Webinar Highlights: Preparing for the Data Apocalypse

 

Marketers’ days of continually expanding data access have come to an end. Rather than data expansion, we are quickly seeing data availability shrink. What is happening and what does it mean for businesses? Recently Analytic Partners held a webinar with Forrester Senior Analyst, Tina Moffett, to discuss this concept of “data deprecation” and how measurement can evolve.

 

The drivers behind data deprecation include:

• Privacy regulations that threaten audience-centric ad strategies
• The death of the 3^rd-party cookie that underminds digital advertising’s core infrastructure, especially multi-touch attribution
• Walled Gardens’ refusal to share data and offer transparency with advertisers
• Consumer actions and choices to opt out of tracking and data collection as they have become “creeped out”

 

 

Data deprecation will impact every marketing effort in your organization. It will change how you engage with prospects and customers throughout their lifecycle. Tina explains what this means for marketers:

 

 

 

What does this tell us about the future state of measurement? First off there is not going to be a replacement for the cookie. Cookies were not stable, and they were intrusive. Advertisers need to ask themselves some tough questions about if cookies are even necessary. Tina explains:

 

 

 

The idea is that marketing measurement will become “less ‘wild west’ and more ‘gated communities’ with rules.” With no replacement for the cookie, multiple data-driven advertising models will emerge for targeting, measurement and personalization, varying across industries and use cases. We will see more strategic models, that are scalable and give great insights at great speeds while still being granular for deeper insights.

 

Marketing Measurement will continue to innovate even in the face of data loss. So, while multi-touch attribution will continued to be challenged, we will see marketing mix models, testing and campaign-based measurement increase. Walled gardens continue to cause issues for marketers, and while there will be ways to work with them and through partners for advanced measurement, marketers will find limitations.

 

How do marketers navigate this disruption? Tina offers some solid advice:

 

 

Refocus your measurement ethos - Shift from “Did it work?” to “Did it deliver value?”

 

 

 

Adopt strategic marketing and media mix models – Leverage aggregate marketing spend and response data to measure, predict, and plan marketing strategy. “It is a bigger value of impact.”

 

 

 

Embrace a test and hold out approach – Use test and hold out groups to measure incremental impact of marketing.

 

 

 

Reconsider other campaign-based measurement approaches – Investigate cookieless marketing measurement approaches; use first party marketing performance measurement; and consider panel data.

 

 

 

Engage With Walled Gardens – Investigate the walled garden rules for data access and measurement; inquire how walled gardens will provide insights

 

 

 

Tina wraps up the session with ways businesses can embrace a data-restrictive world, including benchmarking marketing efficiency using current measurement approaches, evaluating your measurement partner’s approach to campaign-level measurement, rethinking marketing measurement approaches considering data availability and marketing objectives, among others.

 

 

 

Data deprecation is already changing how marketers work, and in order to address these challenges businesses need to adapt and focus on what drives the most value. To learn more, access the full webinar to hear all of what Tina had to share, as well as her discussion with AP CEO, Nancy Smith, on what businesses can do to evolve their marketing to thrive in the "data apocalypse" and beyond.