Advertising in a Post-IDFA World: LoopMe’s Data Advisory Board Identity Series
Part 2 of a 3 part series that dives into the opportunities and challenges pertaining to the removal of persistent IDs in digital advertising featuring LoopMe’s Data Advisory Board members.
Privacy is at the forefront of digital advertising, and in recent weeks, the focus has been escalating as companies are planning to make significant changes to the use of persistent identifiers in digital advertising.
In a recent press announcement we shared details of the company’s tech performance with ALL persistent identifiers removed, including Apple’s IDFA, Google’s Ad ID and third-party cookies. We have been preparing for the changes by testing our system’s ability to adapt and perform without these specific attributes and ran scenario testing that surprisingly revealed that our AI-powered predictive models retain 96% of their previous effectiveness, giving us further confidence in LoopMe’s ability to deliver lift across campaigns while the industry undergoes these technical changes.
We also took this opportunity to sit down with LoopMe’s Data Advisory Board, including Greg Coleman (Chairman of LoopMe board and former President of Criteo and Buzzfeed), Wenda Harris Millard (Vice Chairman of MediaLink), John Montgomery (Executive Vice President of Brand Safety at WPP’s GroupM), Rishad Tobaccowala (former Publicis CGO), Eric Eichmann (Spark Networks CEO, former Criteo CEO), Iain Jacob (CEO, Chair, NED), Lynda Clarizio (former President, Nielsen US Media), Mainardo de Nardis (former OMD CEO) and Wanda Young (CMO at Samsung Electronics America) to have a discussion about the future of digital advertising in a privacy-centric world.
Moderated by LoopMe’s CEO and founder Stephen Upstone, we’ve launched this three part series that will answer questions about the impact of digital advertising on marketers, consumers and how we’ll all navigate the post-IDFA world.
Q: What are the main priorities for advertisers to align with these identity changes?
John M:
The priorities don’t change. Marketers must get the right message in front of the ideal consumer the right number of times (and in the appropriate environment). The priority for marketers is to find other ways of identifying users who are most likely to buy, be that through AI-driven predictive modelling, contextual targeting or to focus on better creative quality in digital advertising (great creative advertising remains one of the best segmentation tools available to marketers).
Wenda:
Marketers and their agencies need to work together to ensure that consumers’ privacy is protected, while at the same time developing new ways to target the consumers who are most likely to buy their goods and services. We will need to create industry standards for acceptable ways to reach these consumers in a post-IDFA world, and that includes vetting safe new technologies that earn desired results with anonymized data.
Mainardo:
They need to make sense of their first party data strategies, to have a clear understanding of the importance of content and the knowledge that creative intelligence allows. They need to be ready for constant adaptation to change. Having a holistic market view and focus on business KPIs.
Lynda:
In addition to the comments from my esteemed colleagues, I’d like to add that brands need to demand independent measurement of the business outcomes they seek to achieve from their marketing. Brands cannot rely on the large digital media platforms to measure themselves without third party verification.
Iain:
The main priority for advertisers is to take control of their data strategy and be smart in choosing data suppliers and partners that genuinely build the advertisers’ capability.
Q: Why is there such a heightened scrutiny on consumer privacy?
Wenda:
It’s been building for a long time, but consumers’ awareness of the issues has been heightened recently by the number and scale of data breaches that have “hit home” with them personally, whether the breach happened at their banking institution or a favorite retailer. Stories about hacking and foreign interference in our politics have been front-page news these last few years, creating genuine fear and concern for all — for consumers, for businesses and for government.
John M:
This is a complex confluence of events. Consumer’s data has been misused for too long and that has caught the attention of the legislators and the press. There has been active publicity about data breaches and data misuse (e.g. Cambridge Analytica) and 3rd party cookie data has been conflated with more serious data infractions such as these. In addition, the large platforms have identified the heightened awareness around privacy as an opportunity to position themselves as privacy friendly “owners” of data by securing permission from their billions of users.
Mainardo:
Privacy matters. It’s all about trust. And trust and reputation drive growth.
Lynda:
We have reached a tipping point. There has always been scrutiny but it has been heightened by multiple data breaches and increasing abuse of consumer trust in connection with how consumer data is used to target advertising and to proliferate disinformation, hate speech and other harmful content.
Iain:
Privacy sits at the heart of trust. Lack of consumer trust is a brand and company killer. It may take a while to hit the bottom line, but with damaged trust you cannot have a sustainable business, period.
Read Part 1 of a 3 part identity series here