Data of the Future

In the digital economy, data is the great connective tissue of more effective marketing. But today’s data landscape is a messy fragmentation of government regulation and disparate platform policies – all against the backdrop of a growing clamor for consumer privacy controls. For years, brands have feasted at the table of mass data acquisition. The next frontier they’ll have to conquer is mastering the right mix of first party data, contextual insights, and technology to power better marketing, while finding new ways to tell the story of the value of more addressable marketing to consumers.  

Across Stagwell, we’re tracking consumers’ declining trust in brand data collection policies, but believe many of today’s issues are being unfairly lumped together. What we know: people care about maintaining privacy around information like the contents of their mail, their text messages, their prescription drugs, and more. But they’re OK with a company finding out about whether they’ve bought a hamburger or shoe – and marketing to them on the basis of the products they truly enjoy. We have to do a better job as industry of differentiating between those two buckets of data, educating consumers to understand that contextual advertising based on habits can be incredibly valuable to them. If we can do that while drawing clear limits – we’re not going to use your mail, we’re not going to use your prescriptions, we’re not going to use your text messages – that will give consumers the confidence needed to serve them well in an increasingly connected world.”  

Our POV on Data

89%

CONSUMERS

Say they would be more likely to spend money with a brand that commits to protecting personal data online over one that doesn’t. 

42%

CONSUMERS

would not share any personal data with advertisers. 51% like to choose the types of personal data to share online with advertisers. 

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