Building a Commercial Personal Data Service

I attended a fascinating event last Friday called Smart Data Forum, organized by the fabulous Liz Brandt Brandt from Ctrl-Shift . It was a who’s who of anyone connected into the UK and International data industry, its opportunities, solutions and regulation. I have rarely been in a room with such knowledgeable and forward-looking people, discussing and developing ideas on a subject many would consider the most dull and uninspiring of topics. Well, ignore Smart Data at your peril, as the changes coming will have far reaching impacts on all industries.

Especially, with an AI cherry on top.

There was one topic, however, that I would loved to have spent more time on. That of the use of personal data in advertising and marketing. It is the one topic that everyone is aware of, and is perhaps the one that is the most complicated to unpick. That’s because it is controlled by the big guys. The guys with the income of a medium-sized nation with pockets deep enough to pay for all of the systems and development needed to run AI engines to process the data we all create in our digital lives.

Whilst it was mentioned, the digital advertising and marketing machine is too big a nut to crack for most individuals and organisations, and is perhaps one for its own dedicated forum. However, it reminded me of a post I wrote last year that I thought I’d resurrect and simplify to stimulate a discussion between interested people following that event.

I created the Person-Centric Commercial Data Wheel (above) in an attempt to show how the use of personal “commercial” preference data can be converted into a compelling and ‘sticky,’ continually evolving service.

It’s not the data… it’s what you do with it.

Such a service is predicated on the fact that people don't do things because they are logical. They aren't motivated by a few pence reward here and there. And they don't trust themselves with "managing their own data" and sharing it with "trusted partners". People are motivated by more straightforward things, like fun, serendipity, control, trust and fairness, to name a few.

And in launching such services that attracted up to half a million people directly and eight million via partners, we learned a few tricks along the way.

Whilst each element of this personal data wheel merits separate exploration, the following provides a short introduction to its’ concentric layers, with the most important person, you, at its centre.

Starting with the outer ring, the data we focus on is commercial preference data. Stuff and things that you like and seek. Most of it is not particularly sensitive, it is often intransient and is largely gender and age neutral. Whilst our daily online activity can point to this, once stored it is often woefully wrong and out of date (like when you've already bought an item).

To determine the value of that data, we look at all of the revenue sources from brands and companies and how they spend that money. The person's dynamic data is matched to those needs, and updatable by the person (or "data subject"). There are multiple category "pots", and each has its own methodologies, terminology and needs.

Next, those needs are matched to the human motivators to interact with them. This is the most important part and, when successful, delivers engagement rates that are at least an order of magnitude greater than each industry category norm.

This is then intrinsically linked to rewards, that are key to building trusted and fair interactions. Whilst some are monetary, particularly with discounts and "points" for activity, mostly they relate to meeting those human motivators (fun, serendipity etc).

The next ring on the wheel focuses on the elements that feed those motivators, the data, revenue and value (contact me if you’d like to explore those).

However, the most important part is the inner-most ring: how people experience the services enabled by their data. It comprises the four critical service areas to gain maximum value from the use of each person’s preference data, namely their:

1. Preference data itself,
2. Consent for each service,
3. A direct communication channel (to ensure a 1st party data relationship), and
4. Reward wallets.

Built entirely around people and mobile-centric design principles, we created an immersive, 2-way "commercial messaging" approach and platform to ensure all of the motivators for monetisation can be met. It can be delivered directly or embedded within trusted, white-label partner services.

Most importantly, it is a dedicated channel that does not pollute existing person to person messaging channels, that weren't created for brand, commercial communication.

Finally, if you’ve seen any of my recent posts you’ll see that the most compelling model for delivering such services is within a people-powered (“Web 3.0” style) approach, with a built-in trust model.

Want to discuss how you or your company could create and deliver such a service or any of the ideas outlined? ?Get in touch here, or @ www.yoad.com.