Analytics, data, research -- and general industry disruption -- surfaced as topics at last week’s Global PR Summit at the St. Regis Bal Harbour in Miami, Florida.

Here’s nine notable snippets on insight from the Holmes Report’s event, linked to their full stories.

  • “PR was—when I started with AT&T 15 years—considered one of these softer areas. That’s dangerous, because everyone thinks they understand it, everyone has a view. But we are becoming manic about measures like net promoter score. We now have a readout every two weeks on how we are doing.”  -- James Cicconi, senior executive, VP external ad legislative affairs, AT&T. More.

  • “People construct narratives all the time, in moments of ambiguity. We are the unreliable narrators of our own lives. But when you threaten those narratives, you are threatening their identity.” -- David McRaney, author and journalist (You Are Not So Smart). More.

  • “If it’s just gathering junk, then we’re out.” -- Bob Pearson, W2O president, on making analytics programs sellable to clients. More.

  • "You use data from the past to predict the future before people get there. No matter how good your predictive model is you are driving through the rearview mirror." -- Douglas Rushkoff, media theorist and author. More.

  • “The best insight-driven campaigns give you license to play in zones that you didn’t have the license to play in before.” -- Nick Parish, editorial director of the Americas for Contagious. More.

  • “From a PR point of view it’s very interesting. One company, Omnicom, I think has a much stronger PR offering. The big battleground here is going to be who controls what.” -- Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP CEO. More.

  • "Surveys reported that 78% of consumers have bailed on a transaction or not made an intended purchase due to poor customer service, while 59% of people were willing to try a new brand or service for reported better customer service." -- rbb CEO Christine Barney, who says this translates into $83 billion in lost sales. More.

  • “I like [the holding companies] getting bigger and bigger. Our advantage as independents is being able to take a long view. If we don’t take that advantage and use it back on the networks then we’re crazy.” -- Fraser Hardie, senior partner at UK-based Blue Rubicon. More.

  • “If you think you can be an independent firm based in San Francisco, you are going to go out of business.” -- David Landis, president of Landis Communications in San Francisco, and of the Public Relations Global Network. More.