Marketing is seeing the “rise of the geeks” with big data, but issues over privacy could have an impact on how it is used in the future, according to Scott Howe.
The Acxiom CEO, in Australia to deliver a talk on the topic to the Australian Direct Marketing Association, also said more publishers will adopt ad exchange style mechanisms to handle their inventory.
He told B&T: “Across the world we’re in the very early stages, we’re in mile one of the marathon. Most companies are exploring this and seeing phenomenal results, but they haven’t explored how they’re going to use it in their marketing efforts.
“If the big four portals actually embrace data they will have achieved the same things that exchanges elsewhere in the world have, where there’s a lot more media fragmentation, and there’s transparency in the data.”
Speaking about the new Qantas campaign, which is focussing on customer interaction via targeted digital, press and outdoor ads, he said it was part of a wider trend being adopted by “smart marketers”.
But, he warned while marketing was becoming more complex and increasingly creative, marketers have to look across all platforms to make informed campaign decisions.
He said: “Where advertisers will run into problem is those that don’t think holistically across touchpoints will make bad decisions.
“What I mean by that is if you think of each of the tactics as a silo and evaluating each channel independently you will make the wrong conclusions.
“What happens is you will see a TV ad and makes you aware of the big Qantas fare sale, and type Qantas into Google. What should get the credit there, TV or the search engine? If you think about that in a silo you say Google works really well and cut all your TV budget and your searches dry up.
“The complexities mandate advertisers think about the inter-connectivity of all the different touchpoints.”
The government is currently reviewing privacy laws, and in particular who should hold the rights to data collected by companies, the consumer or the company.
Howe told B&T he thought in time most western countries would say the data is held by the consumer.
“Depending on who is ultimately given ownership there will be big differences in what data can be utilised and who extracts the most value for it,” he said.
“I would not be surprised if the consumer data does become a property right, which will then necessitate that companies using consumer data really be transparent around the value exchange which consumers get for the use of their data.
“All of us who grew up with TV know there’s an implicit contract you will get TV for free but you’ve got to watch some ads.
“What does your information get you? Some kind of loyalty points, cash back, access to other areas you had not had previously? It will be interesting to see.”
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