Paul Davies explores surprisingly relaxed viewer attitudes to live TV advertising and shows how they can be transitioned into the online arena.
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Category: Europe
The uncertainty is being fuelled by a double whammy of scepticism about how robust Privacy Shield is and fears that the alternative method, used by 80% of companies – the so-called standard contractual clauses (SCCs) – could be soon be rendered illegal.
According to a survey of 600 data professionals in the US and EU, only 40 US firms have so far adopted Privacy Shield, with just 34% intending to use the new data privacy framework, compared with 50% which used its Safe Harbour forerunner.
The situation is not being helped by EU data regulators sitting on the Article 29 Working Party (WP29). Although they approved the framework in late July, they have set off alarm bells by pledging to keep a close eye on how Privacy Shield develops.
Data privacy Shield assessment
At the time, they released a statement which said: “The first joint annual review will be a key moment for the robustness and efficiency of the Privacy Shield mechanism to be further assessed.”
US think tank the Brookings Institution has estimated that “digitally delivered services” between the EU and the US – including customer data storage – were worth nearly $250bn (£188bn) in 2015.
IAPP president and chief executive Trevor Hughes commented: “The legal uncertainty of standard contractual clauses and the scepticism about Privacy Shield may be a hangover effect from the Max Schrems case that invalidated Safe Harbour in the European courts. Clearly, organisations face an extremely complex regulatory landscape as they look to build their businesses for the digital future.
“It will be vital for them to employ privacy professionals at the highest levels of management to help navigate that landscape and capitalise on opportunity.”
Website owners are being warned that the days of big pop-up ads are drawing to a close, after Google revealed that it is updating the algorithms used to rank search results in a move which will push them down the placings.
Set to come into effect on January 10, the search giant insists the move is designed to make using some of its results less frustrating, although observers point to the ongoing battle the company is mounting against ad-blockers.
In a blog post, the company said: “Pages that show intrusive interstitials [elements that cover the content] provide a poorer experience to users than other pages where content is immediately accessible. This can be problematic on mobile devices where screens are often smaller.”
Detailing its decision, Google cited three examples of the kind of practices it wanted to eliminate:
- Pop-ups that covered part of the main content when the user clicked on to a page
- An intermediary webpage that had to be dismissed before the main content could be seen
- An ad that filled the web browser’s screen so users had to scroll down ‘below the fold’ before they could see the material they wanted
Pop-up ads: alerts are the exceptions
However, some pop-ups will be exempt, including those which alert readers to the use of cookies, as well as ones which require log-in details to let visitors get behind a paywall.
Daniel Knapp, a senior director of advertising research at the IHS consultancy told the BBC: “Google is one of the largest advertising companies in the world, but it’s in a very different position to Facebook, Snapchat and other global media consumption apps.
“Google is still very reliant on the desktop and mobile web to make money, and it’s much more difficult to clean up that experience than the native app environments. That’s why it needs to tighten the screws on everyone with this crackdown.”
A new report details the demographics of social media usage in the UK by platform.
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It seems luxury brands are now stitching together online and offline services to engage customers and give the best Fashion Week experience.
As the the fashion world opened its doors for the annual New York style parade on Thursday (September 8), a livestream of the catwalk was engaging consumers via multiple platforms. Fashion Week has made an online presence on social media with SnapChat having exclusive stories following the different catwalk displays. While Instagram provides polished and refined images, SnapChat offers a raw glimpse behind-the-scenes of shows, allowing users to get exclusive access to top brands.
Leading the way in digital engagement
Burberry is leading the way in this, with investment of more than 60 per cent of their marketing budget on digital. According to Contactlab’s ‘Digital and Physical Integration: Luxury Retail’s Holy Grail’ study, Burberry is also bringing together online and offline operations, with click & collect already representing 15 per cent of Burberry’s online sales. While Burberry paves the way for luxury brands, others are still struggling to grasp the significant impact engaging with customers online and offline will have on their brands.
Senior advisor of Contactlab, Marco Pozzi (pictured), said: “Brands should not consider each channel as separate, but simultaneously valuable to the overall omni-channel experience. Customers want ease and comfort and so, if they find a product on one channel, they should be able to seamlessly navigate through the purchasing process with convenience.
“This is why it is important that brands do not disconnect the different channels, but connect the dots as part of their customer engagement strategy.”
Customer preferences
Contactlab found in the Digital Frontier 2016 study that customers with a digital presence who are digitally contactable are high spenders in-store and account for 27 per cent of in-store revenue and 73 per cent of e-commerce revenue. With the rise of e-commerce and digital engagement tools, luxury brands have access to customer data that will allow them to create a dynamic and personalised approach which integrates people preferences within the customer interactions. Through data-driven marketing, brands are able to create a richer understanding of the customers.
Pozzi continued: “We now live in a world where everything is captured digitally through various platforms and the fashion world is no exception.
“Fashion shows unfold live from SnapChat, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds. This narrows the gap between the consumer and brands, opening up a relationship which is more personalised.
“Shoppers now crave interaction with brands who understand their needs, preference and expectations, feeding in insights from customer data can help brands enhance their relationship with customers and make informed decisions for their marketing strategies.”
Shoppers are getting used to automation in retail – such as self-checkouts and voice recognition – but hate repeating themselves when they have an issue with a brand which needs to be dealt with either in-store, online or over the phone.
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The study suggests there are at least 100,000 copies of each individual’s personal data being held on physical devices and cloud storage platforms.
Commissioned by Ground Labs, the consumer research quizzed individuals about how many organisations they believed had access to their personal data.
The majority (84%) guessed at fewer than 20; almost a third (28%) guessed fewer than ten, but once shown a list of 50 online services and retailers, two out of five consumers realised that their original estimate was way wide of the mark. This was based on their knowledge of interactions in the past 12 months alone.
Data security company Ground Labs VP EMEA John Cassidy said: “Unless customers have an accurate idea of who has access to their data, they are unable to take the precautions necessary to protect themselves online. We only asked people to pick from 50 of the biggest online companies, in reality, the number of organisations who have access to any one individual’s data is much, much higher than our survey suggests.”
Consumer data stored on and offline
Ground Labs insists that the total number of companies consumers interact with is actually irrelevant. With automatic backups, log files, emails and legal third-party sharing, hundreds of thousands of potential copies of individual’s data is being stored both on and offline. On top of this, many companies will keep records of former customers for years.
“A conservative estimate would suggest that for any given adult, hundreds of thousands of copies of personal data reside on physical devices and cloud storage platforms both in and outside of the UK. Most people are unaware of the multiplying effect when dealing with so many service providers and so the responsibility must fall on companies to protect this sensitive data,” Cassidy concluded.
The firm said the new recruits will be join its UK Risk Assurance team within the next four years and cover all industry sectors across the country. As well as cybersecurity and privacy threats, the beefed up team will cover data management, business systems and IT risks.
More than 600 jobs will be filled by external hires, while over 400 will be transferred from other PwC sites. The firm will also be recruiting at least 200 data and tech graduates.
Digital disruption
PwC UK head of assurance Hemione Hudson said: “Business models that have served clients well for decades are being disrupted or destroyed due to the speed of digital disruption, the increase of regulatory scrutiny on technology risks and the escalation of cyber threat, requiring us to respond and build a strong team of specialists.”
Although there have fewer ‘car crash’ breaches following last October’s hack on TalkTalk, there is obviously a great deal of nervousness in the market.
PwC risk assurance partner Marc Bena added: “Our clients and their customers want to know that their technology is innovative and pushing boundaries whilst being safe and delivering what is expected. We have a duty to continue to build a team of technology experts able to help our clients do business with confidence.”
Jed Mole examines data technology and says 21st century experts in data are colliding with top-level engineers to steam ahead as the very best marketers.
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The majority of PR crises either start or become worse on Twitter and one in five break on Twitter. This makes the platform more influential than Facebook and YouTube, says international study.
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