More Ads & Better Content on Video's Horizon

I agree: The move toward online advertising has nothing to do with who sits in the White House. From what I've read and experienced, the move is away from banner ads. Advertisers want to reach more targeted prospects rather than just numbers. Of course, you have to break it down in B2B vs B2C. In the consumer space, brands do still want to reach a vaster base of potential buyers -- but even then, they prefer to target their market. After all, if you're selling teen clothing you want to reach teens; if you're selling arthritis medicine, you're probably going after an older demographic. There are, of course, specifidally targeted sites for each of those audiences, but how do you reach and measure audiences when you're advertising on a more general-audience site? Teens to 65+ may be a big stretch, but 30-40 and 65+ may not be. 

In the case of young workers without any prior job experience, I guess data would be limited to school attendance -- which may or may not be accessible to a prospective employers (I don't know). You could, I guess, ask for report card info; if kids have good grades, that would be one data point in their favor. Of course, just because a student isn't good at social studies, it doesn't mean they can't work a cash register and be good with customers, though. If people have prior job experience, you could use data from their work histories to see how long their jobs lasted, including info on why they left (voluntary vs. involuntary, fired vs. mass layoff). I'm sure the real data analytics experts in our community have more insight and the articles Ariella linked to include a lot more specifics on companies (like Xerox) that have successfully used analytics to help in mass recruitment efforts.

we'll see an influx of online ad supply in the coming year.

I think this statement is true -- regardless of who is president! Online advertising is TEH FUTURE. Where else are ad budgets going to go? Radio? Billboards?

But maybe not online video ads... Maybe banner ads are dying, but native text-based sponsored content is probably going to pick up. Online ads require bandwidth and more production value... and might reach fewer eyeballs in the end.

Alison - How can analytics help you quantify your observations of your co-workers as to which would succeed and which would fail?

Alison - I think you were right the first time. Companies that fail to invest in the future will soon find they have none. 

To be frank I'm not losing much sleep over Jay Miletsky's somewhat narrow consequences of upping the capital gains tax. No matter what economic theory road one takes it seems that for many years now that no path leads to increased wages for the middle classes or lower.

Speaking in terms of NYC increased transportation costs not only for its eastern approaches but also for the northern burbs that plus gut busting property and school taxes, causes the cessation of the usual migration from the city. Case in point ageing hipsters now mit Kindern rather than leaving their urban enclaves choose to gentrify the remaining urban slums in order to remain where jobs and culture flourish, and let slums take hold in the more put upon exurbia.

@Bolingbroke Tell me about it! The LIRR costs a small fortune, and the tolls across bridges that connect the boroughs of New York also seem to go up every year.

... ideal candidate as a person who lived in a reasonable proximity to the workplace with access to reliable transporation.

Yet another nail in the coffin for those living in the suburbs surely for certain positions in certain companies with headquarters in an urban area. It has become an increasing familiar story. Much of this is directly coupled to an economic turn down and its effects on public transportation costs.

@Alison yes, as in bigger companies that hire thousands at a time the person doing the initial screening is not usually the one who will be managing the employees, the individual judgment call is more likely to be off. In another example of big data applied to hiring reported in a Forbes article, the finding was that some of the qualities assumed to be essential -- like good recommendations and good grades -- proved completely irrelevant to the job performance of salespeople. 

Interesting article -- and one that supports my gut-based thought about many jobs. During high school and college I worked as a cashier at a privately owned supermarket, and was sooon responsible for training many of the girls (they were all girls) who joined the team as cashiers. I could soon tell who would stick it out and who wouldn't, based primarily on attitude to the job, the customers, and respect for the schedule. Same thing happened when I cocktail waitressed, then bartended. You can usually tell who's taking the job seriously and who doesn't really care. Using analytics can help eliminate a lot of wasted time (and money), especially when you're dealing with hundreds or thousands of open positions.