Linda Harrison:

I’ll tell you, Scarlett, that podcast seems so long ago. This year flew by, but yet seems like it took forever at the same time. Instead of those five Ws, since I can’t really remember what they are, how about the traditional who, what, where, when, and why? Those really should trigger your marketing campaigns. Reaching the right people for the right things at the right platform and timing with things that actually matter to them. I get requests that are so crazy that you wonder who would possibly want to purchase this product? Where could you market this product and who built it in the first place?

My craziest one that I thought of today was I had a request for finding an audience of people who would want to have a beer or wine cooler in the shower. Now, I am not afraid to say that, what are they, like -year- in college? I can wait till I get out of the shower. I just apparently have a lot of control. But I did have a friend who, when she was having a bad day, would sit on the floor of the shower, running the shower for hours, drinking wine. I guess she’s “party of one” for that.

But those are really what I think about for marketing is who does this audience really pertain to? Where would it play well in the marketplace? When should we run the campaign? Give people time to act before the event, unless it’s a last minute purchase type thing? And what are we going to measure at the end of the day? How are we going to know we were successful?

Scarlett Burks:

Well, it’s hard to follow up on that, but I want to get into the W action, and as I think about the Ws that you listed at the beginning of the podcast, Scarlett, when I hear weird and wonky, I think about the constant changes in our industry. Especially this year there’s been, well not only this year, but for the last couple of years, there’s been a lot of talk about cookie deprecation. What are some of the new offerings that Acxiom has put out when it comes to alternative identifiers and cookie-less solutions?

Linda Harrison:

Well, I’m very glad you asked. We have just a number of exciting cookie-less solutions for brand marketers and the first one that I want to talk about is Match Multiplier. It’s an automated service for brands to add additional touch points to their first party data to extend the reach of that data for their programmatic marketing efforts. And this is really important just to help extend that reach as cookies go away and first party data becomes more and more important. And then secondly, we have something called Visitor Insights, and those are data insights at the zip 11 cohort level that can be added to an IP address to enable a more personalized experience for anonymous website visitors. Again, in the absence of cookies, how are we going to continue to deliver those insights that make those experiences better for people?

And then lastly, I would just say as a closed operator for UID 2.0, we have work in progress where we’re going to offer that as an alternate identifier to be used as part of a brand strategy. All these things coming together really offer brands ways to make their first party data more and more valuable and continue to be successful in the marketing ecosystem.

Scarlett Burks:

That’s awesome. And so along the lines of new things that have come out, Linda, I know earlier this year you joined Shark’s Perspective Podcast where you shared some wickedly, see what we’re doing with the Ws, wickedly good information on how to understand third party data. Where can advertisers begin to start filling in data gaps, especially when you’re talking about niche segments or characteristics?

Linda Harrison:

Finding the right audience, again, back to one of those Ws, you want to make sure that you’re reaching people that have the capacity and propensity to purchase your product. And there’s lots of retail buying behavior data out there that’s transaction-based. So Acxiom has partnered with some of the heavy hitters in that market, so we’ve got that available. NCS, we’ve got market signal data, anything that tells you the person is actually making the transaction. We have predictive data as well. If you can’t find transactional data at scale, we’ve got our audience propensities that help you find the people that look like people who have done the transaction so that you can hit it from two different ways at the same time and see what works best for you.

But we can’t really talk about data without talking about privacy. We have to go into that weighty zone and there’s lots of changes that have been happening and are almost here. 2023 begins a new era in sensitive data. Lorel, do you want to take the weighty side of the world?

Lorel Wilhelm-Volpi:

Are you asking me this question because I ate a lot of cookies at lunch because it might be, anyway. Yeah, you’re right. Privacy definitely falls in that weighty category. Linda, you will recall earlier in the year, we recorded a podcast with our Chief Privacy Officer, Jordan Abbott. And maybe the day before we recorded that podcast, the IAB had issued a report saying that the most disruptive thing happening in the digital advertising ecosystem was not third party identifier deprecation, but it was actually legislation around privacy. As you mentioned, next year there’s a host of regulations that either are coming into effect or being voted on across a variety of states. If you are interested in learning more about that, I encourage you to go listen to the podcast or reach out because we’ve got experts that keep up with what’s happening on the privacy landscape.

But let’s talk for a second just about why that’s important in the first place. How do brands use privacy to build trust? And it starts off with is just table stakes at this point. Nobody expects their data to be mishandled and misused and nobody wants to end up as the cover story or the leading story on any news outlet for a data breach or an inappropriate use of data. And a lot of governing bodies have been cracking down on advertisers who have found to misuse data. There are plenty of stories out there, it’s just a quick search online to find that. It’s something that brands cannot ignore. Advertisers cannot ignore because it can be a very expensive mistake to make.

But consumers are increasingly aware of this as well. As we look at there have been quite a few studies that have come out. Acxiom has done studies to understand people’s perceptions about how advertisers use their data. Magna recently came out with one, and people are increasingly aware of how their data’s used, what data is being collected and they’re paying attention to it. It’s very important for all organizations to only be collecting what matters. You don’t have to collect every single possible data attribute that you could, just get what matters to you, what’s going to be important to help you sell your product or better service your customer?

And then don’t keep it forever. This is not like heirloom china that should sit on a shelf for generations. Once you’ve used it or once you’ve refreshed it, get rid of the old stuff. And you know what? Consumers will reward brands that they can trust to do that. Because at this point in the game, we all have a lot of choice so we can go shop wherever we want, we can go read information across a host of publishers. There’s no reason not to do this because customers and consumers are going to reward those organizations that they trust to handle their data appropriately.

Scarlett Burks:

Yes, it’s really part of that value exchange of, “I’m willing to give you my data for a better experience or for something coming back to me.” I hear that loud and clear.

Linda Harrison:

But we all get the random advertisement based on something we did and then you can track it back to where they might have gotten it from. Here’s my latest one is I have been taking Spanish classes through Acxiom, has offered it. It’s been great. I’ve learned a lot, but I’ve also used Google Translate just to check my homework or validate something I’m doing, et cetera. And now I’ve started to get more and more podcast ads in Spanish.

Scarlett Burks:

Spanish.

Linda Harrison:

You would think they should know I don’t know Spanish very well. I wouldn’t be looking so many things up, but there it is.

Lorel Wilhelm-Volpi:

Like you Linda, I have pretty eclectic musical taste and there have been times that I’ve listened to a certain station on a streaming service and then I will be getting targeted with ads for that would be who you would expect to be listening to that music, but it’s really not me. And so as soon as I saw it, I knew immediately where it was from. Also, because we live in this world. But it was just funny. I mean it was just really funny.

Scarlett Burks:

Well, I had a moment of pause because I’m going to a baby shower for my niece this weekend and I did not order the diapers online for that very reason because I thought, oh no, oh no, we can’t go there.

Lorel Wilhelm-Volpi:

No coupons for me.

Scarlett Burks:

Exactly. All right, so for anyone wired into the ad tech industry, you can’t go very far without talking about CDPs. So Lorel, what are some of the key ways Acxiom helps improve the performance of a brand’s CDP?

Lorel Wilhelm-Volpi:

I am so glad you asked that question, Scarlett. I could talk for a long time about that. And our listeners and you and Linda both all hope that I won’t, so I’ll try to boil it down pretty succinctly. I mean, a CDP is a fantastic tool to help with website engagement, personalization, helping an organization, a brand, segment their customers based on what’s happening on their website. But it was never intended to be a repository of data, a database. It also brings in data of people that are on a site maybe interacting with some digital property. But where Acxiom can come into play and help improve performance is by adding additional data on top of that first party data that a brand is receiving.

Let’s say we can see that I’m a car manufacturer, I can see that somebody is looking at SUVs on my website. Well, they can share that information, maybe a device ID or whatever, sort of identifier they’ve collected from that person on the SUV page, and send that back to Acxiom and we can say, “Hey, that’s actually somebody who lives in this geography who may or may not have kids at home” or something like that. So that then that auto manufacturer can understand, “Oh, they might be interested in visiting this dealership that is close to that person.” Data enhancement is a big way that Acxiom can help improve the performance of CDPs.

The other is with identity resolution. Now, a lot of CDPs have some identity resolution capabilities already built in and that’s awesome. Where we can come into play is integrating that identity resolution that is native to the CDP with offline identity resolution and also identity resolution from other channels, other areas, in a certain sense, providing that key ring to help bring all of those identifier keys together so that we understand that when we see this person out on the SUV page, and let’s say they do go to the dealership, and if that auto manufacturer is working with Acxiom and we’ve connected those dots for them, then we’re able to then provide a better experience for that customer because later on they’ll not only be getting information about their car, but maybe they’ll get coupons for an oil change six months down the road or whenever that needs to happen.

I should not give auto examples because I drive a car and that’s about the extent of my knowledge.

Linda Harrison:

But if you think about it from this perspective, when you go to the dealer, they’re going to show them the SUV first. They’re not going to show them and say, “Let’s go for a drive in this little sports car,” because we’ve now identified that consumer as someone most interested in a SUV. So, next-best product has already been absorbed and is being used. And you hate to have that experience where they don’t know me happen. And that’s what this key ring helps make happen is that I go to the store that I’ve already purchased your products online, you now know me and can bring me the next line item I should be looking for.

So I’m at Sephora online, I buy lots of stuff there, but when I go to the store, it’s an hour for me to drive there. They already know my brand preferences and can bring it all together and not show me a completely different line that I’ve never shown any interest in before.

Scarlett Burks:

Right. The more places you can recognize me and the more you know about me, the better the win-win situation’s going to be for the brand and for me. I like that. I like that. All right, well now we are to the funnest of all the Ws, the whatever. And when you think back to both of you, when you think back on the marketing ecosystem in 2022, what is something that falls into the whatever category for you?

Linda Harrison:

Google FLoC.

Scarlett Burks:

I love it. Fly away bird, fly away.

Linda Harrison:

Be free. Be free. We got so overcooked about Google FLoC and it didn’t really happen and Google’s just kicking the can down the road a little bit further. Who knows what they’re going to do next, but do we care at this point? We can do anything after the past few years. So I see Google FLoC’s my number one. Lorel?

Lorel Wilhelm-Volpi:

Boy, you took a good one. Okay, so my whatever would be Twitter. I am so over hearing about it. Elon Musk’s acquisition, every other minute it feels like there’s something happening and I don’t even know what to make of it anymore. It definitely is in the whatever bucket for me.

Linda Harrison:

You’re not going to Tweet about it?

Lorel Wilhelm-Volpi:

I am not. There will be no Tweeting from me about it.

Scarlett Burks:

I love it. I love it. Those are two great whatevers. Today, I have a very fun – question for us and it is, what was your first job and the W you took away from it? I’ll start. When I was 15, I was a waitress at a local restaurant in my very small town. And so my W, the most important W I learned from that was the wake-up factor. I had to be there on my feet ready to go at 5:30 AM. I am not an early bird. That was not the job for me. But I did learn some important lessons about listening and how important the little things are and delivering a good experience to your customers. A great lesson and I think everybody should be a waitress at some point (or waiter) at some point in their life. So how about you Linda?

Linda Harrison:

One of my first jobs, I ran a sticker store. Can you even remember when stickers were cool? It was a little kiosk in the mall.

Lorel Wilhelm-Volpi:

Hey, they still are for some people.

Linda Harrison:

They are. But I had a whole store. All I sold was stickers. And they had a mystery bundle that I would make out of the stickers that people had cut off to buy and then didn’t want. I couldn’t tape them back onto the roll. And so I would make a wonky package out of just random stickers and price it super cheap because it was like I was going to have to throw these away, so here. But I would try and mix them up so they wouldn’t be gender- or age-specific, so everyone was disappointed to a certain extent.

Scarlett Burks:

I love it.

Linda Harrison:

It’s something for everyone, but not everything for someone.

Lorel Wilhelm-Volpi:

Love it.

Scarlett Burks:

Okay, Lorel?

Linda Harrison:

What about you, Lorel?

Lorel Wilhelm-Volpi:

All right. When I was a teenager, I worked for my dad who had an office machine business. He would sell and repair things like fax machines, calculators, typewriters, all of that. And I worked in the service department with my brother. If anybody ever has a broken fax machine or typewriter, I’m your girl, you can bring it to me. I might know how to fix it. What I learned from that experience was, first of all, a lot of country music lyrics, because that was all my brother would play, and we were not allowed to change the radio.

But also, small business, family business, you do whatever is needed. I would also answer the phones a lot, or if someone came in, go greet them, whatever. And I learned not to judge a book by its cover because there were multiple times when people told us after conducting business with us, whether it was purchasing some equipment or getting some servicing for their machines, they would say, “I went into this other business and they wouldn’t serve me, or they didn’t treat me well,” because they didn’t look like the traditional customer that you would expect to come walking in the door. So that was a very important lesson for me was, just, you don’t know who you have in front of you, so you should just treat everybody the same.

Linda Harrison:

That’s exactly right.

Scarlett Burks:

Yes. Fax machines, whew.

Lorel Wilhelm-Volpi:

With that shiny thermal paper on a big long roll. Yep.

Scarlett Burks:

My kids bought one at a garage sale one time when I was not supervising them. Yeah, go figure. What they thought they were going to do with that fax machine, I don’t know.

But anyway, thanks so much to you both for this conversation. It was lots of fun as always. And thanks to our listeners. You can find all our Data Guru Podcast episodes on your favorite podcast player or at acxiom.com. We wish you a wonderful holiday season and a very happy New Year. We’ll be back in 2023.