This week, we distill insights around PeopleLikeU - an interactive platform that enables Australians to compare and benchmark the spending habits of different people. 100+ thinkers and planners within MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring projects on social data, crowdsourcing, storytelling and citizenship on the MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every week, we pick up one project and do a deep dive into conversations around it -- on the MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also on the broader social web -- to distill insights and foresights. We share these insights with you on our People’s Insights blog and compile the best insights from the network and the blog in the People’s Insights Quarterly Magazine, as a showcase of our capabilities. We have further synthesized the insights to provide foresights for business leaders and changemakers — in the ten-part People’s Insights annual report titled Now & Next: Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engagement, now available as a Kindle eBook. For more, see: http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com/future-of-engagement

1. crowdsourcing | storytelling | citizenship | social data
PeopleLikeU
People’s Insights Volume 2, Issue 24

2. Volume 2, Issue 24,
April - June, 2013
Future of
Money
PeopleLikeU
100+ thinkers and planners within
MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring
projects on social data, crowdsourcing,
storytelling and citizenship on the
MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every
week, we pick up one project and curate
the conversations around it — on the
MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but
also on the broader social web — into
a weekly insights report. Every quarter,
we compile these insights, along with
original research and insights from the
MSLGROUP global network, into the
People’s Insights Quarterly Magazine.
We have synthesized the insights from
our year-long endeavor throughout 2012
to provide foresights for business leaders
and changemakers — in the ten-part
People’s Insights Annual Report titled
Now & Next: Ten Frontiers for the Future
of Engagement.
People’s Insights
In 2013, we continue to track inspiring
projects at the intersection of social
data, crowdsourcing, storytelling and
citizenship.
Do subscribe to receive our weekly
insights reports, quarterly magazines, and
annual reports, and do share your tips and
comments with us at @PeoplesLab on
Twitter.
People’s Insights
weekly report
People’s Insights
quarterly magazines
People’s Insights
Annual Report

3. 3
What is PeopleLikeU?
PeopleLikeU is an interactive platform that enables people to compare and benchmark the
spending habits of different types of people. The platform was created by Australia’s UBank
and uses aggregated consumer data collected by the bank.
Source: peoplelikeu.com.au
Source: customercrossroads.com
How it works
PeopleLikeU capitalizes on people’s curiosity
and the growing trend of self-quantification.
Blogger Susan Abbott commented:
“We all love to peek and compare. A new
service from an Australian bank lets people
peek in a more organized way.”
People begin by logging on to the platform
and creating their own profile. People enter
demographic data such as gender, age,
income, living situation (single, couple,
family), housing and location (restricted to
Australian pin codes).
Source: peoplelikeu.com.au
PeopleLikeU uses this data as a filter and then
generates a Uniqueness report which shows the
spending habits of similar people, in categories
including food & drink, travel, shopping, house
& home, real estate, holiday and bills.

4. Volume 2, Issue 24,
April - June, 2013
Future of
Money
PeopleLikeU
Source: peoplelikeu.com.au
Source: peoplelikeu.com.au
Several people, like PhD student Kale, shared their report findings on blogs and forums:
“I tried it out and there are 147 people like me. I spend less on rent (even with my current increase)
and more on groceries than the people like me  And also way less on travel – apparently people
like me spend $500 a month on travel!”
PeopleLikeU also lets people see the most popular stores based on transactions – a feature we
haven’t seen in other data comparison tools.

5. 5
Source: peoplelikeu.com.au
Source: : peoplelikeu.com.au
Source: : peoplelikeu.com.au
Source: The World’s First Econographic Too
People can scan this data to find new
stores to visit in their own locality, or in
other locations when they are traveling or
holidaying. The press release states:
“What’s even better, you can also get the inside
scoop on emerging new bars and restaurants
that people like you visit, as well as tips on
hotels and restaurants abroad and in other
Australian cites. So wherever you go, People
Like U can make sure you’re always making the
most informed decision about where and how
much to spend.”
PeopleLikeU lets people compare their own
profile with the average Australian and also
with other custom profiles and other districts.
People can see spends across the different
categories – by monthly spend, spend per
transaction and yearly frequency.
In addition, people can compare their spends
on monthly bills, like insurance, energy and
phone bills. People use this data to validate
their own budgets. Here’s what one user
commented:
“The interesting stuff for me though is the bill
check with the comparisons to other people
in our postcode, for communications we are
the same as 10% of people in our postcode,
and well below the average which is good,
apparently we have a good phone/internet
deal”
Finally, the platform offers Real Estate and
Holiday planners to help people identify
popular locations and to see how much they
budget for these larger expenses.
Here’s a video in which Jennie Bewes, Digital
Director at UBank, introduces PeopleLikeU.
The PeopleLikeU Database
UBank worked with data specialists
Quantium to aggregate and analyze de-
identified consumer data, combine public
spending stats and normalize the data to the
population count of Australia.

6. Volume 2, Issue 24,
April - June, 2013
Future of
Money
PeopleLikeU
Source: cestpasmonidee.blogspot.com*
Emily Olive explains:
“Data consultancy agency, Quantium, has
worked for the last four years to create a Market
Blueprint database that provides insight into
consumer trends and habits. A combination of
census data, consumer spending information,
aggregated savings goals, balance information
and summarised mortgage data from UBank
and NAB make up the database.”
Liz Tay reported:
“The publicly available PeopleLikeU site took
UBank six months to develop, leveraging
a four-year relationship with analytics firm
Quantium.”
Opportunity for data collection
While data collection is not a major focus of
PeopleLikeU, there are a few stages at which
people can enter their own data, like how
much they spend on charity, movie tickets or
the salon.
Blogger Sarah pointed out:
“And there’s the option to ‘update’ the
information – and this is gold to both the bank
– but also to the bank’s clients.”
While the reactions to PeopleLikeU have
been mainly positive as people compare their
spends and evaluate their budgets, some
people question the ethics of collecting
data and the opportunity for organizations to
eventually sell this data to third parties.
Blogger Patrice Bernard shared his concerns
around organizations’ forays in big data:
Anyway, the gap is now open and it may trigger
one side (the banks), a rush to a new source
of income and the other (the consumer), a
movement hazardous release (again) for the
image of financial institutions. Achieving a
balance between these two poles of opposition
will take some time ...*
We explore some of the sensitivities around
collection and use of data in our People’s
Insights report on Vicks Mobile Ad Campaign.
Using data to go beyond
comparisons
On the other hand, some people are excited
about the potential of big data. Simon Arden
commented:
“what we are seeing is the banks starting to
put their toes into the water, giving customers
some insight into trend analysis using broad
segmentation.
“the next and far more valuable phase (for
the banks and their customers) is leveraging
big data by applying predictive analytics
to provide a more forward-looking view. so
the conversation changes from “x number
of people in your suburb own houses” to “x
number of people in your suburb are likely to
buy a new house in the next 12 months” – this
insight can then be used to drive better and
more targeted marketing efforts from banks to
customers – and can also help customers to
make better future financial decisions.”
Other organizations getting on
the big data wagon
Several financial institutions have created
platforms that enable people to share
and compare their expenses with similar
others. For instance, Credit Agricole
created Diagnostic Epargne to help people
understand their savings, Capitec Bank
created The Budgetanator app on Facebook
*Translation via Google

7. 7
Source: service.commbank.com.au
Source: facebook.com/CapitecBank
to help people track their expenses, and Commonwealth Bank created Signals (video) to help
people compare their financial profile to Commonwealth customers with similar demographic
profiles.

8. People’s Lab is MSLGROUP’s proprietary
crowdsourcing platform and approach that
helps organizations tap into people’s insights for
innovation, storytelling and change.
The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform
helps organizations build and nurture public
or private, web or mobile, hosted or white
label communities around four pre-configured
application areas: Expertise Request Network,
Innovation Challenge Network, Research &
Insights Network and Contest & Activation
Network. Our community and gaming features
encourage people to share rich content, vote/
comment on other people’s content and
collaborate to find innovative solutions.
The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform
and approach forms the core of our distinctive
insights and foresight approach, which consists
of four elements: organic conversation analysis,
MSLGROUP’s own insight communities, client-
specific insights communities, and ethnographic
deep dives into these communities. The People’s
Insights Quarterly Magazines showcase our
capability in crowdsourcing and analyzing
insights from conversations and communities.
People’s Lab:
Crowdsourcing Innovation & Insights
Learn more about us at:
peopleslab.mslgroup.com | twitter.com/peopleslab

9. For People’s Lab solutions, contact
pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com