In 2008, Nate Silver predicted Barack Obama as the next president of the United States way before the election took place. While the pundits relied on “gut-feelings,” Nate was skeptical. He rolled up his nerdy sleeves and crunched probabilities that leveraged historical data and micro trends within each municipality — something TV pundits simply weren’t doing.
 
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Pictured: Nate Silver, Statistician
 
In 2013, Netflix famously predicted “House of Cards” would be a huge hit, way before ever having the green light to produce it. Instead of guessing what show to fund first, Netflix looked at the completion rates of loyal users. Using Venn diagram data, they discovered that the melding of David Fincher’s “The Social Network”  and the British political thrillers was scoring off the charts. The analysis was so strong that they threw $100 million into season 1 — and the rest is history.
 
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Data is prophesizing BIG things like U.S. Elections and hit TV shows. So you might be wondering: Are we at the point where data can spit out the perfect ad?
 
The answer is, almost.
 
In 2016, IBM created promotional content based on machine learning. With little to no human assistance — the A.I. processed what it considered to be the best message for humans. While thought-provoking, there was a huge problem with it. The ad sucked.
 
This means one thing. Human creativity still matters immensely, and it will for decades. But data is growing stronger, and if used correctly can make a huge difference.
 
In 2016, the BEST creativity isn’t just head turning — it’s action-oriented; inspired by data to work harder. This means stronger segmenting, better ideas, and proof.
 
Baker Street takes this to heart.
 
Like Nate Silver, we embrace historical data for pin-point accuracy.
 
Like Netflix, we predict campaign success (with algorithms and velocity demand) before anyone writes a big check.
 
It’s a rare creative process that gets vetted from start to finish.
 
So while agencies are years away from churning out “the perfect ad,” Baker Street ensures that by coupling data with creativity, it’s more “correct” than ever before.