Telefónica Opens 'Dynamic Insights' Practice

Broadband and telecoms giant Telefónica has partnered with GfK to open a big data business unit called Telefónica Dynamic Insights, which will sell anonymised and aggregated mobile network data to companies and public sector organisations worldwide.

Telefónica - which owns brands Movistar, O2 and Vivo and has around 300 million customers - will also develop a range of its own products and services using different data sets. The first is called 'Smart Steps', and allows clients to analyse the factors which influence the number of people visiting a location at any time. Retailers can use the service to tailor local offerings for existing stores and determine the best locations and most appropriate formats for new stores, while town councils can measure how many people visit their high streets after the introduction of free car parks, farmers markets, or late night shopping.

GfK will work with the new unit on product development - initially in Germany, the UK and Brazil - to bring marketing science expertise to a broad range of clients across multiple industry sectors.

In addition to retail footfall measurement Telefónica Dynamic Insights is also developing analytics products across areas such as fraud protection, and 'Smart City' technology, including traffic management.

Stephen Shurrock (pictured), Chief Commercial Officer at Telefónica Digital, comments: 'We are delighted to be partnering with GfK, a global leader in market research, on product development.'

Web site: www.telefonica.com .