Consumers are finally being respected for their data’s value, and tighter controls mean more transparency in terms of what data is available in market. This is a great opportunity for the media world to review their data partners, ask for clear definitions and demand quality!
The Lotame Data Exchange has always prided itself in providing clear definitions of how long the data is held and whether the user declared the information about themselves or demonstrated behaviours within the category in question. Over recent months, concerns have been raised not only by Facebook removing 3rd-party partner categories, but also by stories of consumers deleting profiles in droves across many sites.
Lotame has never bought or sold data to Facebook, and we don’t participate in media. Lotame purchases the rights to public or legally sourced information and creates privacy-secure, anonymous “segments” that marketers can use to target customers across various digital channels. Lotame pseudonymises data, to the extent technically feasible, to protect the privacy of consumers. Lotame does not collect or process names, street addresses, email addresses, phone numbers or government IDs.
Scale will be reduced when users delete their information, for sure! Speculation of up to 75% of lost supply could be true but doubtful, however the data remaining will have consent from the user, which is surely better for all! Lotame’s data is sourced and defined with accuracy and quality at the forefront and will now have full consent from its owners.
The issue going forward is that brands and agencies buying this data understand the differences between data providers in market and choose what works best for them and their campaigns. Lotame wish to provide the most high quality, unbiased data to help our clients make the most informed decisions.
‘3rd party’ sometimes has the connotation of ‘the bottom of the barrel or unknown’, however this is often a huge misconception. Facebook didn’t actually restrict or forbid 3rd party data, but are forcing it to be an advertiser-direct ‘Bring your own data’ setup, where advertisers will license data directly, and then can bring it to Facebook. Lotame’s data exchange is made up of billions of ‘first party’ derived data from premium publishers, who we don’t name under strict NDA’s. You could pay a high CPM for named data from a premium publisher, so to get widespread delivery of a campaign, 3rd party data will still have its place.
Think of a large pet food company wanting to target ‘Dog Owners’. A marketer could buy data directly from a well known, named pet publication, but it may only have a few thousand user profiles and will charge high end CPM. Lotame’s data exchange can provide a set of ‘declared’ dog owners reaching millions of users at a cost effective CPM.
At Lotame, with quality comes accuracy, but don’t just take our word for it. Lotame’s new Precision Data are crushing industry benchmarks for on-target delivery. These validated demographic segments are available at scale in over 20 countries. Recent tests in the UK showed a brand’s Female 25-54 audience tested 25% above benchmark at 40MM profiles – saving the brand £1000’s in wasted ad spend.
Looking further into the year, we will also have on-target segments for advanced demographics, such as parents, income status and the previously mentioned ‘dog owners’ making these segments even more valuable to market.
Lotame is proud to be in the top handful of data partners that key agency groups are choosing to work with and welcome any assessment going into unknown times ahead.
By Alison Harding, VP Data Solutions EMEA, Lotame