“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Diane Perlman, CMO of Blis.
The digital advertising industry is locked in the fight of its life right now.
The combination of international privacy regulations, such as GDPR, CCPA and LGPD in Brazil, as well as new privacy mandates from the tech giants, have put the most popular methods of targeting and digital ad tracking under attack.
Browsers, including Safari and Firefox, have already blocked the use of third-party cookies, but rather than be proactive to find new solutions, some marketers have stuck their heads in the sand and ignored the scale of the challenge they’re facing.
Others are devoting their energy to looking for new ways to achieve the same granular tracking and targeting of individual consumers as they had before. Ultimately, what these developments mean is that the sort of granular measurement and attribution that CMOs have become accustomed to may no longer be possible.
Instead, they should recognize that new privacy laws and restrictions are intended to transform our industry into a better, more transparent ecosystem. As an industry, we need to embrace the opportunity to use privacy-compliant, anonymized consumer data sets and find more respectful ways to engage target audiences.
In the battle for privacy-first marketing, here are the three rounds brands will need to win.
Round 1: Consumer privacy vs. personalization
It might sound obvious, but one thing brands will need to accept is that while some individual consumers might be happy to share their personal data in exchange for personalized marketing in line with their preferences, others will resist.
And no one likes clumsy attempts to harvest their personal information. Getting it wrong at this stage could ruin the brand experience of potentially valuable customers.
With different consumers moving at different speeds up and down your brand’s “trust funnel,” it’s vital you broaden the scope of your marketing strategy and have alternative ways to reach target audiences that don’t depend on the use of personal data at all.
In the end, your customers will help you find the right balance between consumer privacy and personalized marketing. The role of the marketer is now to cater to the variety of responses your target customers will likely provide.
Round 2:…
