Member Article

Federated data pools, data unions, collaboration, NFTs, Metaverse, Digital Wallets: What is the future of digital advertising?

It’s fair to say change in digital advertising is afoot.

We recently took part in the DMA’s Responsible Marketing Update webinar which gave an overview of all the regulatory changes on the cards. In the UK this included an update on Data: A new Direction – the government’s consultation on UK Data Protection which it is planning to reform in order to remove barriers to innovation. There are many proposed changes but those relevant to marketers include increased fines for rogue cold callers, an introduction of a soft opt-in for charities and not for profit organisations for email targeting, removal of the need for consumers to opt-in to audience measurement cookies and the right for consumers to request a human review of any automated decisions. Legitimate Interest remains uncertain and the DMA continues to lobby against it.

The DMA also gave overviews of three incoming EU Acts:

•      Data Act designed to shape Europe’s Digital Future through the creation of a European data pool that can be used for commercial and non-commercial uses
  

•      Digital Services Act designed to regulate online advertising rules which will apply to all platforms with more than 45 million European users – this of course will encompass all the major social networks
  

•      Digital Markets Act designed to regulate against monopolies with so-called gatekeepers having to adhere to a strict set of regulations.
  

The introduction of these three acts is ultimately to create a new data ecosystem which has collaboration at its heart, giving greater control to consumers and increased fairness for advertisers.

You might think that what is going on in Europe is no longer a concern for us, however, with issues of adequacy and the impact of these Acts of GDPR keeping an eye on these developments is important. More so now with the extinction of third party cookies.

What is clear for brands as we begin to navigate these changes is that zero- and first-party data will become more important. Third party cookies have lulled advertisers into a false sense of security for too long. Programmatic activity was easy and because of this reliance many brands are now facing a big problem – they have very little idea on who their customer actually is and as a result don’t know how to give their customers a reason to engage. Without this collecting and maintaining zero- and first-party data is very difficult. Brands must now focus on their overarching data strategy; and not just in a CRM context, but across the board. They need to get to grips where their customers are, how to engage them and what else they engage with. This can’t be on a purely transactional basis. In today’s environment a relationship goes beyond a purchase, it’s about providing a customer experience and giving your customers reasons to connect with you.

With talk of federated data pools, data unions, collaboration, digital wallets, NFTs, Metaverse marketing there is a huge amount of uncertainty. However, what is clear is that brands that want to continue to thrive online will be those that unpick their customer journey and give their customers a reason to share their data.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by The Thread Team .