• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, May 23, 2013

David Boyle, the consumer insights guru at HarperCollins Publishers describes himself as a “data geek” and to prove it, he worked blue during his morning presentation at OMMA DDM.

He began by flashing some indecipherable data -- in the form of two sets of code -- on the screen:

#2A5DB0

vs.

#2200CC

After asking the audience who could identify the codes, Boyle noted that they are the numeric representation of shades of blue that can be rendered on computer screens, and the reason for showing them, he said, was that Google conducted an A/B test to determine which one was the “optimum color of blue to use” for online searchers.

“As a data geek, this excited me,” Boyle confessed.

If you ask me, that’s code for the fact that there are keen insights to be derived from Big Data, if you just know how to look at it.