Introducing Data Malarkey: the podcast on about using data, smarter
In the pilot episode of Data Malarkey, host Sam Knowles sets the stage for this new podcast series, which explores the intelligent use of data across industries. Knowles, a data storytelling expert, aims to bridge the gap between complex data analysis and clear, compelling communication. In each episode, he will speak with professionals from business, academia, […]
In praise of Motty – it was 25 years ago today
On Thursday this week, I was working in and around BBC TV Centre in Wood Lane, White City, West London. I’m spending more and more time in this area, partly because it’s a thriving and growing media hub, partly because I’ve got a major client just around the corner. It was a cold day – […]
ChatGPT – the perfect apprentice for the data storyteller
There’s a whole lot of panic going on about ChatGPT, particularly among those who write for a living. Those who write copy, those who write strategies, and those who write training courses. There’s a sudden, ice-in-the-bowels terror among purveyors of HI or Human Intelligence that OpenAI’s Generative Pre-training Transformer will soon put them out of […]
Dire shortage in data storytelling skills trumps Sunak’s appeal to “reimagine our approach to numeracy”
Since assuming the top job in British politics, Rishi Sunak has been remarkably quiet. In contrast to the out-of-control rambunctiousness of Johnson and the utter chaos of the seven-week trainwreck that was Liz Truss’ premiership, Sunak has been almost Trappist in his silence. His people have been keen for him to be seen to be […]
Winning awards in the time of Covid
Last night, it really did come home. And not just England reaching the final of Euro 2020(1) by seeing off Denmark in extra time. 481 days after taking my last train – back from a great ‘lunch and learn’ with an agency in central London on Friday 13 March 2020 – I boarded the largely-empty, […]
A nightmare on Downing Street
A cautionary tale of how to fail at data storytelling – with a few jokes thrown in During the hastily cobbled-together press conference to announce and justify lockdown 2.0 on Halloween, I could tell something strange was happening. At the time, I was watching Liverpool nervously climb back to the top of the Premiership in […]
How to be insightful
This Best Practice Guide to data storytelling originally appeared on WARC – the World Advertising Research Center database run by Ascential, the owners of the Cannes Lions. This is a link to the original article (may require subscription), written by Insight Agents’ Founder & MD, Sam Knowles, author of the 2020 book.
On black holes, blackjack, and data storytelling
When you type “Data science is the new …” into Google, although the search engine doesn’t return “rock ‘n’ roll”, its top two suggestions are “oil” and “investment banking”, two of the most desirable, profit-making enterprises in the history of advanced capitalism. In 2012, a landmark article in the Harvard Business Review dubbed data science “the sexiest job of the 21st century”.
Unleash your inner Archimedes – and take timeout
As the world moves tentatively out of lockdown and into to a new and sometimes unfamiliar version of its former self, all different types of organisation are faced with a common imperative. To recover, stabilise, and start to grow again post-pandemic, they’re going to need to change. And unlike the world before COVID-19, innovation can’t […]
Welcome to the world, “How To Be Insightful”
Today, Tuesday 26 May 2020, marks the official publication date of my new book – How To Be Insightful: Unlocking the Superpower that Drives Innovation. As the world blinks and thinks about recreating and re-establishing itself in the wake of the first global pandemic of the age of globalisation, we have never needed more urgently the […]