In every decision, there is rarely one clearly good choice and one undoubtedly bad one. There is always nuance. This nuance is important for businesses to explore, as what may be a sound decision one day may not be the right one later. In pursuing decisiveness and finality, they may be leaving opportunities on the table for competitors to take advantage of.
This is evident in the false dichotomy between data utility and privacy, or the belief that they have an entirely inverse relationship. There is in fact a way for data to be safely and securely put to greater use without compromising privacy.
Preserve utility and privacy in data-driven marketing
Recognizing the link between trust and brand strength, marketers have often become the defacto advocates for consumer protections within their organizations, some smartly catering to the so-called privacy actives. Taking the opposite approach, others have significantly scaled back or forgone data-driven advertising altogether, sacrificing performance rather than becoming true consumer advocates by supporting necessary reform.
However, regardless of the improvements in contextual advertising and other modeling strategies, addressable advertising—whether through activation with premium publishers or by leveraging persistent identity across the ecosystem—will continue to be a more efficient and effective use of media investment and warrant a prominent place in any marketing strategy. Fortunately, many more publishers are moving toward developing their own authenticated inventories, which encourages consumer participation and offers brands an alternative solution to maintaining and even improving their campaign results, even programmatically.
Brands that consider themselves customer-centric and advocates for consumer protections should recognize the benefits of using permissioned data over proxies. This allows marketers to continue benefiting from addressability and create more relevant experiences while upholding their commitment to ethical data use.
With the focus now on building trusted relationships with consumers and providing more transparency into how data is collected and used, publishers and advertisers can preserve access to valuable audience data and activate at scale in a way that meets and exceeds current global privacy standards.
To learn more about how LiveRamp helped Danone maximize data utility and privacy with LiveRamp Safe Haven, check out this webinar.