New report: how marketers can use GDPR to their advantage
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the notion of transparency should be a convenient opportunity to gain a competitive edge, rather than be viewed as a threat to marketers, according to a new report.
Report: A Paradigm Shift of Digital Measurement
The report, A Paradigm Shift of Digital Measurement, in association with AudienceProject, finds that by building their own ecosystems and being clear and open about how data is collected, stored and deployed, companies can position themselves as front-runners in an industry that is clamoring to make itself less opaque to consumers.
The report delves into the importance of verification when it comes to incorporating transparency into a brand’s strategy. Despite being labeled as the most measurable platform, digital has historically been far behind when it comes to measuring actual effect on real people, rather than quantifying impressions and conversions. Impressions in the end reveal no insight into the number of people who have seen an ad - or for that matter who they are - which is also very important to understand, given that it’s real people who will buy the products.
Adam Morton, UM UK’s managing partner (client services) refers to this as a form of “data blindness”, adding that the industry has forgotten it’s real objective. “Marketing and media has always been and should always be about real people. There has been an abundance of data and richer insights but that has led some to forget that it is real people we aim to influence.”
The past year has seen massive changes in the digital industry and with GDPR just around the corner, issues of privacy and transparency are more relevant than ever. Facebook came under fire earlier recently following revelations that data mining form Cambridge Analytica had gained access to the information of 50 million users. This led to the rise of a #DeleteFacebook campaign supported by Elon Musk and WhatsApp founder Brian Action.
Edelman’s Trust Barometer also showed that consumer trust in social media platforms is declining, revealing that less than a quarter now trust social media.
The report contains contributions from: Scott Gill, managing director at 1XL, Rich Astley, head of product at Finecast, Adam Morton, managing partner (client services) at UM UK, Dan Hagen, chief strategy officer at Carat, Patrick McCarthy, SVP Marketplace Partnerships at AppNexus, Sean Betts, managing director at Annalect UK, Malcolm Smith, EMEA head of strategy at Starcom, Simon Kvist, Gaulshøj, VP International at AudienceProject and Jacob Lachmann, CEO at AudienceProject.