So... data, amirite?

What the (data) hell is going on here?

The advertising landscape has drastically shifted due to changes in cookie usage and the increasing importance of data privacy. And that's fair: people are getting concerned about what companies - and political parties - do with their data. Cookies, once the backbone of digital advertising for tracking users, are being phased out due to privacy concerns and regulatory actions like GDPR, Bill 25 (Quebec) and CCPA. This shift has heightened the value of first-party data, collected directly from interactions with a brand, as it aligns with new privacy standards while providing relevant insights for personalized advertising.

The impending elimination of third-party cookies (i.e. data collected by other companies to be used by advertisers) by major browsers (Google, Firefox, Safari, etc.) has propelled the industry towards alternative data strategies that respect user privacy. Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are now pivotal, enabling the analysis of large data sets to deliver personalized ads without infringing on privacy. What will data look like in a couple of years? Let's try and elucidate that.

Let's talk business.

Let's look at our options, shall we? We're left with less and less third party data every day. This means, we will more likely have to rely on the so-called 'walled gardens', right? Well, not exactly. It actually means that the data everybody has been gathering all these years finally means something.

And it means BIG MONEY. Or big efficiency. Or longevity. Or... good. It's just very good. And if you were not gathering data, well now's the time. Think of ways to engage with your customers. Think of how you can get them to give them their contacts so that you can later regengage with them.

My business has consumer data, but what is it worth?

A lot. Probably. But where is it gathered? Is it organized? Can you retrieve your users' email addresses? Phone numbers? The way data works is that we need identifier keys to match this data with other tools, like advertising platforms. The more keys we have, the more likely the data is to be matched. The more users data we have, the more reach we are likely to have on such platforms. What are your next steps?

1. Make sure you have consumer consent to use their data, as per Bill 25 in Quebec, the CCPA in California or GDPR in Europe, for example.
2. Organize your data using a CRM or CDP solution. Many of them exist and you can find a looooooooooong list just here.
3. Create segments and start adding more qualitative data to your user profiles. What did they purchase? What are their interests?
4. Start thinking on leveraging them : either for your own purpose or... maybe for another advertiser? Some might want to start using their data to help others refine their strategies. That's a good way to monetize your data.

What sort of data is valuable these days?

Businesses desperatly need to start investing in tools that will help them keep track of clean data. Clean, uniform, reliable data will always be key in providing more intelligence to your activities. And that is not something that solely regards customer data. It concerns planning data, spending data, operation data. All of it.

So... is data dead?

No it's not. It's simply shifting. The key here is to gather more data, understand it and organize it. With media plan, you're doing just that in standardizing every entry, which will later be useful to obtain mix-media modelling, or statistical analysis. And that, my friend, is the future of media planning.