Online data trends and challenges

A new dimension for building user profiles

Internet penetration grows rapidly in Kenya. Only on Eskimi DMP (Data Management Platform) it’s calculated to be 16 million unique online profiled users. Technology plays an important role in our everyday lives and becomes more and more important for profiling customers for marketing purposes.

Online behaviour jumps in as a new dimension not only helping to create new marketing segments, but also extending the descriptive characteristics of the old ones.

Online behaviour data gives even more detailed picture on people’s lives and their habits. What content and which topics are being browsed online show people interests and intentions. Owned device and data consumption volumes indicate purchasing power. Visited locations can suggest a hobby, let’s say golf, that defines certain social status. All this online collected data opens up a new field of possibilities and at the same time challenges for the marketers to learn how to read it and use it.

A new challenge for marketers

Technology now allows the access to such data as content and topics browsed, visited websites or apps, specific device brand and model used, mobile data consumption volumes, places visited and etc. Leveraging this data for marketing however requires a change in the mind-set of how marketers think about their target audience. On top of traditional demographic segmentation (age, gender, location) which marketers traditionally are using for defining their target audience, now they are challenged to consider how technology is used and were. It is important not only for planning digital campaigns, but also knowing your target audience.

New segmentation possibilities

One out of many data points – location data can tell much about a person and her/his lifestyle. Airport visitors would be defined as “frequent air travellers”, adults going to the children garden everyday most likely be “parents” and a regular petrol station visitor probably has a car. Unique segments can be created even on where people do their grocery shopping. It opens up wide possibilities for meaningful marketing insights and targeting, but also requires a new skill for marketers to read that data and put it into meaningful segments.