Conversation with Wharton Interactive Managing Director Steve Ennen

Brent Leary interviews Steve Ennen of the Wharton Interactive Media Initiative

Brent Leary:  Welcome back to Technology For Business Sake and this next guest, this is really interesting.  We usually have a lot of executives, social media types.  We are going to be talking to the managing director of the Wharton Interactive Media Initiative.  His name is Steve Ennen.  He is also director of marketing there.  Steve, thanks for joining the show today.

Steve Ennen:   My pleasure, thanks for having us on.

Brent Leary:  This is really kind of fascinating what you guys are doing with the interactive media initiative.  If you could, please tell folks, what it is and where it fits in, in the overall scope of what's going on at Wharton.

Steve Ennen:  Sure, happily.  We're the world's first research center, focusing specifically on individual level data, generated off all emerging technology platforms and analog platforms.  I think some time ago, the professors weren't realizing the value of the story behind the data will drive businesses going forward.  It is a very, very important aspect of what we do.  If anybody has a digital component at all, certainly in the social networking space, CRM, mobile, video on demand, set top box data. 

All of this information drives business in the next century.  What we are able to do is work with corporate partners to get down to the story behind that data.  To understand what the individual users are telling the companies and what this says on a global scale or how we can model user behavior going forward.  How we can better understand what users are doing as they navigate across all platforms. 

That is our research center in particular, it's very quantitatively focused,  we have composed a global network of researchers to work with our corporate partners on some of these tough challenges.  At the same time, that feeds into the curriculum here at the Wharton School.  We recognized the need for students at MBA and undergraduate level , who have a new set of skills to be successful in this changing world out there.  They are brought on emerging technologies and the digital front.  The learnings that we generate through our corporate partners and our research, we share with the classrooms and different programs that we offer for students here.  We have MBA research teams. We have undergraduate teams.  We have all kinds of involvement with students and help them hone their skill sets as they move forward. 

Brent Leary:   How long has the initiative been in place?

Steve Ennen:   It has been in place functioning since August of 2008, founded by alumni - Art Bilger.  He is a great supporter of the initiative and recognized as well, with the professors, the value of the individual level data and what the impact will be for companies going forward.   That is when we first got rolling and it's been nonstop ever since, because we have just seen nothing but interest and need for what we are do out there in the industry, as well as in the academic circles.

Brent Leary:  Why was it time to do this kind of initiative?

Steve Ennen:   I think it's time for a couple of reasons, one is the data we are collecting right now, as we look at all these platforms, and again, its media its platforms, its anything that generates individual level behaviors. How people navigate across social media networks.  How people navigate through any one website.  How people go online and offline around a brand.  All of this makes a tremendous amount of data and companies aren't really built to handle it. 

No matter how sophisticated the company is, they are often overwhelmed by the individual level data.  The data generated off of any days activities.  They don't necessarily have this built into their corporate DNA,  the types of analysis that academics have been doing for some time in this area, has not really been a part of industry. 

In one hand, the Wharton Interactive Media Initiative has the opportunity to help fuel research with its academic network that will be meaningful to the academics.  At the same time, we are able to lighten the burden of some of the corporate partners, by examining this data and data sets that are overwhelming and help share insights back with them.

I think it's a combination of things.  One is that data comes in from so many different sources and secondly, it's really been hard for companies to keep up and understand what they can do with all of this data.

Brent Leary:   Have companies that you have been talking to and working with, were they ready for this kind of “new look” at data and collection of data and amounts of social data?  Is this something that they are really ready for or was it something that came as a surprise as to all that is going into what you guys do?

Steve Ennen:  I think to some degree, it came as a surprise and that being not so much that the data was there, but it has such an important role and I think that was a bit surprising.  Recognizing if you look at something like behavioral targeting.  It is all about the data, if you look at something like the growth of Amazon, it's a great deal about the data. 

There has been information out there about the importance, but I think just like anything that changes at the rate that things change today, it can be easily overwhelming for a company, especially a company of traditional formats, those like broadcast or print media, marketing houses or CPG companies that know that they need to be in these new digital spaces, but they are not really sure about the metrics.  The proofs of performance, the ROI and some of those issue that are a bit overwhelming.  I think in that regard, it came as a surprise, but it doesn't dispel the foundational needs that companies know that they have to have and that is those metrics.

Brent Leary:  It came as a surprise, and I can understand that.  I think it's still coming as a surprise to most of us that are using social media and its impact.  How accepting of the changes that this data may be showing them, how willing are they to move with what is going on with the data that you are finding?

Steve Ennen:   I think they are very willing. Again, it's a matter of being able to.  The companies that we work with in particular are very, very excited about the additional bandwidth.  Some of the academic rigor that we can put behind things.  They recognize that there is a story behind the data that will make a difference in their business.  It's just the fact that they are not necessarily geared up to deal with that.  

When we sit down and have these discussions, and most often we are in the board room and talking with very high level people about what their strategic challenges are, they recognize that there is this added component to their business and they are very, very willing to employ those insights, it's just a matter of executing.

Brent Leary:  The companies that you work for, are they pretty much like Fortune 1000 types or is it mid-level, small?  What kind of companies do you work with?

Steve Ennen:  It's all across the board.  We look for interesting companies.  We look for companies that have challenges that will make a difference from our academic research as well.   To be able to make a difference in the industry.  We are not consultants, so let's frame that correctly.  We are a research center. 

Our hope is that the insights generated off our research will be important to not only just our corporate partners, but industry in general and for that reason, we don't just align ourselves with the giants.  We look at some start-ups, mid-level companies and we work with larger companies too.  Omnicom is our largest corporate partner, it's a global agency holding company, so you can see the scale that we get to.  Then we have some smaller startup companies, Office Arrow is a great example of that.  It's an online social community for office professionals.

Brent Leary:  What has been some of the surprises and challenges from your perspective with presenting this type of initiative to companies?

Steve Ennen:   I think, interestingly enough, the biggest challenge is for the companies themselves to understand what types of human resources they need to employ towards this.

It's the same thing as the challenge they face on a day to day basis.  Sure, I recognize there is a lot of data we need, but we've got the quarterly numbers and we've got to fit our core competencies.  How do we employ the right resources to mine the data, pull the data and take the strategic discussion where it needs to go for this. 

That is a challenge that is reflected out in the day to day business world.  It's all sitting there, it's not necessarily clean or handing, that being the data.  That is usually the biggest challenge, recognizing that this is a very important aspect of their business, but not necessarily knowing what to do with it.   Even sophisticated companies, this has nothing to do with companies that have their blinders on doing business in the old way.  This is simply an issue of volume and diversity and ever changing platforms that completely make the game dynamic in every regard.

Brent Leary:  What kinds of companies would get the most benefit from this?

Steve Ennen:  Well, I think it depends a little bit on what their core focus is and in working with this.  That means, just about any company is dealing with individual level data, if you look at a health care company, there is a lot to be learned from user behavior across all the platforms and offerings.  How the customers stay, retain and make their health care decisions. 

If you look at something like traditional print media, how people navigate across the printed page or the online page and how they move from platform to platform.  How they share stories.  A very important aspect, if you look at the marketing world, certainly that is abuzz with all kinds of new digital approaches and they need proofs of performance and ROI's, so the real easier answer Brent is that, we are applicable to every company that generates some degree of data across their platforms.  How they work with us and the focus is going to be slightly different.  It might be that companies want to look at their media and marketing strategies going forward.  Maybe it's more of an internal process aspect. 

We need to understand how our customers behave on these new platforms.  Not necessarily just in the marketing stand point.  It's going to come down to areas that are really critical in a business evolution, but not necessarily separated by industry.

Brent Leary:  Have you been able to track any measureable changes in the companies that you have been working with or is it still too see to see any kind of changes that are taking place?

Steve Ennen:   There have been changes we see.  One of the things that we have the ability to do is step outside the divisional level of companies, many times, especially with larger companies, they have some silo-ing affect that they are overcoming.  They may be coming in one end and not being communicated to another group.  We have the ability to be intermediary within companies themselves and we've been able to see how that facilitates dialogue with companies and how they start to think through the relationship between the platforms and some of the divisions.  That's been interesting. 

With a year under our belt and most of that building our own infrastructure, we have a lot of actual research in the pipeline now.  We have a number of projects that are ongoing and some of those will be hitting the stage pretty soon, but by and large what we have seen to be the biggest change is the recognition and the understanding and the value of these data sets to companies going forward.  The fact that they are really starting to embrace that as a key component of how they can grow their business.

Brent Leary:  One of the areas that seems to have driven a lot of interest in how to use social media from a strategic business, whatever kind of perspective, was the way that the Obama campaign used social media to gain the presidency, how did that impact the way that you guys look at social media and interactive media?

Steve Ennen:  Well, I recognize the strategy that Obama used, that was actually brought out by your book and David Bullock's and that was brought to my attention by some of my students who were working on a final project for the class that I teach here at Wharton.  What we saw there was a well orchestrated strategic approach utilizing all of the platforms correctly and a real savvy about what tools are at their disposal.

I think what your book did very, very well was chronicle that.  It was my students that actually brought that to my attention as part of the project.  We have been incorporating many of the insights shared from your outlook and that of the students when they started working with you to create a great picture of what a holistic interactive media approach would be.

Brent Leary:   I know that David brought to my attention what you guys were doing because I think the students reached out via Twitter of all things, which is really cool.

Steve Ennen:  Mmhmm, yes.

Brent Leary:   I was thinking in terms of the amount of data that the campaign used, I think I saw somewhere in the neighborhood of they collect 13 million email addresses and they sent out a billion email messages and text messaging.  Are you seeing that as somewhat of a blueprint of how not just political, but how any type of organization's could use these social systems to gather data and then to analyze it to perform actions that match to what the activity is talking to?

Steve Ennen:   Yes, I think that is appropriate Brent. One of the key things that you said there too, is send out.  What I think Obama did very well and is very critical as we go forward is you listen, as well.  There are a lot of platforms and that is the story that the data tells you. There are a lot of these platforms that are at our disposal now.  That doesn't mean you have to use them all, but if you are going to use them all, how are they going to fit into a holistic strategy?  How are you measuring success?  How are you listening as well as, how are you sending out information? 

Yes, I think it is a terrific blueprint for companies going forward and they can replicate many of the strategies, but it is not a panacea, this doesn't work for everybody the same way.  You have to understand what your constituency is responding to. 

For Obama, it was obviously many times a younger, more digitally savvy audience and you have to recognize what your end goals are.  Those call to actions that the Obama campaign employed were very clear, very timely and very well aligned with the platforms and their use.  That's not the case with every company.  An insurance company cannot just grab that strategy and employ it themselves because the users are going to react differently?

Brent Leary:   Right, I think what every company needs to do is find out how their customers and prospects are already using social media and listen.  Like you said, I think listening is such a  critical component, because when you listen and monitor, then you can get a better handle on what's important to them and the best way to communicate with them.

Steve Ennen:  Exactly, and it’s ongoing, too.  Whether it’s campaign based or calendar based, there should not be a start and stop necessarily.   There should be milestones along the way, but these platforms and phenomenon are here to stay.  Recognizing that it is a lifelong commitment to come degree is as important as saying, I know I need to get on Twitter.  What does that mean? What does that mean going down the road?  Are you going to be able to sustain that?  What kind of resources are you going to need, etc. etc.

Brent Leary:   Where do you think companies are going to be two years from now, using social media, interactive media to really engage with customers?

Steve Ennen:   I think that listening is going to be key. There are so many aspects that vary from company to company and type of company.  The idea for this to be an ongoing conversation, the idea for it to be real time market search, the idea that this presents an opportunity for us to engage the customers in different ways.  Whether it be by promotion or just the ability for them to talk back and share their feelings about our product. 

I think savvy companies are using it more for product development.  I think that others that are trailing behind that can start out and catch up a little bit by listening well and finding the right balance going forward.   I think that in a couple years we are going to see a completely different way of doing business with the customers.  We are going to see new platforms that come out and change the game more so and its going to be a constant challenge for companies to find out exactly what the equilibrium is for them.  That doesn't negate the fact that these will be very, very important technologies and the fact that the change is here.  It's just a matter of us understanding what the right balance is. 

Brent Leary:   I have had a great conversation with Steve Ennen, managing director over at the Wharton Interactive Media Intuitive.  Steve, where can people learn more about the initiative online?

Steve Ennen:   Try www.whartoninteractive.com is our home page and there will be a lot of information there for them.

Brent Leary:  Thanks a lot Steve and I appreciate you taking time out, it couldn't have been easy.

Steve Ennen:  You're a bright spot in my day.  So thank you for having us.

Brent Leary:  Okay, thanks a lot.

Steve Ennen:  Alright.