Team views from Madfest 2022 – the UK’s biggest destination marketing festival
Learnings from MAD//FEST 2022 from our Tech Sales & Business Development Manager, Sebastian Fisher–Greene.
Tina Koehler – Global VP Marketing, Deliveroo
It’s all about data
My take on one of the key themes from MAD//FEST was all to do with data, from collection to usage to leakage.
I felt the talk by Stephen Bonner of the ICO who started out by talking about the current Data infrastructure, was one of the most important. It focused on the current TCF framework, which as we know is currently under review after being ruled as unfit for purpose and how to build a better setup that provided a proper value exchange between users and brands. The problem being that there is too much (dangerous) data leakage.
What is interesting is that traditionally 70% of brands fall short of delivering personalisation, whilst 80% of users are more likely to respond to a personalised experience. Fast forward a few years and now 89% of users/consumers are now less likely to provide their data, since the advent of Clear Cookie Policies and in the mobile space, ATT. So there’s now a dichotomy of how to have this engaged conversation.
Laura Wade – Head of Sustainability, Essence
Following this, Laura Wade of Essence presented about the contribution of advertising increasing the overall Carbon load and therein issues surrounding global warming, on days when it was hitting 30+degrees. Her key point and one which I wholeheartedly agree with is, that consumers need to “buy better”.
For every ad impression served, it generates 32grammes of carbon. When retargeting goes wrong (seeing an ad after you’ve bought a product) is just wasting energy. As Stephen Bonner said, “I’ve just bought a fridge, I don’t want to buy any more, I am not a fridge enthusiast!” The point here being consumers need to be better served with their media to make it relevant to them, to drive down the 89% attrition rate, make ads meaningful and on point. And good for the world, not just the bottom line.
1st Party Data
Nearly every talk I attended focused, in part at least, around the role of 1st party data and how to use it better to address these key concerns. What I find so incredible and galling at the same time is that “this” is still seen as something “new” to talk about. But in fact 1st party data has been around longer than 3rd party. Anyone who ever logged into anything anywhere, created that.
So when Laura McHenry of Tealium then highlighted that 62% of brands are gathering as much data as possible, but questioned why when only 22% put it to any use. Again, the value exchange from consumer to brand is evident. Why do brands need so much data if they don’t know what to do with it?
Sir Martin Sorrell presented the real world impact of this, having “left” the Hold Co he helped build, by saying that the investment banks had downgraded all the major holding companies by 10-15% – because they were not agile enough. And this reinforces a point from his attendance at Cannes years back wherein when he returned from one event and hailed “it’s all about BIG data”. Then the following year his tone had changed to “It’s not BIG data we need, it’s SMART data”. Fast forward to 2022 and we still have companies aiming for as much data as possible, with no real clue on what to do with it all. And then there’s the issues around compliance and leakage. No wonder there’s such a disconnect between users and websites/apps these days.
Creative is the key
As pointed out by the IAB as one of their 4 pillars in 2021, if the creative is right, then the user will be engaged, see a value exchange and be more likely to be involved. By better use of whatever 1st party data brands have, they need to use it effectively, not just keep collecting it. Which has to be better for brands, the consumer and ultimately – the World.
Dynamic Prospecting with Audience Store
And this is where Audience Store is first to market with the use of Dynamic Prospecting. Through the use of individual client 1st party Discover Reports, we are able to immediately “see” the audience better. Tie this to creative build as well as campaign strategy setup and immediately you have a better use of data for both the messaging and the delivery.
