Keeping your head above water

Data is intimidating; every record of every customer, of every transaction. Web sites are intimidating; the fluffy consumer front end all the way to the bowels of commerce at the other. Maybe it's this sense of enormity that drives people to rigid solutions and rules, to templates and formats and a world run by the keepers of the data and stewards of the web site rather than by the marketers who have to get some kind of action out of the consumer.

So perhaps the answer lies in thinking about parcels of data that float above or to the side of the behemoth. Parcels that represent samples that can me stimulated and measured and used as a proxy for the whole thing.

On the web side think of clouds that sit between the traffic drivers of search and online ads and that big 'ole web site; an airlock or safe house in which we can play, get to know and interact with our customers before passing them safely and accurately to their destination. Think of it is a really terrific call center or concierge service that understands what you want and the best way to get it to you.