In a recent study 55% of college students said they believed the full moon caused people to behave oddly, despite a complete lack of evidence. The often unspoken problem in Analytics is the people. Even if they don't believe in Bigfoot, they may lack the humility to admit they have blind spots, or the intellectual empathy to understand things that aren't all about them. We must elevate our practice of analytics through the promotion of Critical Thought, which leads to better Empirical Analysis, and insight and value for our companies and clients.

"Psssst! Hey! Buddy! Want some analytics? Whatcha' lookin''for? Insights? Recommendations? Maybe some implementation? I got anything you want, and I got it at a great price!…" Sound familiar? No? Well, then you're just not hanging out in dark corners next to executive washrooms the world over! On this episode, Sayf Sharif of SEER Interactive joins us to chat about the how and when of selling analytics — from outside OR inside an organization. Plus, there's a nice throw down about the proper pronunciation of "GIF." For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.