The idea was to change performance metrics from a dreaded data-dump to a data-snack that people could actually digest and learn from. We knew that humans remember and internalize stories better than graphs, so we wanted to build a tool that could show and tell those stories on any device.

As such the Arla Datazine is a story-driven “datateller”. The idea is based on the perhaps not too revolutionizing insight that people who read marketing data, in fact, are people too.

The core of the Datazine is the engine we built that magically writes narratives that normal people understands, based on performance metrics. These stories combined with beautiful design is what made brand managers delighted over the otherwise dreaded datadump.

Furthermore, the Datazine was developed in close collaboration with Arla so that the API can interpret the data in relation to the global KPI’s of the organisation. Through this process, the API can find trends and points that stand out in the otherwise disorganized data stream. From a bank of phrases, similes, and words, the system automatically translates the findings into articles and visualizations, which are published to the frontend - and works on any device.

The Datazine is successfully implemented in the Arla organization. All users have read the Datazine more than once the past month. And with an average session length of five minutes it manages to hold the attention of its readers.