KDD 2016 Speakers

We are all familiar with John Wanamaker’s famous quote: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” What’s ironic is that Wanamaker’s dilemma is as much the marketer’s dilemma today as it was in the 1900’s. In an increasingly sophisticated marketing environment, where new marketing tools have enabled more precise targeting and marketing measurement than ever before, the challenge of solving Wanamaker’s dilemma has still loomed – that is, until now. In this talk, I will show you how at Amplero we have solved what’s not humanly possible to solve, making available to marketers an AI-powered marketing technology that makes use of dynamic machine learning at massive scale to enable smarter, more effective marketing. In particular, I will focus on the revolution of multi-armed bandit experimentation coupled with machine learning, highlighting what it means for today’s marketer, and specifically the marketer’s ability to directly impact business KPIs and customer lifetime value. As part of my presentation I will share experiences and examples from our work with BtoC enterprises with 10M’s of customers.

Speaker Bio

As Amplero’s Chief Scientist and CTO, Dr. Olly Downs leads the data science, technology and product teams responsible for building the company’s AI-based marketing technology platform. Olly is a machine learning scientist and serial technology entrepreneur, credited with bringing advanced analytics and machine learning methods to bear as the creative spark behind numerous early-stage technology companies. Olly specializes in applying abstract analytical ideas from mathematical, physical and statistical science to problems in the real world and commercializing them into significant businesses. He has recently served as Chief Scientist at Atigeo, Chief Scientist at Mindset Media (sold to Meebo, February 2011) and Director of Research at Pelago (sold to GroupOn, April 2011). As Principal Scientist at INRIX, the first technology spin-out from Microsoft Research, Olly delivered a world-first in the provision of real-time traffic information using a nationwide network of GPS-enabled probe vehicles. To date Olly’s work has resulted in more than 25 granted patents. Based in Seattle, Olly holds Ph.D. and MA degrees in Applied & Computational Mathematics from Princeton University, and BA, MA and MSci degrees in Experimental & Theoretical Physics from the University of Cambridge, UK.