THE HIGHLIGHTS
The generational shifts driving data transformation
for brands
The end of the third-party cookie and unprecedented behavioural shifts are combining to create an imperative for change in how marketers deal with consumer data.
recommended READING
FULL
SCREEN
FULL
SCREEN
Data is at the heart of customer-centric marketing today, and brands’ focus on it needs to be heightened as two hugely consequential shifts make their impact felt – the end of third-party cookies and the behavioural changes put in motion by the pandemic.
Where the former is concerned, it’s becoming obvious that marketers require a clear pathway and the right tools to adapt, since there will be big implications for how brands measure and target, and for how they enrich their data. In a Festival of Marketing session sponsored by Experian, Rob Webster, co-founder of marketing services company Canton Marketing Solutions, said few advertisers are prepared for the change.
“A lot of our clients are aware there is an issue and that they need a plan, but they haven’t got one yet,” he said. “Others are ignoring the issue while some don’t plan to have a plan - which is a mistake.”
Sponsored by experian
BACK TO top
BACK TO HUB
watch ‘Time to market marketing: How to increase your influence’ at the Festival of Marketing on demand
Find out more about how marketers can take a bigger role in leading their businesses. Watch Salesforce’s session, ‘Time to market marketing: How to increase your influence’, at the Festival of Marketing on demand now.
Webster added that the pandemic, a feeling that things will be alright in the end, and a fear of not really knowing what to do are all behind the lack of preparedness among advertisers. Publishers have been more proactive because their businesses have tended to rely on third-party cookies.
“Publishers are quite used to disruption but advertisers less so. They just move spend from one provider to another. That is still true, but they mustn’t underestimate the impact on their targeting, measurement and personalisation.”
Webster’s advice to advertisers is to get ahead of their competitors by facing up to the problem now. If they do, they can take advantage of an opportunity to grow their market share.
“Brands need to appoint someone internally to evaluate the challenge, come up with solutions and start testing those solutions,” he said. “In a world where privacy and looking after customers are so important, you cannot completely outsource. Brands own the relationship with the customer and they need an internal level of responsibility.”
Ed Cleator, head of digital products and innovation at Experian, said advertisers now faced a specific challenge.
“Our job is to find the stories that connect with audiences and engage customers.”
Emily Latham, Channel 4
“How does an advertiser use its first-party data and connect all the dots to figure out which channel is working? That is going to be critical,” he said. “The building of any first-party data asset starts with consent and transparency with the end consumer. That is now intertwined with the customer journey on a website so is probably a good starting point.”
Cleator said new ways will need to be found to unlock larger-scale matching for unknown audiences, and Experian wants to work as closely with brands in future as it has with publishers.
“We know publishers are on a journey to scale registration data,” he said. “In order to scale that growth and have that one-to-one matching, we need to figure out a way of addressing the huge glut of unknowns within audiences. If we do not, advertisers will be fighting over a small audience of registered users.”
With Google’s latest announcement around delaying the removal of third-party cookies by nearly two years, the industry must pull together to create a more open, collaborative environment that supports independent publishers while providing scalable advertising options to advertisers.
Click here to watch the session on demand at the Festival of Marketing
Experian's Ed Cleator on why addressing privacy is the right route for brands
Shifting behaviour
Maintaining sight of changing behaviours through insight is now essential for all marketeers. In a separate session, entitled ‘How the new normal is impacting on brands’ effectiveness and what you can do about it’, Experian Marketing Services’ head of data and insight Sarah Robertson outlined how consumer attitudes, behaviours and moods have changed throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
“For brands there has been continual change and unpredictable consumer behaviour since the start of the pandemic,” she said. “We know consumers are now becoming more confident about their own fortunes and the economic outlook, after several ups and downs in 2020.”
She pointed out that the pandemic had amplified differing levels of financial resilience, with some people having no savings while others have seen a large rise in money in the bank.
This has impacted consumers purchasing power differently and, with the changes in consumer behaviour, what they buy. All consumers have increased their online spend, with older people and the less affluent switching more of their money to online retail. The number of vacant units on the high street has risen by 13%.
Robertson said data and insight must be at the heart of decision making as we emerge from the pandemic. “There will be changes to where your customers and prospects are located,” she said. “Attitudes towards spending and towards brands have shifted because of the rollercoaster ride people have been on in the past year.”
Also in the session was Kinnari Ladha, chief data officer at IAG Loyalty, which runs the Avios travel rewards programme.
The company has had to make adaptations to its business as a result of the biggest shifts in travel behaviour in living memory. It has been working closely with its airline partners and used data and insights to keep consumers engaged at a time when they are not flying and the travel industry has suffered. This support has included helping consumers interact with Avios rewards, adapting customer communications and sharing consumer sentiment data so airlines can plan for the future.
In this period of transformational change, many more brands will need to focus just as much attention on having data-driven operations that are fit for the future, ensuring that they can adapt their marketing efforts quicky to the changing consumer as we step into the ‘new normal’. ■
Click here to watch the session on demand at the Festival of Marketing
Click here to watch the session on demand at the Festival of Marketing
THE HIGHLIGHTS