Outsell Case Study — Monetizing Data
We’ve been writing case studies about work we do with and for our clients, highlighting the various projects we do under the Outsell Growth Framework for companies operating in the data, information, and analytics industry. Previously, we laid out all the steps in the framework, and now we are writing about the related work we do to support our clients’ growth. Today I’m writing about monetizing data.
It’s not uncommon for us to get a call from a CEO who, in speaking to another CEO, heard that we are experts on the business of data, information, and media. One call was from a CEO who was working with PE to buy a helicopter fleet. One way that fleet was monetized was by gathering news — you know, when they fly over and the local TV station is doing its thing. He wanted to understand the future of newsgathering by helicopter because he wanted to see if future revenue would be jeopardized if he bought that fleet.
Sounds esoteric, but that’s right up our alley. Would stations be inclined to continue to pay? Would drones or crowdsourcing replace traditional methods of news gathering? Were there regulatory clouds on the horizon affecting newsgathering by heli? How much is actually spent on this mechanism for newsgathering? And so it went.
Another client wanted to know if the data that came off their video cameras installed in shopping centers all over the place was monetizable. Turns out it was, but not at the value they’d thought. The reason? They couldn’t name names. Yes, they might have had the ability to understand traffic patterns at Apple, Best Buy, Sephora stores, or those of any other retail chain on the planet that installed their cameras to gather and benchmark foot traffic. However, the data wasn’t as valuable because the company’s contracts didn’t give them the correct licensing rights to name names. This firm struck out because its “data exhaust” wasn’t all that marketable.
Another company came to us with data they have rights to and that is PII-compliant. They asked us to go through an assessment of whether their data was marketable and how big the opportunity was for it.
We help clients determine whether they want to “just sell data” or want to wrap a UI around it to sell a workflow solution that helps end-users do something at the point of decision. Some clients want to do both, and we determine what they want along the way. We take the steps below when they just want to “sell data”:
- Examine the Data: We inspect it and rate it against our “six Ds of data”: provenance, history, enhancement, latency, atomization, and format.
- Brainjam Use Cases: With our analysts, consulting partners, and the client itself, we identify all the places that the data might be usable. Credit card applications? Hedge funds? Retail promotions? There are hundreds of use cases, and we build out a raw list of as many as we can think of.
- Market Test: We prioritize use cases based on soft criteria, weight it, and build a shortlist of sectors that will have the most interest. We make calls into the parts of the organization that license data; sometimes this is IT, content licensing, or even the office of the chief data officer or chief analytics officer. With deep experience licensing data, we know “who to call.” We test whether they’ll buy, what they need, and what they’ll pay, and understand the market opportunity.
- Develop Business Model: Here we look at the economics of the opportunity and make sure it’s viable for the client. We prioritize markets and the channels to reach them. Will they license direct? Will they hire an agent? Will they use data marketplaces or alternative data brokers?
- Determine Go / No-Go: We do a cost/benefit analysis and make a go / no-go decision with the client. We develop license agreements and ensure that the company is poised to deliver — is the data ready, must it be delivered by API, can the company fulfill in a full production environment? We develop metrics for success and key KPIs.
If the decision is “no-go,” we’ve saved the client a lot of time, money, effort, and energy. If it’s “go,” then they’ll make money and have a viable data business and revenue stream.
If a client needs someone to represent their data in the marketplace, we can help them do that with the right partner. We don’t get into the buying/trading/bartering of data ourselves, and we don’t represent any single client in the market — we’re “Switzerland” in our industry. But we know where they can go and help them bridge to that resource. We’ve got a network 20+ years strong.
If a client wants to hire someone to run data licensing inside the organization, we can help them find the right person through our partners who are expert recruiters in our industry. As the business scales, we work alongside our client for as long as they need us. We know that most CEOs like to have a trusted advisor ride along with them.
It’s a fun process and never dull.
Need to monetize data? Give us a call.