In an age where consumer privacy and quality control in advertising is a prerequisite; brands, agencies and media owners are required to enforce stricter and higher quality processes – particularly around where are ads are seen/served , and by who.
Privacy Lawyers, Data Protection Officers, Chief Data Officers, and ad verification/brand safety platforms are now some of the most important people and systems in our industry.
GDPR is the hot topic, but not just in advertising, GDPR impacts every other industry where personal data is processed. Therefore the ability to unlock data for advertising starts a lot further down the chain with brands and publishers whose Chief Data Officers may not have initially been thinking about utilising this data for advertising…bring on stronger collaboration between CDO’s, CMO’s, and privacy and legal counsels!
Quality data drives quality decisions:
Data privacy and viewability/brand safety have been subjects shouted from the hill tops by brands and agencies, but consumers should also be celebrating. Isn’t it great to be living in an age where as a consumer my personal data isn’t going to be abused, I get served quality content, and I’m not followed around the internet by ads for products i’ve already bought, or have no interest in buying? The consumer experience is evolving…and as a result from a measurement perspective brands and agencies have the ability generate a stronger return on investment (ROI) and ad spend (ROAS).
Quality data, and less wastage:
The consumer experience is tightly aligned with advertising quality, so we need to make sure we get it right…
Utilising ad verification tools to quality assure brand safety and viewability definitely give you data points to analyse and optimise. Data which ensures you’re not wasting ad spend in bad quality environments.
Utilising quality data for targeting ensures a good consumer experience, less wastage and higher ROAS, for example:
- Delivering to a high in target demographic audience from use of consented age/gender data, gives you less wastage compared to spraying and praying.
- Utilising location data derived from app SDK implementations cross referenced with telecommunications data for targeting also ensures you’re delivering ads to the required locations, and more importantly, you’re able to measure that location delivery.
How do we unlock the data value:
We have the predicament of, “what data can I unlock value from?”. The simple answer here is, the complaint and consented data. But the fun then begins with getting that required consent.
Consumer education around the benefits of leveraging their data is important – brands and publishers collecting consumer data shouldn’t stop at simply asking for consent, but should give an honest education to the consumer of the benefits of giving consent to use personal data for advertising and measurement purposes.
With strong benefits for the consumer, comes scaled consent. For those experiencing an issue with scale we are experiencing the rise of more and more data consortiums in market, this could be a key player in the scale game.
In summary:
Now is the time in the advertising industry for strong collaboration between our respective Chief Marketing Officers, Chief Data Officers, Legal Counsel, Data Protection Offices, and Chief Financial Officers to unlock the value of big data in a consented and compliant fashion. Those who do this the most effectively with the consumer at the heart of their decisions, could well benefit the most.