Analytics Goes Mainstream: Adobe Democratizes Data with Fantasy Football

For many, the term “analytics” conjures up images of highly trained, bookish professionals poring over multiple screens of incomprehensible symbols and text that hold the secrets to data-driven insights. But the real power of analytics is unlocked when it can be used by everyone. To showcase just how easy using analytics can be, and how powerful, Adobe is providing Fantasy Football players with a chance to see for themselves. Its “Hack the Huddle” site gives all who use it the power of Adobe Analytics and Adobe Sensei, the company’s AI and machine learning tool, to improve their Fantasy team performance—and the chance to win $5,000 in the on-site contest.

Adobe Analytics democratizes the ability to use powerful analytics, whether you’re seeking business insight or simply want to pick a third running back for your Fantasy Football team. Using Analytics and AI together to segment data, you don’t need a PhD in data science to get new perspectives on hot prospects, whether they’re players on the field or customers on your website. Compare quarterbacks’ pass completion stats or customers’ spend levels—either way you can create detailed profiles and make better decisions.

Reduce “time to answers”

When you empower the entire staff with Adobe Analytics and Adobe Sensei, those who are closest to the problem will have the ability to utilize data and analytics to gain impactful insights. That reduces the “time to answers,” since empowered staff don’t have to submit an analytics request, wait for it to be run, and then get the analysis back. In some organizations this process can take a week or more. Even in the best case, it can take more than a day. You’ll have a high-speed marketing team when you eliminate this time lag by empowering everyone with analytics and AI tools. A team that has that kind of control will be able to easily run iterative analyses that deliver greater insight and support “what-if” activities.

The democratization of analytics provides a platform for creativity, since developing new reports, dashboards, and insights is a snap. It allows your front-line employees to easily combine data in novel ways, develop different views, and test alternative segmentation approaches. “Do-it-yourself” analytics lets the team focus on getting the best result, rather than waiting for others to (hopefully) deliver what was requested.

Hack the Huddle provides an excellent showcase for the benefits that Adobe Analytics can provide to every employee, not just those with data science or analytic expertise. Users will see data analysis demystified, much the way that, with the advent of desktop publishing tools in the ’90s, creating eye-pleasing documents in stylized formats went from being the purview of trained experts to a regular part of every employee’s workday. And as was the case back then, the marketing team is likely to be an early adopter. Marketers who leverage the activation will see how easy it is now to develop new and creative ways to assess customers and prospects and identify key elements of the customer journey. When segmentation can be evaluated and enhanced in hours instead of weeks, campaigns can be easily and quickly optimized, which improves cost efficiency.

This is a sea change in how employees can positively impact the business. And you can see it on a small scale when you build a winning Fantasy Football team with the same tools.