Eyeota’s Marc Fanelli in Adweek on why a privacy-first mentality and approach to consumer data is the key to future-proofing your marketing strategy.

The world might seem more divided than ever if you’re scanning the daily headlines, but the need to preserve consumer privacy and improve data transparency is proving to be an increasingly unifying force around the world—and it’s a force that’s transforming the global marketing landscape. In the coming years, the global data-governance playing field is going to level out considerably, particularly when it comes to previous disparities between the U.S. and other countries.

And that’s a good thing—for U.S. and international marketers, alike. As shifting privacy regulations prompt a rebalancing of deterministic and probabilistic tactics within marketing strategies, global brands have the opportunity to recalibrate their efforts in a sustainable, holistic and future-proof fashion. Here’s what that will look like in the U.S. and abroad.

The end of U.S. data exceptionalism

In the U.S., the pivot toward consumer privacy by default was kicked off in earnest with 2018’s California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). More recently, the state passed the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) amendments, which brings state law even more closely in line with Europe’s GDPR when it comes to restricting the collection and use of personal data. And this is just the beginning.

Although regulatory shifts can cause short-term headaches as marketing practices are brought into compliance, forward-thinking brands are viewing consumer consent and value exchange as an opportunity. The model for leveraging privacy-safe, consent-based audience data at scale has been established in Europe, and there is significant potential to evolve this method on a global scale through consumer-friendly and transparent tools.

The push toward greater consumer privacy in the U.S., where deterministic consumer data has long been emphasized, is going to drive a mass recalibration in which probabilistic techniques are going to be reprioritized within the data-driven marketing equation. That’s not a step back for U.S. marketers. Quite the contrary. The deeper embrace of probabilistic promises to unlock new benefits as it relates to sustainable customer acquisition. And, importantly, as U.S. data practices fall into closer alignment with the rest of the world, global marketers are going to be able to realize new efficiencies as it relates to their data management, security, compliance and activation around the world.

Let’s be clear: The move toward greater global data privacy will not eliminate the need for or benefits of deterministic data. It will, however, make it more difficult for marketers to acquire such data without direct customer relationships and established, compliant data partnerships. But deterministic data will continue to be relied upon for its immense value in retargeting and personalization efforts. And, in fact, global and international brands will continue to take every opportunity to emulate U.S. brands as it relates to their robust first-party data strategies.

But what about new customer acquisition and first-party data scale? As the procurement of deterministic data becomes a more refined process, how can U.S. and global brands ensure they’re able to target prospects at scale in a meaningful way? That’s where probabilistic data’s power shines—and has for years in international markets. Because probabilistic cohort-based methodologies do not need personally identifiable information (PII) to onboard first-party data onto a digital identifier, they are typically not affected by shifts in privacy regulation and are, thus, more stable within the global marketing landscape.

Global marketing, simplified

For U.S. marketers, deepening their probabilistic data techniques is going to unlock new scale and sustainability within their customer acquisition efforts. At the same time, global brands—both those based in the U.S. and operating internationally, and vice versa—are going to have an opportunity to unlock new efficiencies in measurement and internal collaboration.

For global brands, the complexity of operating under vastly different data schema around the world has posed challenges as it relates to scaling their data strategies, ensuring regulatory compliance and maintaining consistency in their targeting methodologies. As U.S. data practices fall more closely in line with the rest of the world, there will be an opportunity to consolidate and simplify global practices and, thus, unlock tremendous efficiencies and a more comprehensive understanding of audiences around the world.

At the same time, we’re going to see a shakeup in the realm of global data providers as well, as a new category of globally relevant partners rises to prominence—those that can translate their data practices, policies and methodologies into all major global markets and, thus, enable brands to more easily reconcile their global spend and measurement across markets.

As a privacy-first mentality and approach to consumer data goes global, so too must the world’s data and technology providers. Those that have already established deep expertise when it comes to balancing the superpowers of deterministic and probabilistic data techniques will find themselves at the forefront. The rest will be running to catch up to the new global opportunity.

Article first published in Adweek.

Categories

data privacy, consumer data, ad tech, marketing strategy

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