"Taming Advanced Analytics Implementations at EA Scale" - Electronic Arts, Digital Velocity 2015

1. Taming Advanced Analytics Implementations at EA Scale #DigitalVelocity15

2. Ani Lopez Measurement Strategist

3. @AniLopez

4. Pamplona

5. Barcelona

6. Vancouver

7. @AniLopez • Former web developer / project manager / SEO • Measurement strategist working for agencies or in-house

8. @AniLopez • Aug 2013 Joined EA’s DI as Technical Solutions Architect • Feb 2015 Full time employee as Measurement Strategist Digital Intelligence Team

9. EA’s Landscape Why analytics is so important to our business

10. Gaming industry was simpler way back

11. Transition from physical to digital distribution

12. Multi-platform PCs Consoles Mobile Devices Online

13. Multi-device game experience

14. Product publishing cycle has evolved Revenue = (Units sold x Price) - (Production + Distribution + Marketing) Cost 1993

15. New monetization opportunities Base Game FIFA + Ultimate Team

16. New monetization opportunities

17. New monetization opportunities Freemium + in-game micro-transactions

18. Why analytics is so important to us Attract Engage Convert Retain Advocate • Measurement tools have become more sophisticated • We can measure pretty much everything • Do we have a more accurate picture?

19. • Not in the videogame industry • Connecting the dots is challenging • Analytics even moreimportant!!!

20. EA Scale What we deal with

21. What we deal with +35 properties 1 e-commerce

22. New +10 Production & Analysis teams • Business Intelligence • CRM / DBs managers • Campaign Managers • Producers • Programmers • QAengineers • UX experts • Ops • Data Analysts What we deal with

23. Programmers

24. +1,300 tags: Measurement, A/B Testing, Heat Mapping, Marketing

25. +5 Billion hits a month sent to GA via Tealium

26. Monday first hour

27. Wednesday noon

28. Friday late afternoon

29. Projects Let’s get to the meat of the matter

30. 1. Migrate from SiteCatalyst to Google Analytics 2. Global Revenue Attribution Project 3. Migrate from ClassicGA to Universal 4. House Cleaning 5. Customer Data Integration 6. Ongoing Standardization 7. Executing and TrackingSemantic SEO

31. 1. Migrate from SiteCatalyst to GA Premium Issues • Poor adoption of the tool • Complicated implementation • Not flexible enough for our changing environment • Very expensive

32. 1. Migrate from SiteCatalyst to GA Premium Solution

33. 1. Migrate from SiteCatalyst to GA Premium • Optimal adoption of the tool • Very flexible implementation • Remarkableamount of money saved that we invested in brainpower ROI

35. 2. Global Revenue Attribution Source Campaign Medium +35 websites 1 E-commerce

36. Issues • GA accounts at franchise sites with no transactional data • Origin GA account (e-commerce) with no original attribution 2. Global Revenue Attribution Campaigns GA Account Campaigndata No revenue data GA Account No campaign data Revenue data

37. Solution • Cross-domain tracking from franchise sites towards Origin 2. Global Revenue Attribution Source Campaign Medium Franchise GA tracker Franchise GA tracker Origin GAtracker Extended Session

38. Solution • Cross-domain tracking from franchise sites towards Origin 2. Global Revenue Attribution Campaign data Revenue data Campaign data Revenue data

39. 2. Global Revenue Attribution • Muchbetter analysis about what increases revenue&saves money • Noprogrammers required, all donevia Tealium ROI

41. Scenario • When we migrated from SiteCatalyst to GA, Universal was in beta • Universal Analytics got out of beta April 2014 • Classic GA is not an option anymore, Universal is way better Issues • Large number of tags to replace • Even larger amount of JavaScript code in extensions to review • Legacy sketchy implementations • Countless hours of QA • “Non-Stop production” environment 3. Migrate from Classic GA to Universal

42. Solution 3. Migrate from Classic GA to Universal

43. And the patience of a loving mother 3. Migrate from Classic GA to Universal

44. 3. Migrate from Classic GA to Universal • All the benefits of UniversalAnalytics • No programmersrequired Moremoney saved!!! ROI

45. What I mean by “No programmers” Before Tealium • Digital Intelligence sent specifications to programmers • They implement alongside their regular stuff (more workload) • QA testing • DI validated This means • Resistance • Lots of back and forth • Less time to test • Higher risk of inconsistent data collection

46. What I mean by “No programmers” With Tealium • Programmers do their stuff at their own pace • DI implements tracking • DI + QA test This means • Earlier integration of tracking in the project • Agile implementations • Perfect data collection • Everybody happy!! • (Requires certain technical knowledge though)

48. 4. House Cleaning Everything tends to chaos After a year and a half • Are all Tealium profiles active? • What happens with the marketing tags when campaigns are over? • Who has access to the tool and what level?

49. @tomomichu 4. House Cleaning Solution • Hired extra brain power for a short gig • Audited all profiles and removed orphaned tags, load rules, and data layers • Reviewed / revoked user permissions 65 users now, very few publish to Prod • Audited privacy practices and updating profiles to meet compliance • Developed governance and user guidelines

50. 4. House Cleaning • Lessmargin forerrors • Tighter governance • Privacypolicy enforcement • Moneysaved!! ROI

52. 5. Customer Data Integration “Full customer journey” but how do we get to know the customer*? Stitching the pieces • Before we know customer at a personal level • When they register and give us their details • Whether they buy or not • In-game data. How, what, when they play • Campaign evaluation • Product quality / User satisfaction

53. 5. Customer Data Integration Solution Encourage then to register

54. 5. Customer Data Integration Solution Facilitate log-in Automated cross properties

55. 5. Customer Data Integration In Tealium • CRM makes it available on our properties after login • It’s passed to Tealium’s Data Layer • Mapped to tags that attach info to rest of data they collect Outside Tealium • Data exported from different tag vendors • Data captured from other sources like social media • Warehoused / mix and match

56. • Better understanding of customer cycle/ ecosystem • Increasesrevenue andsaves money ROI 5. Customer Data Integration

58. 6. Ongoing Standardization Issues • Entropy We already know everything tends to chaos already • Frantic production rhythm There is never a good moment to come up with standards • Teams change / technologies / business models evolve There is never a unique standard • Lack of buy-in from stakeholders “Best” is often times trampled by circumstances or egos

59. 6. Ongoing Standardization Solution • Learned from errors • Introduced standardization during: • Migration from Classic GA to Universal • House cleaning • Got decision makers involved, educated and presented with evidence

60. 6. Ongoing Standardization What did we standardize? • Best practices around implementing measurement strategies • Code in extensions: GA function wrappers • Naming conventions • Tealium elements: Data Points, Load Rules, Tags, Extensions • GA elements: Events, Custom Dimensions

61. • Less margin forerrors • Easier deployments • All that savesmoney ROI 5. Customer Data Integration

63. 7. Semantic SEO What is got to do SEO and Tealium? The EA Content Service is a flexible, API-driven mechanism that, in conjunction with a model that defines different content types and elements, allows content to be published on any platform and consumed on any device. AaronBradley @aaranged

64. 7. Semantic SEO How we tell better to Search Engines what our site is all about? They now read “JSON for Linking Data” or JSON-LD

65. 7. Semantic SEO Learnmore > http://www.seoskeptic.com/json-ld-big-day-at-google/ EA ContentService

66. 7. Semantic SEO Consequence is “SERPs domination”

67. 7. Semantic SEO • Moreand better organic traffic • Deeper contentanalysis • Significant increases in revenue ROI

68. Wrapping Up

69. How Tealium Helps • Centralized control Who does what and where (Dev, QA, Prod) • Performance Task separation, everyone focused on what they do best • Agility Ability to react quickly to last minute changes • Scalability Marketing campaigns growing across products / properties / territories

70. What I’ve learned • Taming chaos is your job Don’t chicken out of it! • Everything evolves including measurement strategies Don’t panic, question everything and adapt • No tool is perfect But support and commitment should. Be demanding • No tool, or set of them, is going to provide a 100% complete vision of the customer journey • No tool is going to solve the biggest issue Lack of measurement strategy

71. ROI

72. What we deal with (recap) • +35 properties • 1 e-commerce (across several platforms) • +10 production teams • Quite a few Data Analysts, BIs, DB managers • +1,300 measurement and marketing tags • +5 billion monthly hits via Tealium (only Google Analytics) • Advanced tracking implementations • How many people required to manage all that?

73. Allthis chaoswrangled byonlyone guyand

74. No programmer was harmed in the making of these implementations

75. Thanks Questions?

76. Wait!! Game License Giveaway