We were pleased to host 400 attendees and 35 speakers for a wonderful day-and-a-half of presentations, interactive content and networking.

Whether you were at BRITE '12 or not, we encourage you to visit:

• The wonderfully curated Storify summary of Day 1;
• Numerous articles and blog posts about the conference;
• Our Twitter lists of BRITE '12 attendees & BRITE '12 speakers; and,
• Our first two speaker videos:
  Marc Speichert (CMO, L'Oreal) and Julie Cottineau (Virgin USA)

More online summaries, videos, and photos will be posted over the course of the next month or so. You'll, of course, get to read about these updates here.

We look forward to seeing more friendly faces at BRITE '13 next year!

Our Center on Global Brand Leadership and the New York American Marketing Association (NYAMA) are pleased to release the results of a major new study on the changing practices of large corporations in:

• data collection and usage,
• marketing measurement and ROI, and
• the integration of digital and traditional marketing.

The BRITE-NYAMA Marketing Measurement in Transition Study was authored by David Rogers, Executive Director of BRITE, and Columbia Business School Professor Don Sexton. Results were first released at the Center's fifth annual BRITE conference on May 5, 2012. The findings have been reported in numerous publications, including Forbes and the top front-page story of Ad Age.

The study's results focused on 3 main findings:

• The failure of "Big Data" for marketing so far
• Marketers quickly adopt the newest digital tools, but struggle to measure them
• ROI – marketers know they need it, but cannot agree on its meaning and implementation

The full report (.pdf) can be viewed at http://j.mp/BRITE-NYAMA-study.

David Rogers notes, "There's this assumption that digital is easier to measure because there's all this data attached." Marketers, however, have not yet unlocked how to best tie this data to ROI. Thus, the report concludes with five leadership imperatives that Chief Marketing Officers should focus on to effectively tie marketing to ROI.

For more information and to comment on the report vist our blog summary.

Puzzled by the social media platform's popularity, Prof. Olivier Toubia, our Center research director, sought to uncover evidence of what motivates individuals, as opposed to companies, to continuously post 140-character long messages. Toubia explains, "Most users have no financial incentive to post or follow others, so what is the basic motivation for being active?"

To explore the value of Twitter for non-commercial use, Toubia, along with Andrew Stephen (PhD '09), Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, studied the relationship between user-response and subsequent increases in acquired number of followers. Their findings suggest two distinct groups of Twitter users – those empowered by what Toubia and Stephen term, "social currency," or a way to boost social status, and those incited by the simple desire to share information.

Read the full Ideas at Work Feature to learn more about the study and its implications.

In This Space Available, filmmaker Gwenaëlle Gobé says, "Yes!" Influenced by the writing of her father, Marc Gobé (author, Emotional Branding), this budding director brings energy and urgency to stories of people around the world fighting to reclaim their public spaces from visual pollution.

Join Columbia Business School's Center on Global Brand Leadership and the Marketing Association of Columbia for a special screening of the film, followed by Q&A with Gwenaëlle and Marc.

This Space Available
Date: April 2, 2012
Time: 8:00-10:30pm
Location: Columbia University, Northwest Corner Building Room 501
Cost: Free
REGISTER NOW

For a trailer and more information visit: This Space Available.