Consumer Identity and Data Strategies for a Rapidly Changing Advertising Ecosystem

The near-constant evolution of adtech, media, consumer preferences, and data privacy regulations creates a cloudy picture for marketers today, but there is a path to resolution.

Hear from a distinguished panel of leaders from across the adtech ecosystem, including, media, measurement, and clean room providers, who took the stage at the VIA Consumer Insights & Experience Summit.

Host Zora Senat asks our panel pressing questions that address the challenges facing marketers, and strategies for the future, including:

• How can media and adtech work better together to collect and use consumer data more effectively?
• How can brands walk the fine line between personalization and privacy to create better consumer experiences?

Get these expert insights firsthand. Watch the panel discussion now.

Keeping Pace with Change

Panelists acknowledged adtech’s inherent complexity, caused in part by sophisticated tools, the growing number of players in the market, and constant changes—especially in how people consume media and engage with commerce.

Understanding these changes is vital, panelists said. Marketers should move away from a top-down approach and focus on how consumers want to engage with brands. Armed with the right consumer identity data, those in the adtech ecosystem can reduce friction along the buyer journey so consumers more easily get what they want, when they want it, no matter where they are.

Nola Solomon, SVP, Global Go-to-Market Strategy & Enablement, Criteo

Prioritizing Consumer Privacy

“We are in a world where we want to allow different companies to collaborate without [data] movement or violation of privacy, and that’s an incredibly complex idea to solve. I think you have to put privacy at the center of any type of solution, whether you’re a large media organization or a data provider.”  

David Wells, Industry Principal for Media, Entertainment & Advertising at Snowflake

Privacy emerged as another factor adding to adtech’s complexity and a priority moving forward. Companies want to collaborate but want to avoid moving their own data or violating privacy regulations. Everyone agreed that data solutions of today and tomorrow must include a heavy privacy component, regardless of a company’s size or role.

Accuracy Matters

While aiming for maximum reach has its merits in marketing, panelists talked about the importance of pursuing accuracy and using more than one data source to achieve it. One panelist noted that marketers need to make sure root identities at the household level are accurate and correct to avoid feeding bad consumer identity data into the front of any system or campaign.

Because more media is now digitally delivered, marketers have the ability to reliably stitch together elements of an identity or link identities to a household, which is “when the magic starts to happen.”

“It comes down to accuracy. If you are measuring household viewing of an ad, whether it was a display ad or a video ad, and then you want to marry that to some sales outcome or other behavior, like foot traffic into a store, you want that to be highly accurate.” 

Larry Allen, VP & GM Data and Addressable Enablement at Comcast

Trends and Threats

Panelists talked of a future with prominent roles for AI and machine learning. AI is already helping marketers adjust and optimize campaign creative in real time based on consumer feedback and behaviors.

Panelists are also seeing campaign activation around a set of rules instead of audiences. For example, marketers can opt to target only certain devices on certain days across certain areas and inventory types, and stipulate the amount they’re willing to pay.

“I look at some of the things that Gen Z is doing now in terms of their brand loyalty and how quickly that can change, and then they can also forgive very quickly. But if you’re treating them like the rest of the population, you’re going to miss that nuance and really miss the boat.”  

Kelly Barrett, SVP Product at Comscore

As for potential threats, panelists pointed to inconsistent, ever-changing regulations at the state level. A common sentiment among panelists was that what’s considered compliant today may not be tomorrow.

Watch the full panel discussion and access all VIA 2023 sessions on-demand now.

Want to learn how you can solve these challenges for your organization? Verisk Marketing Solutions can help enhance your consumer data, compliance and ability to future-proof your ability to personalize all outbound interactions to customers and prospects. based on identity attributes and behavior. Verisk sits in the center of the adtech/media ecosystem to power interoperability and work as the glue between publishers’ first-party data sets and better customer experience.