“And out of all the windows, No matter where we went, The merriest eyes would follow me And make me compliment.
There were a thousand windows, All latticed up and down. And up to all the windows, When we went back to town,
The queer folk put their faces, As gentle as could be; ”Come again, little girl!” they called, and I Called back, “You come see me!”"
Edna St. Vincent Millay, especially for my friend JayDaisy and her daughter Foxylocks. If that isn’t a metaphor for the website/visitor relationship, I don’t know what is!
It is time to turn our jingle bells to Petri Mertanen – a man who’s always in the dark
Tell us all about Petri Mertanen.
I have been interested in the Internet since my marketing studies started in 1995 at North Carelian University of Applied Sciencies. The school was in Joensuu, which is my original home town in eastern part of Finland. I finished my BBA degree with a final paper about eCommerce, right after I moved to Helsinki area in 1999. During my career I have been involved all the time more or less with web-related software and projects in various positions. In the beginning of 21st century, web analytics came along with some server log based systems and I was hooked.
It was a bit of accident that I became an entrepreneur later on and I found myself as a managing director of NXC Finland, previously Naviatech Solutions) in 2005. Since then I started studying more analytics business and got involved with the Finnish community (Kalle Heinonen, Steve Jackson and the rest). It paid off because I was selected by these gentlemen as a chairman of WAA Finland in 2007. Today, I’m a free agent and looking for the next challenge.
Your sister has an Olympic bronze medal. What was that for, and are you a little bit jealous?
Yes. Maybe I have to admit that my sister is a better hockey player than me.
Or not.
At least I’m hearing that a lot in our locker room. I have been playing for 26 hockey seasons [profile and career stats] so of course I’m very jealous about that Olympic bronze medal from Vancouver. And couple of World Champ bronze medals as well.
Yeah, maybe I was some kind of role model for my sis when I played in first division in Finland (second level) – at least she is saying that so I could feel better. As revenge I invited her into field of web analytics so we have to share same passion and punishment.
If you wrote a book on web analytics in Finnish, how many sales would you make in the first week?
I have very large fan group in Finland so I guess that during the first week I could sell 5 copies (parents, both sisters and me).
Actually I have been asked to write a book couple of times, but so far I enjoy just writing to my blog every now and then.
Who is your superhero-sans-cape in the web analytics community and why?
Ouh, there are so many I could name for this, although I haven’t met all of them in person. Kalle, Steve, Lars, Avinash, Eric, Dennis, Jim, Stéphane…if I really have to pick one, I would say…Eric Peterson.
Do you think there is a future for the European branches of the Web Analytics Association?
Yes, there is a future.
What is your wish for 2012?
New cool job would be nice! Then health and world peace for everyone. 
What is the maximum number of bananas a camel can transport across the desert if there are 4 cups of strawberries in 8 jars of jam?
This is tough one because there are so many variables in the game. Of course it depends on the desert, the jockey and rules. If you are allowed to feed the jam to camel during the race and the jockey’s weight is 45 kg, then the answer is 197.
What makes you dance a jolly humppa when you think of web analytics?
Oh, the challenges of measuring social media, offline advertising and multiple channels of sales. There is so much to do when it comes to really getting the big picture of marketing communications and customer behavior. Going deeper than the last click, so to speak.
You regularly organise Web Analytics Wednesdays – what do you see as the main value of these events?
Networking and free beer. In Finland we usually sing some karaoke later during the night.
I believe there is only about half an hour of sunlight per year in Finland. Do you have to wear sunglasses all the time if you go to a normal country?
During the summertime we have one hour sunlight per day and during the wintertime we live in the darkness. I think it helps our heavy metal and rock bands a lot, but as you said it’s difficult to travel abroad.
Sunglasses are fine but usually I skip the conference programs during the day and concentrate on the evenings when it’s not that bright for Finns.
Happy Jollies from the Silly Series! Best Merries for 2012!
