Does EU GDPR matter your business?

Does EU GDPR matter your business?

GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation is nearly a new flashing word in the last few months across the world - in fact, it is because the new regulation for data protection in EU came into force on 25th May 2018, replacing the old data privacy law. However, the approval on that law was made on 2016, and some companies have prepared before its start day, yet according to the article from Forbes, 79% of business in US haven't been ready to adapt this new regulation.

The critical point in this regulation is that no matter your business location registered is, if the business data involves EU citizens, it is in the scope of GDPR. Therefore not to mention such Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Amazon - those giant marketing platform and social media, but also any global business who may target EU users and customers are obliged for GDPR, for example many in travel, logistics, and eCommerce industries.

The rule was designed to protect user's privacy, and forces an organization to get consensus from users for opt-in, to erase customer's data when asked, and notify users within 72 hours if data was hacked, where if the business was found breaching GDPR, it would be fined up to whichever bigger of 4% of global revenue or 23 million USD. Those requirements considerably calls operational and technological changes in the business, so it has significant impact on companies.

From users' perspective, if you are non-EU citizens, GDPR may benefits you when an organization applies new data protection beyond Europeans without separating categories. Although you cannot sue without legal formation in your country.

Nonetheless, none of new regulation could be perfect without any criticism from the beginning. Despite its purpose to protect users, an opinion says the regulation can expedite exploitation of users' data. Why? Since most of the time, a company is much expert on the data usage and the only option left for the users are to select "agreed" in turn of benefit that the company provides. The regulation is not powerful enough to limit the way of data usage.

While this new enforcement haven't developed enough in business how to execute, the movement of enhancing the privacy and user's right in digital world isn't deniable. The wave rose from EU could soon reach to everywhere in the world.

REFERENCE:
https://www.eugdpr.org/the-regulation.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/03/27/u-s-businesses-cant-hide-from-gdpr
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2018/05/09/how-will-gdpr-affect-the-mobile-marketing-world/
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/what-gdpr-means-for-facebook-google-the-eu-us-and-you/

Data is the new currency in digital marketing

In the age of digital marketing, data is the most significant thing. The truth is those who grasp the most data have absolute positive power in marketing the right stuff to the right people.

In China, Alibaba Group has just acquired Youku and Tudou in order to gain more consumer data and therefore strengthen its power and widen sales channels. Also, there is a kind of new smart TV, which can actually track what the users usually watch, to gain data, to pass “enhanced data” to advertisers.

Data is actually can be sold and purchased as a kind of commodity. Digital marketing uses data as the root of analysis, to gain better performance.

http://focustaiwan.tw/news/ast/201511100021.aspx

http://www.propublica.org/article/own-a-vizio-smart-tv-its-watching-you

Will all-in-one marketing suite become a trend?

Recently, visual marketing service Chute has launched a new suite platform, providing brands related content posted by users on social networks, such as Instagram, Facebook and so on. This is really a useful way for brands to have “access to real-time insights about not only content, but who’s posting, trends, topics, and more.” A image recognition technology (“IRIS”) is also integrated to find specific company logo through social media.

I think what Chute is doing may become a trend for marketing analysis in terms of user leverage, under the background that more and more consumers engage in posting things on social media. Using big data knowledge, this kind of integrated suite provide more reference with less effort.

http://venturebeat.com/2015/10/27/chutes-new-all-in-one-visual-marketing-suite-lets-brands-search-analyze-publish-social-content/

Big data hits the road

Very interesting article about how big data and connectivity is revolutionizing the car industry. Car manufacturers begin ti see themselves more as mobility companies and less as manufacturers, and incorporating at a very fast pace all the connectivity and data sharing breakthroughs.
Worth mentioning, the article points out a very interesting fact about the ownership of the data itself and the problems that could arise around it.
[...]"The second entails the ownership of the data that the vehicles are generating, storing, and sharing. The issues are deceptively thorny. If the car is leased or financed, does the driver "own" the information or share it? Does the car maker that created the data-management systems own the information? Will automakers and software developers be compelled to pay drivers for data access?"[...]

Full Article Here

Implications of the Quantified Self

The emergence of mobile devices, constant connectivity, and big data has led to unprecedented visibility into our lives. We now constantly have applications tracking our searches, our likes, and every step we take (maybe even every breath we take?).

This parallel identity can be called the "quantified self"- the aggregation of all the actions we take online, collected into a measurable history from which a capable data scientist can construct an eerily accurate demographic and psychographic profile. This is fantastic news for marketers, and enables companies to more accurately target the right consumers with the right offers, at the right time (and increasingly, in the right place). We as consumers benefit from this as well- we receive less "spam" and irrelevant information, and receive better education and better deals on the things we actually care about. There's no doubting that the evolution of the quantified self has been good for business- but what about the effect on our personal lives?

The aforementioned trends started to remind me a lot of George Orwell's prescient novel 1984. As depicted in that novel, we now have "screens" that monitor us 24/7- our smartphones. While smartphones don't actively record us or every conversation that we have, they do collect an amount of personal data that would have shocked Orwell. Think for a minute about all of the data that Facebook is collecting on you- while Big Brother isn't watching you, Zuckerberg and his team certainly are.

The key distinction between 1984 and today is that an absolutist tyrannical government isn't forcing this upon us- we are all willingly signing up for this data collection when we sign the Terms of Use for every "free" app and service (as an aside- and not for the easily offended- South Park hilariously lampooned Apple's iTunes agreement in the "Human CentiPad" episode). Admit it- you never read those ridiculously long agreements- no one does. So who knows how your data is actually being used?

I believe that data today is (for the most part) being used purely for commercial, and not nefarious purposes. However, it will be an incredibly important issue for us to monitor as a society, as it appears that a small oligopoly of companies is collecting more and more data (think Facebook, Google, etc.). Also- behind the scenes, how are the NSA and other government agencies accessing our information? We don't know the answers to these questions, but they are questions that should impact how we conduct business, how we vote, and how we interact with technology.

Bringing the analogy full circle- Apple made a big splash early on with its 1984-inspired Super Bowl commercial. There's a certain element of irony that they now more closely resemble Big Brother than the hammer-throwing rebel that symbolized their brand in the commercial.

Sources:
http://pando.com/2015/03/06/as-the-quantified-self-industry-explodes-who-will-control-the-data-us-or-them/

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/03/opinion/beale-1984-now/

Latest trends in Digital Marketing

I read the article

 http://www.smartinsights.com/managing-digital-marketing/marketing-innovation/digital-marketing-trends-2015/

I agree with most of the part of the survey results conducted by smartinsights.com.

Survey results:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Content is certainly the king. Thus, it is intuitive that most of the marketers consider the importance of relevant, personalized, integrated content.  The excerpt from Venchito Tampon, Content Marketer and Link Building Specialist of Digital Philippines clearly indicates the importance of educating customers with the appropriate content: “Digital marketing in 2015 will definitely focus on caring customers/clients with all the available resources the brand could provide in its website. Content will make it easy for new and existing customers to locate and use the best products and services they intend to look for in various channels (search, social, paid advertising, etc.) Educating the target audience will now become the top selling point of many brands from whatever industry they are in.”

While Big Data may be the second most important trend as per the above survey, for me it is the number one. Let us take examples of the technology giants, Google and Apple. Google is already considered one of the leaders in data analytics.  Its acquisition of data driven performance platform in Marketing, Adometry (http://www.adometry.com/), has certainly proved the importance of marketing analytics. Apple’s recent acquisition of Semetric would bring Big Data to Music. Enterprise-level access to data on how listeners consume music, through both legal and illegal channels, with the help of Semetric could even catalyze the ascension of Big Data into consumer-centric markets. Data on this scale could likely revolutionize and change the way music is monetized, and could even shift value from the art and artists to the numbers. This acquisition would ensure Apple remains leader in the music industry.

Again, the above two giants are also coming up with some breakthrough devices which are yet to be completely revealed to the public:

Apple Watch - https://www.apple.com/watch/

Google Glass - https://www.youtube.com/user/googleglass

The world seems to be eagerly waiting for the above two devices. While Apple seems to have indicated launching Apple Watch in the first half of this year, Google has not declared the world wide launch date of Google Glass yet. In fact, it declared that it is still in progress (opposing the thought that it may be dead) which certainly raises curiosity amongst everyone.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/wearable-tech/3589338/google-glass-2-release-date-price-specs-not-dead/

These devices would certainly make it easy to collect even more data across different data points and understand customer behavior. While I am also waiting for the launch and the revelation of additional details of the above two devices, my advice to the digital marketers would be to focus on the actual data that these smart devices collect and also sift and mine through the data to connect the dots. The key is to understand new methods of data collection points which may have not been possible till date.

Mobile has already taken over most of the other devices. Thus, mobile analytics would be even a bigger factor in this year for digital marketers. Additionally, the traditional email marketing, which has been prevalent for years now is still continue to stay. The only difference would be that most of these email promotions would be tailored for mobile devices and PDAs.

Finally, I would conclude by stating that most of the laggards who are yet to adopt digital marketing will change this year and start adopting. Mel Carson, founder of Delightful Communications states: “Businesses will finally wake up to the fact that social media and mobile marketing are no longer new phenomena and should be integrated right from the start of any marketing campaign or inbound initiative. The future of digital lies in companies being social and mobile by design!”

Source / Reference:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/sujanpatel/2014/11/05/6-predictions-about-the-state-of-digital-marketing-in-2015/2/

http://www.dmnews.com/what-do-digital-marketers-really-want/article/395947/

http://www.dmnews.com/apples-semetric-acquisition-brings-big-data-to-music/article/393721/ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amazon to Launch Hotel Booking Site

Travelling to New York, Los Angeles or Seattle soon? Starting in early 2015, you can book your stay at curated independent hotels on Amazon Travel. 

Hotels will be able to load their availability, room types, photos, and pricing information into an Amazon extranet and would be charged the standard 15% commission by Amazon. Upon receiving a booking through Amazon, the properties will get email notification and will be able to chance their calendars through the extranet. Payments from Amazon will come in two different installments and Amazon had opened up the potential for discussion of lower commission rates. Many hoteliers are eager to sign on for Amazon's new service foreseeing the potential to leverage Amazon's widespread membership base and marketing power online and on mobile. 

A hotelier heavily weighing signing up for the service states: "first and foremost, it's Amazon.com," adding that Amazon plans to use TripAdvisor ratings as criteria for choosing which properties to include on their booking site. Only those with four stars and above would be considered. Amazon Travel also plans to include editorials per destination listing top attractions and must-see-events. 

Amazon states that its mission is "to create a marketplace for retailers who might have difficult finding customers, and a high-profile section of Amazon.com in the form of an Amazon Travel would offer such a marketplace for independent and boutique hotels who don't have the marketing power of big hotel chains or online travel agencies at their disposal." 

With the immense amount of customer data Amazon has accumulated over the years, they potentially have a strategic advantage to OTAs and hotel booking sites. Pairing information about a customer's interest to travel alongside retail offers such as a camera could prove highly beneficial. 

Amazon's success in disrupting online travel will depend on how great the user experience is and whether it manages to drive traffic. They may just be able to sign prominent hotel brands by putting margin pressure on online travel agencies, providing more hotel-friendly payment terms and maintaining lower distribution costs. Read more about Amazon Travel's future plans here. 

Pandora Opens Listener Data to Let Musicians Target Fans

Pandora Opens Listener Data to Let Musicians Target Fans

Pandora, the world's largest internet radio service, recently announced a new marketing platform that will give musicians free access to data  about their fans.  The company currently uses the listener data for advertising purposes and is now extending the access of this information to the marketers in the music business. This initiative is seen as an strategy to fix up Pandora's relationship with the music industry in an effort to provide additional resources to artists and help them build their careers.

Artist will be able to view detailed information about their song's performance, demographic of their audience and geographical location of their fans. Access to this information will allow the music industry to take data-driven decisions regarding tour plans, song promotions and singles selections.

Pandora's recent strategy is an example of how fast the music industry is evolving and how digital tools have been leading the path towards the future of the business.

Read complete article: "Pandora Opens Trove of Listener Data to Artists"
Source: Shaw, Lucas (2014, October 22). Pandora Opens Trove of Listener Data to Artists. Bloomberg News

Google tries to impose restrictions on Google

In an age of Big Data where thousands of companies across the internet are not only collecting, but often sharing users’ information, Germany’s privacy regulator is working to enforce some control over the flow of user data, specifically from Google. A recent legal ruling stated that Google must “seek Germans’ expressed permission before it uses their data to create online user profiles across its services.” 

Germany differs from the US in that it is illegal in Germany to ascertain specific information on individuals, such as financial information, relationship status and sexual orientation, all of which can currently be done easily by Google’s databases. If Google does not comply with the ruling, it risks penalties of up to $1.27 million. With the success of Google’s algorithms resting on their ability to capture as much user data as possible and use this data to customize their offerings, it will be interesting to see whether Google complies and if they do, what that will mean for their future success in Germany. 

Read the entire article regarding the regulations Germany is trying to impose on Google here as well as below:

A German privacy regulator has ordered Google to give its users greater control over how their online data is used, in the latest privacy case that challenges how the search giant operates in Europe.

The city of Hamburg’s data protection regulator, one of Germany’s leading data protection agencies, said in a legal ruling that Google must seek Germans’ expressed permission before it uses their data to create online user profiles across its services like email, online search and its Android-based mobile products.

The watchdog said that Google’s ability to aggregate such online data without people’s consent could allow the company to ascertain individuals’ financial information, relationship status and sexual orientation, which is illegal under German law.

The German regulator acknowledged that Google did not collect this delicate information to target advertising to people online. But it added that other information that the company aggregated without users’ consent could nevertheless allow the search giant to form a detailed picture of individual users.

Google may face financial penalties of up to 1 million euros, or about $1.27 million, if it does not comply with the regulator’s ruling, according to a spokesman for the Hamburg data protection commissioner.

In response, Google said that it had worked with the regulator to explain its privacy policies, adding that “we’re now studying their order to determine next steps.”

Google has a month to respond to the ruling, which was based on an investigation that began in April of last year.

“The issue is up to Google now,” Johannes Caspar, Hamburg’s data protection commissioner, said in a statement, adding that the company had made some unspecified changes to how it collects people’s online information. “The company must treat the data of its millions of users in a way that respects their privacy.”

The regulator’s comments signal the latest privacy challenge for Google, which has faced similar legal cases brought by other national regulators. In France, the national watchdog fined the company 150,000 euros, or about $190,000, this year for similarly tracking and storing people’s online information.

Google is also battling on a variety of other legal fronts in Europe. The company is facing renewed antitrust complaints brought by the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union. And the tech giant has been stung by a recent European court decision that gives Europeans — and potentially those farther afield — the right to request that links to online information about themselves be removed from Internet searches.

The latest complaint, which was sent to the company last week and made public late on Tuesday, relates to changes in Google’s privacy policies in 2012 that consolidated the company’s 60 privacy policies into one document, which also allowed the company to start collecting data on users across its online services.

As part of the changes, Google is now able to collect information including location-based data when someone uses one of its services, like Google Maps. The search engine also scans individuals’ Gmail accounts to filter out spam and to create tailored advertising.

The changes did not allow people to opt out of the data collection globally.

Mr. Caspar, the Hamburg data commissioner, who previously fined Google $190,000 for illegally collecting personal information from unencrypted German Wi-Fi networks, said the company had not made sufficient changes to give users greater control over how their online information is aggregated.

Mr. Caspar added that while Google excluded personally delicate data like sexual orientation from its online advertising products, combining all the user information from across its services could eventually create “meaningful and comprehensive personal records” of individuals without their consent.

The search giant may also take the case to a local German court if it does not agree with the initial ruling, according to the spokesman for the data protection commissioner.

Is big data too big for digital marketing?

The topic "big data" is present. CEOs talk about it in interviews, scholars are thinking of ways and algorithms on how to best use it and consultancies start to shape their recommendations around its usage. An article of the WSJ on big data goes so far to create new job titles like "big data scientists". A business function which is especially affeted by big data and can gain a lot from it, is digital marketing. But are digital marketers really ready to use big data, and what is required to use big data approprietly?

What companies get wrong

Collecting instead of crunching: According to David Edelman, a partner at McKinsey and Co. and co-leader of McKinsey's digital marketing practice, too many firms still believe that big data is more about how to collect the data, rather than how to analyze it.
I agree and think this dream of companies of having a fully integrated customer-data warehouse and being able to perform some simple data requests to get the answers just doesn't work. Instead, firms should focus more on formulating the right questions and problems to solve and then think about how to collect the data a lightweight way to find the answers. Companies need to realize that it is very unlikely to find big new insights by just going on a "discovery walk" trough terabytes of data.

Testing too little: David Edelman says in his article about mastering digital marketing that he observes so many companies which complain about not having the budget to test many new marketing approaches developed from their big data analysis. Reason being that marketing executives are too eager to roll out new findings directly to the whole market. Rather, companies should test their ideas in small-scale pilots and test many different findings. Running a big data analysis per se doesn't guarantee that the solution will work in the market.

The way to go

I think the word big data still scares too many marketing people. In fact, big data stands for nothing else than "better and more data access / better data collection possibilities" and does not deliver automatically new insights and revolutionary ideas. Executives still need to think by themselves and define what they actually want to solve for and which questions they want to have answered by the data. Only then they can go and either collect or ask "big data" to find the answer. If this mind shift happens and companies furthermore stop believing that every finding out of a "big data dataset" is a good one, I believe digital marketers will be very successful in the future in leveraging all this data which is out there in the cyber world.

How Big Data is Enhancing the Travel Experience

How Big Data is Enhancing the Travel Experience 
Elina Boncheva 

With each travel search we make whether on an online travel agency phone application or a metasearch engine website, data about our preferences, destination desires and willingness to spend on travel purchases is recorded. Sure, big data knows our travel trends and secret getaway plans, which may make the 21^st century travel consumer weary, but the benefits big data can bring by means of personalized marketing outweigh the paranoia.  Hospitality and travel companies are beginning to use detailed consumer digital data to tailor each traveler’s experience from search to booking, bolstering retention rates and growing purchases through personalized marketing. 

According to a new Skift and Boxever report examining the future of personalized marketing in travel, personalized marketing can help improve conversion rates by 10-20%, increase revenue by at least 5% per week and drive loyalty with a potential to increase revenue per visit three to seven times.  Digital behavioral data can deliver specific ads to a customer in prime times of booking potential and can adjust the language and content of marketing campaigns for distinct audiences.  Companies can begin to build customer profiles of traveler data points including regions most often traveled to, preferred flight times, seat selection, average night stay, quantity of people booked for, etc. to offer more relevant “recommended trips” for shoppers. Think Amazon's related products section meets tailored travel packages. 

Big data in travel is also transforming the industry real-time. Delta’s flight attendants now stroll through the aisles carrying phablets preloaded with customer details from preferred language to loyalty status. Hotel chains are reworking their rewards programs to customize each guest’s experience based on data they have tracked. Expect your favorite dessert or revered sports team gear awaiting you next time that green light grants you entry into the room.  

With 35% of US travelers using 6-10 sites to plan and book travel, competition for the travel purchase is high. Creating the personal connection with customers is now paramount to bridging the gap between casual browsing and loyal purchasing.