In today’s economy, it feels like businesses are battening down the hatches and looking into oncoming storms without knowing how to get to shore. But what if all you needed was the right map to get to safety?
During our LiveRamp Summit, CEO Scott Howe and fellow industry leaders discussed how businesses can plan for industry and global headwinds—and thrive when the storm subsides. As presented in Scott’s opening remarks, here are four strategies to help your organization stay competitive and navigate challenging times.
1. Plot a clear course.
As consumer behavior remains anything but predictable, your organization must determine how to maintain cohesive, end-to-end customer journeys. Now is the time to ask, what role will data play and how can you make the customer journey more impactful across channels on an increasingly limited marketing budget?
Building a first-party data strategy to overcome gaps in customer intelligence and connect disparate data is a vital step in mapping out a clear path for your marketing strategies. Underscoring this point, Giusy Buonfantino, VP Consumer Packaged Goods Industry Solutions at Google Cloud, shared, “The first thing we have to do as marketers is choose the data that solves our business problem. Is creative effective across platforms and channels? And what data can drive this effectiveness? This is the type of query more brands want to know.”
Part of deciding how to use data is to ensure you’re enabling privacy-conscious customer experiences. By working alongside your team and new partners, you can build a secure data strategy through identity and the cloud.
“Talking about marketing with the cloud is like bread and butter. Like when you go to an Italian restaurant and they give you the bread and the butter and it’s free, it’s the table stake and the tablecloth,” Buonfantino said. “So build the plan together and understand the use cases that you want to tackle together.”
2. Assemble a strong and talented crew.
Collaboration and interoperability are key in preparing for a cookieless future and the present task of putting consumer privacy front and center. Your core partners should be able to strengthen your data strategy and enable you to get ahead of looming headwinds.
“If we’re distracted and putting out fires, what fires are we making and what headway are we deciding? I don’t think third-party cookies going away matters at this point,” Amanda Martin, SVP, Corporate Development and Strategic Partnerships at the Goodway Group, said. “The new solutions that are out there should be adopted, tested, and implemented into marketing programs.”
Progress never happens alone, which is why companies must reinforce their first-party data with partners who can implement data strategies that deliver strong results and ROI.
3. Look beyond the horizon for new partners.
As you look beyond cookies, don’t settle on walled gardens to inform your customer journey. Premium publishers outside of walled gardens attract huge audiences every day and are largely untapped and more collaborative.
Additionally, there are more opportunities to propel data activation and measurement with premium publishers, resulting in improved match rates across CTV and the open web. By connecting with authenticated users through publishers, advertisers are enabled to better understand the value of these channels and optimize accordingly to ultimately increase the bottom line.
“Addressability and performance are the two key indicators of what’s going to stay in the budget,” said Martin. “At this time when every browser is a different personality situation and every different medium is a measurement situation, it’s really important for us to have strong opinions on how to direct and prioritize channel performance.”
4. Always keep your hands on the wheel.
Consumers expect that you’re always in control of their data. To ensure you’re keeping consumer data safe, companies must protect it like gold. There’s nothing more valuable to a business than its first-party data and the unique insights that can be derived from it.
“Being able to understand more about our audiences, where they are, where they’re looking, reading, and interacting, in a very privacy-centric environment is key for us,” said Lisa Thomsen, Head of Digital and Acquisition Marketing at New York Life Insurance Company. “And then also understanding, who else is your audience? Being able to find more people who would fit in with our target audience and learn those insights has been so key for us.”
A data and business strategy that puts customers and their privacy first will allow your brand to endure and thrive.
“History has taught us that there are valuable lessons to be learned from turbulent times,” Howe said. “We must focus on the end-to-end customer journey and collaborating with good partners who can help you make smart business decisions to protect your data and brand.”
