The big question of data ownership.

As technology rolls on and continues to evolve and IoT becomes more and more mainstream one of the biggest questions marketers and MarTech companies will have to come to terms with is data ownership. While different scenarios will yield what seem to be fairly simple ownership answers, in the minds of the various players it may not be so simple. Add to that the ever growing division of the revenue "pie" that comes from the dat. who gets what and how much? Is it based on contribution or is it divided evenly? Do the technology players and business own the data or should the revenue be passed on in the way of discounts or refunds, to the user who's data is being used and sold? The more that consumers loosen their grip on their personal data and expect something in return the fuzzier the answers to these questions get.

A "typical" scenario coming soon. - I recently had a conversation around the growing need to identify audiences for various entertainment companies. At issue here is how to get the data when the venue is owned by someone else and may take issue in the collection of their customers data and it being used to target other consumers within their venue. What is collected, how it is collected and then how it is used are just a few of the questions. Then if the data is used to create a revenue stream for other related companies who offer products based on the entertainment being offered (licensing deals), should the owner of the venue who's audience data is being collected get a share of that revenue as well? Do the companies that supply the technology to collect the audience data see a share of the revenue from the data also? As this goes farther and farther you can see how the cost of targeted audience data goes up and up to the point where it becomes no longer cost effective. You can guess the scenario I am outlining above. But this is just one of many that are very useful to marketers from a number of companies who either own the entertainment, but also the products that are produced from the success of that content. Then there are the distribution channels in the form of physical brick and mortar and later digital, that will want to profit from that content as well and the associated data collected on their users who pay to view the content. It becomes a very tangled web very quickly.

Who should pay / co-op? - In the case of retailers another issue they are facing in data collection is who and what to allow within their four walls. You can imagine the requests big box retailers like Target, WallMart, Home Depot and Lower get to be able to collect data on their customers for specific new and existing products. The ability to collect consumer data at the shelf level is now a possibility as is the ability to deliver shelf and aisle level content to a consumers phone. So who owns the data? How much and what do they allow? Are retailers now mobile ad networks? Should retailers be responsible for delivering ads on behalf of the products marketers for the products they sell? Who do they promote and who do they not. When the campaign for a product or service is over who gets the data and who is permitted to use that data to create revenue from it? Can a big box retailer sell the data collected on a products campaign to a competitor? Should the Company marketing the product pay the store to advertise its product or co-op with the retailer to drive customers into the store? If they do offer to pay for digital or traditional marketing to drive customer foot traffic should they also be able to have ownership of the data? Should they have ownership of all the data or only those customers they help to drive into the store, and how do you show that attribution?

The rise of traffic studies. - One last opportunity to think about that we are seeing more and more of is the rise of "traffic studies". Think of it as heat mapping consumer traffic. Where do they spend their time. At what time of day is an area of a city the most busy? Where do consumers go outside of the normal 9-5? Is there a normal 9-5 anymore in rural and urban areas? If there is what does it look like? How much traffic does the Starbucks next to a available retail property I am considering drive and what times of day are busiest? Does the mall across from the strip mall I am considering building still draw decent foot traffic? Who is visiting the mall, how long do they stay and what is the typical spend of each visitor? Do they eat while at the mall or leave to eat somewhere else? Traffic studies have become big business and with the rise of IoT devices with GPS built in, the ability to see who is there and how many are there is a growing opportunity. Having the ability to re-market to individuals on behalf of the businesses they use visited and / or for competitors to send offers to them is rapidly becoming more widely used.

The bottom line - In todays marketing world the question now becomes "what is the right data, and how much is too much data". Can a consumer become over analyzed? Can we ever know too much about a consumer? But most importantly, how can we ensure it is used to add value to the consumer and not weaponized.

Looking for help with data? Datastream Group, Inc. has over 500 million data records providing data for of companies who use the data for everything from e-mail campaigns, telemarketing, display campaigns, programmatic, as well as for TV and radio live transfer leads. Datastream provides consumer online and offline information for use in any number of different types of marketing campaigns.OneDB is derived from self-reported consumer data,and compiled data. 

Datastream’s OneDB records are opted in, and consumers can be targeted offline by postal and telemarketing efforts, and online by interest and intent. Audiences can be targeted by intent to purchase categories, IP Address (B2B & B2C), and by device (desktop, tablet, and smart phone). Data can be licensed for append purposes, marketing purposes, and hygiene & verification uses. Datastream will also enhance and enrich a company’s existing records through their OneDB platform.

Datastream has a competitive edge licensing their data because there is a large appetite in the current market for a marriage of digital identities to households. The Consumer Master File is built from active online consumer and business audiences and can be traced back to a postal address. We specialize in that. ([email protected])

Need help? - reach out to Bryan Gissiner who has been in Digital Advertising for over 20 years in everything from retail to founding his own tier two ad network. Currently, he helps companies utilize the right mix of current advanced technologies and marketing to outperform all of the other available alternative solutions in their target markets. He is a regular contributor on LinkedIn, with a large following of other experts from a number of different areas.

Bryan Gissiner has worked on both the publisher and advertiser side helping them to find ways to save budget and increase return on those budgets, often making them 2-3x more successful.

Connect with me! - please go to www.dhirubhai.net/in/bryangiss, @bryangiss on twitter or contact directly [email protected] and send me an invite with specific requests, to discuss how he can bring his experience to add value to your company and help it continue to grow revenue and ROI.