The Marketer's Dream: Solve for Inflation and Privacy in One Fell Swoop

"On the economic outlook front, inflation remains high and consumer confidence is wavering amidst discussion of a possible recession. The forecasted pullback in discretionary consumer spending after several volatile pandemic years has many brands hedging their bets and looking to limit investment to tried-and-true tactics. However, the ad tech landscape is experiencing a monumental shift that's directly impacting the efficacy of those proven historical efforts."

"The good news for marketers is that there is a single path forward to address the dual challenges of inflation and the cookieless future. It's through the other topic marketers are and should be obsessing over - the customer. Customer-centricity and customer experience transformation are broad and buzzy topics, with many marketers struggling to break down these concepts into immediate, value-driving actions."

"At the most basic level, taking any customer-centric action requires knowing what your customers need, want, and expect. And to know your customers, you must gather significant data and insights around them. Transitive logic brings us to the first immediate action item: Having a first-party data strategy. · Know where you are collecting customer data today. · Identify how can you collect more of it tomorrow. · Connect your various customer data input sources."

Inflation and economic uncertainty are prompting many brands to reduce discretionary ad spend and rely on proven tactics. Simultaneously, ad tech changes such as browser and operating system signal loss and the forthcoming Chrome cookie deprecation are undermining targeting and measurement. Prioritizing customer-centricity and customer experience transformation offers a path forward by focusing on what customers need and expect. Implementing a first-party data strategy—auditing current collection, identifying new collection opportunities, and connecting data sources—enables informed decisions for future touchpoints and helps maintain performance as third-party signals decline.

Read at Thedrum