In Touch with Innovation: interview with Enreach

by Kimmo Kiviluoto, Enreach

Thursday, March 24, 2016      Kimmo Kiviluoto                 0

Editor's note: On 26 January 2016 the Future Media Lab. hosted its annual conference, which brought together politicians, media representatives, journalists, innovators and academics to discuss the impact of technology on Europe's media sector, particularly in regard to changes taking place in relation to audience engagement. In the run-up to this event, the Future Media Lab. team had time to talk to some of the leading innovators in Europe's media sector about the challenges they see and what solutions they offer.

In the sixth edition of the recurring interview series, "In Touch with Innovation", the Future Media Lab. team talks to Kimmo Kiviluoto,Co-founder & CEO at Enreach Solutions AB – a first-party audience data management platform, helping publishers turn data into profit.

What is the main idea behind your start-up?

Enreach helps publishers turn data into profit.

i. Collects the data – all the data, but especially your own unique data, what really makes you stand out – on your audiences.

ii. Refines and enriches the data to meaningful profiles and segments.

iii. Efficiently and effectively applies the data on your day-to-day processes, via easy-to-use interfaces.

This covers all channels, formats and platforms – including video, mobile. Simply, turning data into profit.

What observation kicked off your project?

Actually two observations. First, Digital Publishers have access to unique proprietary data assets, which, however, are difficult to use and monetize in their present raw form. Second, due to our strong expertise in fields such as analytics and predictive technology, we at Enreach have the competences and know-how to refine the data into a form that fits the needs of the users and the market.

What is your added value to media companies in audience engagement?

“Simplicity beyond complexity”. Provide easy-to-use, fun, yet highly efficient tools that automate much of the manual steps in the process of applying data to engaging audiences and improving business.

What is the biggest challenge for an effective collaboration between media companies and innovative start-up companies?

Often, the challenge is in defining a common agenda that is fully understood and strongly committed to by both parties. By definition, innovative start-ups are driving new concepts and tools; communicating clearly what that all is about, how to deploy it in business is not trivial. Correspondingly, start-ups may easily overlook some critical parts of the existing work processes. Clear and committed mutual agenda, with strong ownership on both sides is key to overcome these challenges.

Why is it important for media companies to know their audiences?

In short, the better the media companies know their audiences, the higher the engagement and monetization. To understand the particular properties such as passion points, behaviour patterns, of each audience segment is essential to serve and work with the audience in the best way possible. The old wisdom, “Knowledge is Power,” is also fully relevant today; furthermore, the means to collect and enrich that knowledge are better than ever before.

Where do you think media fail today in developing a comprehensive data strategy?

There seem to be two common paths that lead to mediocre results at best. One is being too ambitious and rigid planning – excessively large and costly term programmes, with long-time scales that are no longer affordable, as the world around us is changing faster than such programmes can accommodate.

The other is a non- committed, somewhat nervous approach trying all sorts of strategies and tools too fast, without organizing their adoption in their work.

The optimal approach can be found somewhere in between these two. Commit to the programme, but have good clock speed and flexibility within it. Try new things, sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing, but fail fast and then improve. Set goals, measure progress, review what worked and what didn’t. Perhaps the world around us changed, creating new challenges and opportunities? Focus on not some predefined steps of the programme, but progress towards the targets set in the strategy and the overall programme.

How can media and tech companies best collaborate over data analytics?

Work closely together, act fast, set shared targets, and review progress on regular basis.

For more information about  Enreach visit www.enreach.me.