As we talk to brands in the industry about their data strategy, I am struck by how often the topic ends up becoming one of trust. It may not always be articulated in such certain terms, but it is actually the underlying driver of many recent industry shifts, and brands’ data strategies need to reflect this evolving data landscape.
Increased legislative and regulatory changes, along with the impending depreciation of the third-party cookie, are indicative of increased consumer awareness of how their data is used. The bottom line is that, if a consumer does not trust that their data will be used in a way that is both ethical and beneficial to their brand experience, they are less and less likely to offer it in the first place.
If a brand wants to build and maintain strong relationships with its customers, trust is – and should be – absolutely pivotal. The concept extends to the relationships between businesses with respect to data, which also need to be grounded in trust.
This focus on trust applies to any and every data set a brand may be able to leverage:
- In order to collect and use first-party data, brands must earn the trust of their customers, otherwise they won’t hand over their data and consent. Regulatory changes reflect and uphold this notion, and rightly so
- Brands looking to collaborate with other brands in a data partnership (sometimes called “second-party data”) need to develop a mutual trust between them around how the data will be treated and used, with necessary processes, controls and permissions in place
- And finally, brands that wish to use third-party data need to trust their respective data providers, and will need assurance of both quality and provenance. In turn, data providers have an incentive to demonstrate compliance and maintain transparency, particularly in a GDPR world
When I think about LiveRamp’s strategy over the last few years it is clear that much of what we have been doing has either been empowering brands and publishers to build consumer trust, or helping them remove barriers to trust:
- We acquired a consent management platform business to form the basis of LiveRamp Privacy Manager. This enables brands to build trust with their customers that their consent is being properly captured and upheld
- We launched our Authenticated Traffic Solution (ATS) to help the digital ecosystem transition toward a world that works on explicit value exchange and consent. In other words, moving towards an ecosystem built on trust, that benefits brands, publishers and consumers alike
- We developed LiveRamp Safe Haven – a data connectivity platform that enables data collaboration between businesses by removing trust barriers
- We have consistently ensured that all of our own data providers have been stringently assessed by our Data Ethics team for compliance, so that brands can leverage high-quality, ethically sourced third-party data
LiveRamp has consistently placed trust at the heart of everything we do – the products we offer, the partnerships we build and the customers we serve. As brands think about their advertising and data strategies, it is important that they acknowledge the importance of trust in reaching a successful outcome, and to leverage strategies and tools that help to build and uphold that trust.
Missed our webinar, “Navigating retail’s changing data landscape”, featuring Nestlé, Sainsbury’s, Kantar and Snap? Watch the whole session here.