Matthew Cole, Manager, Business GeomaticsAlteryx Analytics Independence: Toronto Roadshow

The Toronto Star: Life after Alteryx

Areas of responsibility• Advertising targeting support (Star & Metro)• Circulation

– Subscriber based analytics (who, what, where, etc.)– Acquisition targeting for DM, telemarkting, email marketing– Distribution planning (samples, single copy, etc.)

• Editorial– Data driven journalism, investigative report, etc.)

• Random requests

How big is your data?(I do not think mine is that big, but I care about it a great deal)

Past Resources• MS Access (ODBC connections to server)• MapInfo Professional• MapInfo TargetPro• Tableau• MAPublisher

Current Resources• Alteryx Designer• Environics Analytics (Envision & raw tables)• MapInfo Professional• Proprietary web-mapping solution• Tableau• Phasing-out MS Access• MAPublisher

Data fear is worse than data pain.• Getting it ‘wrong’ is never a good thing, but

when libel lawsuits could result from any errors, it is not at all acceptable.

• 2002’s ‘Racial & Crime’ series, highlighting bias in policing by the Toronto Police Service, resulted in a libel claim of $2.7 Billion against the star.

“see” & repurpose your work

Targeting reinvigorated(we create subscriber-weighted demographics)

Star & Metro vs. Goodlife (1:34 minutes)

Newspaper Avg. HHI* < 2.5 km2.5 to

5.0 km5.0 to

7.5 km7.5 to

10.0 km10.0 to

15.0 km> 15 km

> $75,000 40.1% 29.1% 6.3% 1.2% 1.8% 3.9%< $75,000 9.4% 5.3% 0.8% 0.1% 0.2% 2.0%Totals 49.4% 34.4% 7.1% 1.3% 1.9% 5.8%> $75,000 38.3% 29.1% 6.7% 1.3% 1.9% 4.6%< $75,000 8.9% 5.5% 0.8% 0.2% 0.2% 2.4%Totals 47.2% 34.7% 7.5% 1.5% 2.1% 7.0%

Vancouver 20.7% 21.4% 26.7% 18.1% 11.3% 1.8%Calgary 50.3% 38.1% 11.2% 0.4% 0.0% 0.0%Edmonton 18.8% 8.1% 16.0% 33.5% 19.0% 4.6%Winnipeg 59.7% 26.6% 10.2% 2.8% 0.7% 0.0%Toronto 69.8% 27.1% 2.7% 0.2% 0.3% 0.0%Ottawa 73.6% 22.4% 3.4% 0.1% 0.0% 0.5%Halifax 79.9% 13.6% 1.9% 1.2% 0.4% 3.1%

Thurs. Star

Sat. Star

% of copies by distance to nearest Goodlife Fitness locationM

etro

*Environics Analytics 'DemoStats' 2015

Tableau integration(getting to this would have been much easier with Alteryx!)

http://www.thestar.com/news/immigration/gta_immigration_history.html

Why Alteryx is my friend• All the file types I need, with ease.• Flexibility of design

–people think differently…and can design differently, yet still effectively, in Alteryx.

• Speed.• More, tbd.

Questions?