As the third-party cookie crumbles and privacy regulations increase, data scarcity has only become more of an acute challenge for brands and publishers. BuzzFeed’s Josh Peters and his team saw these events as opportunities to advance their data strategy, forge data partnerships, and provide better insights to advertisers. His forward-thinking earned him the RampChamp Excellence in Customer Experience award.
Read our Q&A below on how Josh and his team use data to not only enhance the experience on BuzzFeed, but also to help their clients understand audiences more holistically. This understanding is core to BuzzFeed’s growth as a digital media company that has evolved significantly from its listicle and quizmaking roots. Today, BuzzFeed produces its own investigative news, video, and social media content, in addition to developing products and experiences.
- When did you start at your company and what was your role?
I started about 6 ½ years ago and I was the second West Coast hire for our distribution team. - How have you seen your team and business evolve since you’ve been with your company?
Our business has grown, changed, and become far more complex, intricate, and wide-reaching than it was six years ago. We’re working with more kinds of content, advertising options, and advanced technology than we did back then. Our strategies have also shifted to be even more audience and data focused and that’s been a key part in my role and the evolution of my career at BuzzFeed. - We nominated you for Exceptional Customer Experience as we love what you’re doing with your data strategy, helping brands connect more authentically with their audiences on BuzzFeed. Can you tell us more about what you’re doing and how brands and readers are responding?
We’re working more with brands on ingesting their data to give deeper insights into what their users do on BuzzFeed and how we can help tailor campaigns for them. We’re also working with clients on more advanced methods of research and discovery and also on data enrichment post-campaign. The clients enjoy it because they’re getting high-quality, privacy-compliant data from us, which is helping with their own data strategies in a post-cookie world. - We live in an interesting time now, to say the least—what pre-pandemic accomplishment are you thankful for now that ended up helping your team cope with immediate change? Upgrading our DMP to a future-leaning solution that doesn’t rely on any form of third-party cookies and starting the process of mobilizing data in a post-cookie world.
- What are you focused on for next year? Deepening our verticalized data strategies. My team is focused on creating more data partnerships with clients and reshaping how we look at third-party data and the partners we engage with in that field.
- What is your advice for someone just getting started with data partnerships?
Talk to your clients. Make sure you’re building something they’ll find valuable and that you’re packaging it in a way that helps both of you grow. - What’s your best WFH tip?
Invest in yourself, whatever that means for you—it makes every aspect of WFH better. For me it’s coffee and I’ve seriously upped my at-home coffee game. From working on my pour-over technique to getting very specific about my beans to trying new brewing methods, like a moka pot, it’s all made the mornings something to look forward to.