The history of the data economy The birth of customer insight 1824 The world has changed dramatically over the past 200 years. Data is now the fuel that drives business, identifying potential markets, shaping new products, and targeting would-be consumers. To understand where we may be heading next, Impact has partnered with , the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society, to jointly publish a series exploring the past, present and of customer insight. By Timandra Harkness T much to pragmatic trial and error as to pioneers of social statistics such as Adolphe Quetelet. While theoreticians wrangled over how humans value of data in the nascent mass society were already collecting and using it. The first people to treat public opinion as a form of data were newspaper publishers in 19th-century election results. The Harrisburg Pennsylvanians 1824 presidential election poll is often cited as the first political poll. It accurately predicted that John Quincy Adams was ultimately elected president. This straw-poll approach continued in use until the 1930s. Although newspapers actively went out to relied more on very large numbers of responses than on any statistical theory to accurately reflect the mood of the nation. made customer information so valuable that letter- list to poach a customer. The dispute culminated in 44 Impact ISSUE 33 2021_pp44-47_DataEconomy.indd 44 26/03/2021 10:12