When Martin Sorrell speaks people listen. So a few ears perked up after he gave an interview to the Telegraph suggesting the Coalition’s austerity programme is the envy of our American cousins.
But what caught my attention was that the man in charge of communications behemoth WPP said that data is the thing that excites him most. I agree with him (not just because he heads up a company which owns a huge chunk of the industry which I hope to progress in and he’s pretty much always right anyway) because more scientific and logical thinking creates better communication.
Companies have always craved a greater understanding of consumers. Account planning in advertising was developed to give creative work more of a scientific basis. The practice is the brainchild of legendary adman Stanley Pollitt, who felt his clients deserved advertising that was less reliant on gut feeling and more on logical insights.
The use of data can be effectively used across marketing to great effect, if you know how people tick, you know how to communicate to them. Tesco’s Clubcard loyalty programme is a great example of how data about consumers can be used to obtain a detailed understanding of their behaviour. Although Tesco harvests a vast amount of data there have been very few concerns raised about privacy, this is down to the fact that the scheme is opt-in. People want to be part of the scheme and can see its benefits due to useful vouchers being sent to them.
Just as Tesco uses its data to ensure it only sends relevant vouchers to its Clubcard members, there has been a growing trend of marketers who want targeted communication. Alexia Quadrani, who covers the advertising industry for JP Morgan Chase in New York, rightly says: “To do that effectively you need the data.”
As technology has developed it has made it easier to get data, Tesco were on able to launch the Clubcard scheme after magnetic strips on cards made it cost effective to track individual’s behaviour. The Internet is now an essential part of many of our lives and it has meant there are more opportunities for our likes, dislikes and behaviour to be tracked and ana
lysed.
But this lust from marketers to gather data also raises serious concerns about privacy. Facebook has got in a world of trouble about its privacy issues. Mark Zuckerberg, in what turned out to be a massive PR gaffe, famously said ‘the age of privacy is over’. However the data from its users’ profiles is exactly the kind of stuff advertisers crave. That’s why advertising on Facebook is so powerful, as it uses people’s profile information such as their age/gender/location/likes to ensure only relevant ads are shown on people’s pages. On my Facebook page adverts include those about football, poker and things to do in London. All fairly accurate and things that would catch my attention, therefore I would be more likely to click on them. Although people have freely entered information on Facebook, there have still been various complaints about the way Facebook uses the data to sell to advertisers, many saying it is a gross invasion of privacy.
Also as more and more people get smartphones and as apps are widely downloaded and used, there has been concerns raised about how some developers are using their apps to mine consumer data. The Wall Street Journal recently broke a story about how various apps have been sending personal data – such as location, age, gender and other personal details – in order to gain a detailed analysis of people in order to sell onto marketers. The more that is known about a person the more revenue that can be generated, for example ads targeted by location bring in two to five times as much money as untargeted ads.
Marketers like targeted advertising as instead of using a megaphone tactic, shouting their message at a crowd and hoping it’ll be heard by at least some relevant people, they are getting targeted, sophisticated and their message to the right audience. Also because it’s targeted they are willing to pay for more for it, so there is a big market out there for companies that can provide information about people and their behaviour.
Some find it creepy and invasive they are receiving advertising that’s targeted and personal to them, personally I find it useful as I am increasingly seeing things that interest me. There is no point advertising a Venus razor at me – because although the lady showcasing the Greek goddess type qualities may catch my attention – as there’s no way I’ll ever buy one.
