One of the things I enjoy most about the planning department at Weapon7 is the fact that all the planners sit together – account planners alongside data and social media planners. All with a wide mix of experience and working on a variety of accounts across the agency, sometimes independently and often together. But before I get too happy families it’s worth pointing out that there is one tiny drawback: it turns you into an absolute geek.
My current ‘geekism’ is Data Visualisation (damn data planners).
It all started innocently with a light reading of Edward R Tufte’s “The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within” (OK, it does sound very plannery but any man who can quote Jas Elsner’s “Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph” in one sentence before summarising Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in six slides deserves a look in my book). Then, before I knew it, I had blogs like ‘Analytics Arbitrage’ and ‘Extreme Presentation' infiltrating my iGoogle.
I just can’t help myself – I’m fascinated with cool ways of visualising data. Give a boy with a hint of OCD the chance to see the frequency and typology of “I need” phrases on twitter using a zoomable decision tree and, well, there goes the afternoon. I’m hooked. I’m like a kid with one of those ‘Magic Eye’ books from the 90s.
There is some (post-rationalised) method in the obsession though. Planners often muse that there’s insight in even seemingly meaningless bits of information - you've just got to find them.
These smart visualisations force you to look at data in new and engaging ways that allow these lovely info nuggets to shine. They bring the hidden to the fore, the ignored to the centre of attention and the meaningless to the front of mind. And, if you consider the amount of snippets of data left behind on digital media by people everyday and you've got yourself a galactic starscape of insight waiting to be found through a visualising click, zoom, drag, twist or twirl. Brilliant.
Here’s what I’m particularly hooked on at the moment:
BBC’s Britain from Above (especially the plane one),
Watching the Growth of Walmart across America from 1962 (if you zoom out too far the US looks pretty scary),
The Ebb and Flow of Movies – Box Office Receipts 1986-2008,
Great little video of the role of data day to day (and a good tune too),
A Visual Guide to Where Federal Tax Dollars Go.
Before I have to forcibly end this latest obsession I should probably have a stab myself. So here’s my final homage to data planning:
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