Data privacy has received more attention over the past year thanks to new state and federal privacy laws such as the US privacy and data protection law (ADPPA). In fact, by the end of 2024, 75% of the world’s population will have personal data protected by modern privacy regulations., according to Gartner. But it was the big strategic changes announced by Apple and Google – two of the most influential big tech players – that brought data privacy into the cultural zeitgeist.
For years, consumers have known that their behaviors are being tracked. And for the most part, they didn’t mind – if they received a personalized experience across all channels in return. But as more and more outside forces shine the spotlight on how these behaviours are transformed into Data that is being exploited for monetary gain, consumers are looking for more control over their information – and marketers are scrambling to keep up.
“I’ve never seen disruptions happen at the speed at which they happen,” said Jesse Redniss, CEO of Qconsent, a platform that enables brands to collect consent permissions for first-party data. “And this disruption has implications across many different touchpoints for marketers, from your The advertisement to your data platform stackdirectly to your martech and advertising technology. How brands collect first-party data from consumers is changing from state to state, country to country, and the stakes are high. »
Now other burning issues are fueling the fire of data transparency. Ongoing political tensions and the recent reversal of Roe v. Wade puts under the microscope how social networks, retailers, and other apps use health data and other personally identifiable information (PII) to create a personalized (and useful) user experience.
“Each person is now acutely aware of some of the implications of what search and location data could reveal about the choices they make,” Redniss said in an interview with Retail Touch Points. “I think this is a very important tipping point for privacy and security, and how we think about how our personal information is used in our relationships with brands and platforms.”
To truly understand the impact of all these forces on consumers and the brands that market them, Questioned Qonsent 1,000 American adults and 125 tradespeople. Almost all (94%) consumers agreed that it was important to control what information they shared with businesses and how it was used. Two-thirds of respondents (66%) said it was very important to them.
However, transparency is just as important as control, which more and more brands and retailers are offering. More than three quarters (77%) of consumers surveyed said transparency of data-driven practices would impact their purchasing decisions, while 47% said they were actively trying to buy more from transparent brands. Having better control over how their personal data is used would make many consumers feel more secure (51%), even empowered (49%).
Marketers are reluctant to cede that power, especially as they feel more pressure to perform and prove tangible impact from the campaigns and tactics they implement online. In fact, Qonsent found that 78% of marketers believe impending laws will lead to less engagement and personalization. But one separate investigation from Motive.co reaffirmed that data security issues are impacting consumer behaviors and businesses cannot afford not to take action: 83% of consumers said they were concerned about how their data was tracked, captured and sold to advertisers when they accepted a site’s consent banner and privacy policy. Therefore, 67% of consumers said they eventually left a site because of these concerns.
Data privacy becomes a CMO priority
As data privacy becomes a priority for consumers, it must become a more global concern within retail organizations, especially within marketing teams. Many marketers take note and worry about the ripple effects: 86% of marketers are concerned that impending privacy laws will change their data collection practices, according to the Qonsent survey.
Historically, these types of data-driven initiatives were led by the chief privacy officer and legal teams, Redniss noted, but there has been a significant shift in which leaders and teams now have a seat at the table. . After all, data privacy is now a conversation about business strategy rather than a conversation strictly about compliance and risk.
“In the last six months in particular, we’ve seen a huge shift with the inclusion of the CMO, audience acquisition teams, and even proprietary data strategy teams,” Redniss explained. “Agencies in particular are very sensitive to the challenges of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework and the deprecation of third-party cookies and changing privacy laws.”
Agencies in particular are trying to acquire the data security skills necessary to improve their performance marketing strategies. Their goal is to become trusted advisors to brands and retail partners who want to ensure their hard-earned dollars support paid media that drives first-party data capture. They also want to make sure they power first-party compliant data capture into the data platforms they build for customers.
CMOs are largely at the center of these new and evolving conversations, as they are the ones dictating investments in performance and brand marketing. “It becomes a conversation about media strategy,” Redniss noted. “We see the CMO leaning into these conversations so that the entire marketing team, data acquisition team and audience acquisition team think about their CDP and CRM strategy and how to orchestrate this with their paid media to get a direct connection with consumers.”
Navigating the Changing Tides of Marketing
With the imminent loss of third-party cookies from Google and the launch of Apple ID for advertisers, CMOs and their teams have already had to re-examine how they allocate their marketing spend. They also sought to better understand how paid third-party channels such as TV advertising drive first-party data acquisition.
“A lot of brands are thinking about modeling the media mix and how they spend their money to drive transactions and create as many direct, strong consumer relationships as possible,” Redniss explained. But the ever-increasing number of laws and regulations, and the emergence and warm reception of the ADPPA from both sides of the political aisle, means that marketing teams will have to rethink how they operate over the past five to ten years. years.
In fact, first-party data collection and security are increasingly intertwined. As brands and retailers collect more first-party data, they must not only protect it, but also provide consumers with greater transparency about how that data is used.
“It’s going to take time to retool, redesign and rebuild data assets, but I don’t think that should scare off marketers,” Redniss said. “I think everyone should look at this as an opportunity to start building that component of trust and transparency more. When you can collect first-party data in a highly compliant way and use those assets to build a relationship with the consumer, you’re going to retain them longer and you’re going to get more value out of the relationship.
The benefits go far beyond building reliable and profitable customer relationships. As marketing teams build their first-party data, they can gain a more detailed picture of consumers, which can lead to more accurate audience segmentation and personalization. Overall, this will lead to improved marketing efficiency and performance, as marketers rely less on modeling campaign performance based on unknown users.
Make data privacy an enterprise-wide mandate
In light of new and changing privacy regulations, the entire organization must rally behind data privacy and transparency. CMOs should align with their CEO and CTO to collaborate on goals and ensure that processes and systems are in place for the secure collection and management of this data.
“When you think about how data is captured from your own touchpoints, websites as well as paid media, it all needs to be well orchestrated with your product and technology teams,” Redniss explained. Technology systems should be developed and integrated across commerce, marketing, research, and product teams so they have access to insights and personal insights that support personalization and recommendations throughout the customer journey . To accomplish this level of orchestration, the responsibility cannot simply rest with the CMO, according to Redniss: “It requires collaboration across many divisions. »
Cross-functional collaboration and data transparency will only become more crucial as customer loyalty becomes a top priority and more retailers try to capitalize on the rise of marketplaces and media networks, which are growing. rely on data to power advanced advertising capabilities.
“When considering changes to privacy laws, you need to obtain consumer consent to use credit card transaction information to drive these activations,” Redniss said. “It is part of the nuance of this legislation, and retailers have the ability to use this nuance to their advantage to communicate the exchange of value and use this activation [including when] it’s in-store with digital screens or QR codes. This is to help the consumer understand how the relationship can thrive when you get the proper consent from them to use that data to power those channels.
Want to know how to collect more first-party data and strengthen your marketing strategies to retain and retain your customers? Stay tuned for our new Marketing Handbook, launching July 28th.