Page 64 - Print21 magazine Mar-Apr 2023

| MARKETING | AULD
Marketing guru Malcolm Auld says data compliance will be one of the biggest issues of the year, with Express Consent or Active Consent about to become the new norm, potentially wreaking havoc on databases.
No opt-in, then opt-out
More importantly though, if
the customers on your database have not given Express Consent
to be there, you may not be able
to communicate with them. This move back to a pre-internet world is a major threat to marketers. These laws are designed to protect consumers, not marketers.
In simple terms – many marketers have put their companies and brands at risk
by not obtaining customer opt-
in. Their customers may not be legally viewed as customers, so marketers will not be able to send any marketing messages to them. Imagine what this will do to bottom lines, brand value, share prices and marketing jobs?
GET COMPLIANT NOW
Brand owners have no choice. They must get compliant, sooner rather than later. Companies will have
to conduct a complete audit of all the data they currently hold on their customers (and prospects) to confirm if express consent has been given. If not, they will have to ask for it, or remove those people from their database.
For example, your company may have 100,000 ‘customers’ on your database, but you may only be able to legitimately talk to say 20,000 of them, if your consent isn’t current. How many former customers are on your database, without their permission?
Marketers will also question
the investment being made into martech and platforms, as many will have over-invested for the returns being generated for their brands. Particularly if they can only communicate with 20 per cent of the database.
The future of data may no longer be Big Data as less data of higher quality will always outperform Big Data of low quality.
If you’re concerned about your compliance, please contact me, as I know the people who can help assess your risk, identify where your customer value really lies within your database, and advise on the action needed to be compliant.
In 1905, Spanish Philosopher George Santayana is quoted as saying, “Those who cannot remember the past are
condemned to repeat it.”
And in the case of marketers –
George was spot on.
For it appears that marketers
never learn from their mistakes, or at least never study the industry’s history – particularly when it comes to abusing their customers. Here’s
a quick look at historical facts to demonstrate the point.
Last century, thanks to abuse
of residential data using direct mail, the marketing industry created a “Do Not Mail” register for people who didn’t want to receive unsolicited mail.
Then the marketing industry was forced to create a “Do Not Call” register thanks to marketers abusing telemarketing into residential homes.
Then, when marketers thoroughly rorted email marketing so badly, Spam Acts were legislated into
law in most Western countries.
Why do marketers continue to do to customers, what marketers don’t want done
to themselves?
Nobody likes their data or privacy being abused. People hate it when small data goes wrong and things don’t get done as they should.
Yet marketers are quite content to disrespect their customers,
just because they can.
But to quote
music
legend Bob Dylan: “the times they are a changing” – rapidly.
As you probably are aware, the marketing world is awash with data. There is so much of it that the marketing industry gave it
a flash label – Big Data. And o course, you’re not a marketer these days unless you’re a ‘data-driven marketer’ – as if using data in marketing was only invented
this century.
Now, governments and regulators are again addressing privacy
issues brought about by the abuse by marketers of data. There are major changes coming to the way marketers can use data.
While the move to a cookieless world has driven regulators, it
was accelerated in Australia after the revelations about the personal data that Optus held on former customers, following its major data breach. Personal data was being held on people who had left Optus years ago, some more than a decade.
PERMISSION IS LAW – AGAIN
Despite privacy laws being in place, they have been ignored on the most part, particularly in the use
of third-party data. Consequently Express Consent or Active Consent will become the new norm before marketers can communicate with people on their database.
Marketers can no longer rely on implied consent. For example, just because a website visitor agrees to your cookie policy with a tickbox, it
certainly does not mean you have permission to use third party data
to identify them and send them an email.
64 MARCH/APRIL 2023