Tag: Daryl Swinden

- by Daryl Swinden

Big Data or Big Brother?

Let’s be frank, we are in an age where everything is being recorded. Who knew Mr Orwell would be so right all those years ago?

For over a decade we’ve been used to seeing CCTV cameras watching us all over the country.  These have provided valuable information for both the public and private sector. The thing about these devices is that they are generally visible recorders and, as in the name, are closed circuit, which means not a broadcast platform for the media and therefore ring-fenced to some degree in who benefits from the information recorded.

In recent years, however, industry has developed a far more detailed and covert tracking capability – online.

The UK Government’s Future Identities report[1] highlights Generation Z will soon be coming of age and start infiltrating the workplace and it’s these guys that have been born into the digital era. They are skilled online and generally are far more open to embracing the internet with all its pro’s and con’s.   This in itself is likely to produce another sharp increase in data generated around business without fear.

The report backs up the notion that our cultures are changing due to technological advancements as we immerse ourselves into our digital environments. It is this immersion that is fuelling mass online interactions and providing insight that has never been available before.

We are likely to become more insular in real-life, yet more social in our digital lives.

With the advent of our mobile culture, lines are being blurred in terms of work/home life.  We are now working from home more, bringing both personal and work personas together.

Our traditional views and preconceptions as marketers of audiences are shifting and morphing into ways we’d never imagined.  And these should be seen as opportunities to improve on our insight and targeting.

Pro’s and con’s

The tracking and understanding from the digital footprints we leave is helping organisations recognise individuals – and profile them.  This in turn is shaping businesses with their strategy on how they communicate with individuals.

The positive for the marketing industry is that it helps take the guesswork out of business decisions.

As reputable and savvy companies, we are enhancing our communications, using these vast information sources, to ensure they are both relevant and timely – helping to reduce the amount of irrelevant marketing, so communications can be based on individuals, not as a generic group segment.

On the other hand, there are less scrupulous companies out there that could take advantage of personal data. Selling it off, and using it for scams, or creating cyber-crime through fake profiles.  And it’s these that may spoil the party concerning consumers’ trust  and the sharing of their data, reigniting the fear factor.

Victims or volunteers?

We pretty much all share information via social media in one form or another. We know these are public networks. The benefit to us is free social networking, but what is the cost?

These huge platforms aren’t funded out of the goodness of, say, Zuckerberg’s heart. They are businesses in their own right. Their success relies on income, and that income is generated from insight from the data held which also feeds their advertising revenues. So every time you ‘like’, share or engage with something these are generating insight for organisations.

The same applies to cookies. These allow tracking capabilities within websites. When we ‘accept’ cookies this is again leaving a digital trail.

So, as users, are we aware we are funding our own Big Brother?

With your company hat on you have to make sure you use this data effectively and provide benefits for your customers & prospects to gain trust through relevance and not abusing the privilege. This in turn will generate a far more efficient marketing engine.

With your personal hat on we all need to be careful who we share our data with, and where we share it.
Data (whether big or not) is the new digital currency. It’s here to stay. So we had better get used to it and, if we are so inclined, act to protect our personal information.

- by Daryl Swinden

Why the Cookie Law is like speeding

With little over a month for compliance of the EU legislation are you on schedule?

On 26th May 2012  owners of EU websites that have cookies are expected to provide the visitors an opportunity to authorise the use of cookies*. The user must have a right and the opportunity to change their mind at a later date.  There is however an alternative. Remove the cookies altogether!

All bar a very few cookies that are deemed essential are affected – the vast majority of cookies do not fall under “essential” and must therefore be dealt with. Unfortunately, the law doesn’t specifically differentiate between those that are more intrusive than others however, unofficially those that don’t deliver information around sensitive data are not deemed high priority issues.

Ironically, in order to remember if a user doesn’t want you to store cookies on their device you would need to store a cookie – which is contradicting the law.

If a user clicks ‘No’ to cookies there goes your tracking and insight out of the window and potentially, functionality for the user will be impeded.

The method of authorisation is up to the website owner – this can be in the form of a pop-up, an information bar or any other ideas you can think of – so there is some creativity around the solution.

The issue is that huge players such as Google & YouTube don’t seem to be joining in on this. This is giving other organisations false confidence in avoiding the law too.

If they aren’t complying you don’t need to right?
Wrong!

Think of it like speeding in your car.

Your mates (Google & co) are saying “It’s fine – you can break the law a bit, we are doing 90mph in a 70mph limit and are getting away with it.”

But for you surely just a bit over the limit is OK, we all know that 75mph is not as bad as 90mph right?

‘Slightly’ non-compliant is better than “totally” non-compliant, but we should remember in the eyes of the law, both are non-compliant. It only takes a police officer to be having a bad day to be punished for 75mph, yet an officer on a good day may waive you.

Breaking the law is breaking the law, no matter how close to the law you are. If you do break it, you risk ending up at the ICO’s ‘speed awareness course’.

Yes, I think we all agree it’s an obscure law, penalising those that use cookies effectively & harmlessly – enhancing the user’s experience, as well as gathering information to further improve customer understanding. It is law, so we can moan about it all we like but it’s inevitable and best to just get on with it.

Those trying to avoid this law may likely go through a lengthy legal battle with the varying data protection authorities in the EU.

Volume is providing solutions for our clients, and can help with yours too. If you have concerns over your compliance get in touch to discuss how we can help.

For a review of the ICO’s guidelines click below:

ICO guidance.

*some cookies are exempt from the law however, these really are few and far between.

- by Daryl Swinden

The data laws will be changing; are you prepared?

Data drives business, provides marketers with valuable insight about consumers and enables highly targeted communications and response-tracking of campaigns. With new developments and engagements around social media (see our social insight blog), it undoubtedly is evolving into a more powerful resource.

But isn’t ‘data’ still something that just geeks worry about? Surely its impact is negligible on professional marketers who are pushing the boundaries for creative, social and integrated campaigns?

Well, something is coming to the data world that will affect all of this.

It’s the new EU Data Protection Regulation. This new legislation will look to standardise the data-protection laws across the 27 EU member states including the UK.

But you’re not affected, right?
Wrong.

EU Data Protection Regulation - DMA warns of fears it will damage UK businesses http://t.co/JXKi3wfD
January 25, 2012 4:48 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite
@DMA_UK
DMA UK

 

Whilst still in draft format, this proposed legislation will at best be an extra headache for business and at worst, could totally break the marketing model as we know it.

With this new regulation, we are going to have to rethink what we are doing and how we are doing it.


There will be even more emphasis on the ability to use an individual’s data - only if they are happy for you to do so. The multi-billion-pound marketing industry that uses this information is of secondary importance.

Of particular interest in the new revision are the following categories:

Explicit

Piggybacking the oh-so-popular cookie law, consumers (and that includes business consumers) will have to give “explicit consent” for an organisation to use their personal data for marketing purposes – even if the consumer has had a previous interaction. So “inferred consent” will go out of the window. Clearly, if this consent can’t be proved, then potential contact databases will have to be scrapped and started again. And nobody wants that, right?

You never saw me, right?

Individuals will also be able to request the deletion of their data – in what’s called a “right to be forgotten”.  This is the first proposed regulation to deal with social media and data protection, but will have far-reaching implications across all marketing activities. The additional administration of this, coupled with the impact of customer profiles and trends, will have both financial and planning implications.

Tell me about me

Right now, individuals can request a copy of their data.
Why aren’t we all inundated with these requests? Well, there is currently a nominal fee of £10 to obtain this information. It is proposed however, that this fee will be scrapped – meaning that these requests are likely to come thick and fast.

When is a number not a number?

When it’s an IP address.

IP addresses are a digital marketer’s dream – they allow us to recognise users. This then means we can run analytics and analyse web behaviours.

Well, it now transpires that these IP addresses are considered personal data. Even though they’re just numbers and you can’t communicate with people via an IP number.

Size matters

Companies with over 250 staff will need to have a designated data-protection officer.

 

Don’t panic just yet though. The legislation is purely draft at this stage. Bodies like the DMA will be fighting the corner for the industry and hope to make sure common sense prevails in some of these areas.

And realistically, by the time all the bickering about what is acceptable to all parties has died down and we have a new regulation, we may be three to four years down the line.

What is clear, however, is that change is happening, and whatever it entails, you should be prepared for a more transparent and open relationship with your data subjects. Those companies that will succeed are those that start planning and incorporating this into their activities now, not in four years’ time.

You can fight it, or accept the inevitable.

Is your organisation prepared for change?

- by Daryl Swinden

Social insight: understanding and adapting to your audience

This is the fifth in a series of blog posts exploring Social Business.

  • Hands up who has bought a house without getting a survey first?
  • OK, who has bought a washing machine without checking the specification?
  • Finally, who has made a sales call without knowing anything about the prospect?

My point here is that you need information and understanding before you can make an informed decision about the direction of something. The more you know, the better prepared you can be.

The same applies to marketing.

The “Spray & Pray” approach no longer works. Today, it’s all about relevance. We’ve seen this with direct mail, e-mail marketing and telemarketing. Each of these channels originally started as a percentage game: hit as many people as you can in the hope of getting a small number of responses. Over the years, however, this approach exhausted the audience, and now successful campaigns within these channels are those that are targeted and relevant.

Social media is no different: yes, it’s new, exciting and largely untapped; and yes, 46% of people access their social network every day; but in reality it’s a just different channel – the customers are the same.

So the same logic applies.

So what can you learn from social-data insight? Well, you’d be surprised.

To help explain this, I should first give a Reader’s Digest version of the history of database marketing.

First generation:

Once upon a time, customer databases were insular, collecting information that was either part of the transaction process or in response to a request, e.g. What is your date of birth? They allowed marketers to understand the customers’ relationship with their products and engage with them accordingly.

Second generation:

We then moved on; compiled data from multiple sources such as organisations, government bodies and so on. These can be used for demographic profiling to help you understand more about your customers and prospects through relationships elsewhere.

Typically, traditional demographics are based on location, on the assumption that you and your postcode neighbour are the same type of people.

Third generation:

We now have social networks. These weren’t initially designed to be a marketer’s friend, but due to the massive take-up around the globe (one in nine people alive are on a social network), they are proving to be a rich source of new information on customers and prospects.

The thing is, this information has been given, not requested.

Meaning that it has no particular bias.

The same can’t be said for the information gathered for those competitions that require you to answer questions with a view to winning a shiny new widget. Who is going to be honest and say the product is rubbish if they think it will mess up their chance of winning?

The trick now is to listen to what your customers aren’t telling you.

This data is new, powerful and constantly updating.

For example, want to know how far someone tends to travel to events?

What other interests do they have outside your relationship with them?

Which brands would be good affiliates?

Have they changed jobs, moved house?

Are they sport fanatics? Football? Which team?

Are they party animals?

The answers to the questions above aren’t the sort of things we would necessarily know. However, through the inherently dynamic style of social media, we have this information instantly. Social DNA can be derived, so to speak.

BUT (and it’s a big but) this data is not freely available. It needs to be earned. Through relevance and trust. The user must authorise the sharing of their social data with you.
So you need to consider why a user would authorise this. This is the marketing challenge, and to be blogged about at a later date. Once a strategy has been devised for the incentivisation, the use of Facebook’s Connect functionality (for example) opens up this new world of information.

Each one of the three generations of marketing data is useful in its own right, but blending them can prove extremely powerful, by making the unknowns known, and enhancing the marketer’s knowledge of the customers.

Now, hands up who wants to know more about their customers and their social DNA?

Contact me: daryl.swinden@volume.co.uk

So, now you have powerful insight on your customer, but what about understanding the brand connection? In next week’s blog, we’ll discuss the brand relationship.