Luke Bilton and a team at UBM spotted the growth in "big data" and quickly launched a community-driven website, Big Data Republic. With quality content it has grown fast, and has not only established itself in an expanding global industry, but has also attracted significant sponsorship and supported an event launch.
Luke Bilton, Head of Content at UBM Live London, takes up the story…
“Launching in November 2012, Big Data Republic is a new online community focused on transforming business with data.
Identifying a gap in a fast-growing market we moved quickly to launch a website into the space with a new approach: the community decides the content, not us.
The website quickly gained momentum with more than 2,000 user comments in first two months, with our visualisations and distinctive videos quickly building a following on social media.
In just three months, we moved from initial analysis, to business case, to launch with sponsorship from Dell and others generating more revenue than had been targeted in November-December.
The launch over-achieved challenging targets, beating revenue targets by 50%, and engagement targets by 40%.
How it happened: online growth in data analytics
“In July 2012, we started analysing where business communities were forming organically on LinkedIn, and immediately noticed high level of growth in data analytics groups – as high as 80% in some groups.
A similar pattern was identified through Google Trends, where usage of the phrase ‘Big Data’ increased exponentially throughout 2012.
We identified an opportunity for Big Data Republic to create a focused, practical guide to this emerging field. Illustrated with understandable diagrams and written in plain English, we will always strive to communicate complex ideas as simply as possible.
Our positioning statement is 'Transform your business with data' - helping business leaders to make a practical difference to their organisation.
“Time and resources were precious. From business case being signed-off to launch, the team had a month and a half to fully focus on taking the launch to market with a single editor to create a new community of contributors.
New approach to editorial
“We decided early on that no Editor would know all the answers to the challenges that Big Data is setting businesses – but maybe the community would, and focused all our efforts on creating the best possible dialogue amongst the community, working with our colleagues at UBM DeusM to build the site.
With only a month from starting work on the website to launch, Editor Saul Sherry worked around the clock to immerse himself in a new industry and to build a network of contributors who could provide expert, first-hand experience of dealing with big data.
In addition to curating and steering the debate, Saul created an innovative data visualisation showcase to show off cutting-edge visualisations from contributors in the industry. Saul also produced a series of idiosyncratic Big Data Explained videos single-handed, explaining difficult concepts in simple language.
At the same time, we began to take the concept to potential advertisers. By guaranteeing a set number of leads to sponsors, we de-risked the venture and were successful in securing sponsorship revenue to cover November and December 2012.
In the first two months of launch it generated tremendous buzz throughout the industry with fantastic engagement including 2,100 User comments – signifying deep, genuine engagement
“At the end of last year, one of our US contributors attended a ‘Big Data Meetup’ in LA. He was surprised to find that not only did many of the assembled data practitioners have Big Data Republic open on their smartphones, but they recognised him and treated him as a celebrity. Perhaps more than the metrics above, this anecdote suggests our team are achieving real resonance with a global community.”
The Media Pioneer Awards are designed to highlight innovation and entrepreneurial spirit in specialist consumer or B2B media, across print, web, digital or events. Winners will be announced at the Specialist Media Conference on 24 April 2013. The Media Pioneer Awards are run by the Specialist Media Show and supported by InPublishing.
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