The war has begun. Between phones, platforms, and advertisers!
Why don’t you spend a minute to watch this ad before we move further into what I really want to tell you?
Got the gist of what is going to follow? Read on!
When Apple’s ad came out in September 2020, it was just another Apple ad – classy, iconic, creative – just like the brand. We all realise the relevance of this ad today.
“The greatest trick technology ever pulled is convincing us that ‘PRIVACY’ is real.”
*Present day!*
Ting! End to end encrypted.
Ting! Your messages are safe with us.
Everything else is up for grabs! – This summarises WhatsApp’s stand on privacy, opening the floodgates, bringing the conversation back to the importance of privacy or the lack of it on the internet.
Devastatingly for Facebook, just 1 month before the ‘WhatsApp’ debacle, their ad against Apple’s privacy policy aired in support of local business and the imperative role of Facebook’s targeted advertising capabilities in helping them get back on their feet post the COVID-19 pandemic. This move won them a few brownie points, albeit from the ad-tech industry. Thanks to the WhatsApp row, the focus has now shifted towards privacy and the lack of it which isn’t advantageous for small businesses, ad-tech companies and digital marketers on the whole. Nevertheless, it is a critical conversation to have from both an ethical as well as a consumer’s point of view.
While Digital Marketing enjoys its clout as a prime generator of revenue, it is time for companies to think and think again. With strict regulations from governments all over the world, social media platforms and their ad engines are being scrutinised to the T. Add to that, Google’s privacy sandbox, which seeks to weed out certain third-party cookies from Google’s Chrome, retargeting may not be as easy as it currently is. You might not have ads that follow you around from device to browser like the proverbial Hutch pug. Apart from wanting to weed out certain third-party cookies, Google also seeks to end fingerprinting, which leverages your haptic feedback, font choices, predictive text settings and more to serve advertisements.
Nope.
Not good news for the ad-tech industry which has been mining data for ages together to serve hyper-personalized advertisements until you make a purchase.
There’s more…
Apple introduced the privacy nutrition label in its iOS 14.3 update, which mandates apps to release important information on the kind of data the app will source from its user, putting the onus on app-developers to remain ethical and honest. This spells doomsday for ad-tech companies that generate third-party data from multiple apps and devices. What this also means, is that a precedent is set in place for android devices to follow suit or risk being perceived as non-private devices.
It is truly bittersweet, as both a consumer and a marketer. But this is ground zero!
So what’s the way forward? Do we go back to the stone age? Live like the Neanderthals and make fire from wood? (Not literally! In marketing terms, of course). We adapt and survive, just as we always do!
In a recent study by Forbes, Digital Marketing veteran, Dr Augustine Fou claims this lockdown on tracking, tracing and data mining could prove to be a blessing in disguise, pushing us to stay accountable while also creating more impact than we did previously. Here’s how.
With most of us using ad-blockers and opting out of tracking, marketers will be forced to become thoughtful about where their money is spent and who it is being spent on. Especially with Apple’s track blocking capabilities, advertisers will be forced to go back to targeting 99% of top-of-the-funnel consumers through awareness campaigns to bring in new business, as against bombarding the meagre 1% with retargeting.
Privacy is not real. No matter the sanctions, we’re going to be tracked and followed. However, what is important is the conversation that surrounds privacy, for, it sets in motion a movement to make marketing and advertising transparent, vibrant and non-threatening.
I strongly believe these sanctions on privacy will make us better marketers, who focus on value over RoI, who create meaningful messaging over ad copy and reach out to customers, rather than retarget them.
Only time and more litigation will tell us the true state of ad tech and digital marketing, yet, it is important for companies to realign their strategies to be more mindful of where and how their money is being spent.