Privacy-centric advertising practices

 

3 Pillars Of Privacy-Centric Marketing: Steps You Need To Take Now

Darren Yuen, CEO of ad agency Initiative Malaysia

PETALING JAYA: Since the beginning of this year, Google has limited third-party cookies for its Chrome web browser users, marking a first step towards eventually abandoning the files that have raised privacy concerns for some time.

The testing period of the deprecation of third-party cookies will continue till the third quarter of this year, by which time it will be ramped up to restrict all users.

The changes are causing a seismic shift in the way digital marketers operate across the brands they work with.

Darren Yuen, CEO of ad agency Initiative Malaysia, shared his views with StarBiz on how limiting third-party cookies would affect the way agencies and marketers work moving forward.

StarBiz: What are cookies and how have they been used in digital advertising?

Yuen: Cookies are small files which are used to target advertising by tracking web navigation and have recently been subject to greater regulation globally.

These text files gather data about users’ browsing activity, identify computers that are connected to a computer network and specifically are used to identify and track specific users.

First-party cookies collect information activities on a particular site to improve the user experience. These are website-specific and once you click off the site, first-party cookies stop tracking you.

Third-party cookies on the other hand, work by embedding a persistent file on individual computers, working across the Internet to collect information about overall browsing habits.

Unlike first-party cookies, third-party cookies are generated externally by digital advertising agencies.

When users visit a site, the cookies track the site activity and save data about the browsing session, such as the sites visited and how much time is spent on certain pages, etc.

This data is sent back to the third party who created the cookie and is used to build out individual and group audience profiles.

Why should cookies be restricted?

Privacy concerns around the world have been the main push behind the cookie’s demise.

Previously, users had no control over when companies tracked them with cookies, but key regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation that mandates that websites must ask for consent before using cookies on users in the European Union and the European Economic Area have set a precedent worldwide, improving the quality of data collected.

How will the loss of third-party cookies impact the advertising industry and its implications for advertisers?

Historically, most advertisers have relied on third-party data to inform ad campaigns. The loss of these will signify a loss of detailed targeting capabilities and decreased capabilities to measure ad performance accurately.

While the death of the cookie will dramatically change the digital marketing landscape for good, new technologies are arising to replace third-party cookies or improve first-party cookies.

As such, there will now be an increased reliance on first-party data, contextual targeting (a technique where ads are placed based on the content of a particular web page) and third party alternatives to the cookie like The Trade Desk UID or Universal ID – a holistic targeting and measurement system that’s more privacy-conscious.

At this point, are advertisers in Malaysia prepared?

Some brands have begun investing in tech infrastructure to start collecting their own first party cookies and other data sources.

Brands are also starting to invest in alternative solutions like contextual targeting or implementing ways to map customer relationship management data directly to platforms for improved measurement.

However, there is a high cost of entry to improve these ad tech capabilities and advertisers are generally wary of newer capabilities.

Advertisers also have concerns around these changes.

For instance, there are uncertainties and a lack of understanding around new alternative solutions such as the increased use of UIDs, which is a privacy-focused, unencrypted identifier created from a user’s email address or phone number.

There are also concerns around the potential decrease in measuring campaign effectiveness and how brands can maintain personalised digital experiences without detailed interest and behaviour targeting.

What are some key steps to get advertisers prepared?

The most important thing is for advertisers to re-examine their existing digital marketing strategy to see ways in which reliance on third-party cookies can be eliminated.

For instance, advertisers need to allocate resources to collect and manage first-party data effectively.

On an immediate basis, it will be useful to also start testing alternative targeting approaches across current campaigns by partnering with ad tech firms to create inventive solutions based on the UIDs.

Initiative Malaysia has also developed a unique assessment approach for the brands we work with, through an Emerging Tech Assessment.

This helps assess a brand’s digital activity’s readiness to these changes by categorising it into high, medium and low-risk buckets.

From here, we help plot a roadmap over the coming months to mitigate any potential risk areas and look at technologies available that could supersede existing performance.

How will advertisers be impacted if they do not prepare themselves for this development?

It is imperative that brands make swift preparation for these changes as there will be serious repercussions in the coming year, with wastage of advertising budgets on less effective campaigns or possibly delivering ads that are irrelevant.Brands will also face difficulties in reaching and engaging with their high value target audiences and in the long run, lose competitiveness in the digital space. This shift towards more privacy-centric advertising practices is here to stay and brands need to hasten efforts to gain an edge over their competition.

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Jack Ma, Asia's richest envisions the newspaper to leverage Alibaba's technology & resources

http://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2016/05/03/let-our-readers-see-china-from-more-angles-and-perspectives/

Ma: 20 more years of enviable growth for China

In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Alibaba founder Jack Ma shares his views on the Chinese economy and the importance of entrepreneurship in supporting development.

CHINA’S economy will face “a difficult three to five years” but the slowdown will be good for its long-term development, Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma told the South China Morning Post (SCMP) just before the e-commerce giant’s takeover of the 113-year-old newspaper.

Ma said the Chinese economy was indeed grappling with structural problems and that the authorities were working hard to steer it onto a new growth path.

But he dismissed fears that China would follow Japan’s route to stagnation, saying the country still had huge potential waiting to be tapped.

The rapid growth of China’s Internet economy and consumer culture could help the country through its temporary difficulties, Ma said.

China would likely continue to grow at a rate “enviable to most other major economies for 15 to 20 more years”, he said.

Ma gave the two-hour interview in Hangzhou, eastern Zhejiang province, during which he also discussed his vision for the SCMP, cultural differences between the east and west, and his concerns for Hong Kong’s next generation.

Commercial and residential buildings in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

China’s economy has been grappling with structural problems but Beijing is working hard to steer it onto a new growth path.

On China’s economy, the businessman said it was unrealistic to expect an economy of such scale to maintain double-digit growth indefinitely.

“There is no reason to expect that an economy of such size can maintain such a growth rate indefinitely, nor is it good for China to continue to grow at such speed,” Ma said.

“After more than 30 years’ growth, spending a few years to adjust its course is reasonable.

“Some say the actual (growth) number could be just 5%. But even with 5% growth, there is no other economy of such size growing at that speed in today’s world.”

Comparing China with an ocean liner, Ma said the Chinese leadership understood that the country’s old growth model was unsustainable and that they needed to chart a new course.

“It is easy for a small boat to change its course. But as the world’s second-largest economy, China is like an ocean liner... we have to choose either to not slow down and overturn the ship, or to slow a bit to make the turn,” he said.

The key was to create enough jobs to keep the economy stable and buy time so the country could complete its much-needed transformation, Ma said.

Fortunately for China, he said, the rise of its Internet economy happened at the right time.

China’s gross domestic product grows 6.7% in first quarter – a good start to 2016

“The traditional industries are struggling, but we also see growth in domestic consumption, the services industry and the hi-tech sector, and young talents are flocking to these areas,” he said.

“The logistics and delivery industries create plenty of jobs for low-skilled workers. We still have a lot of room for growth.”

Ma said the deciding factor in a true economic transformation would be the country’s ability to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit among the young and create an environment to help it flourish.

“I believe there will be some great enterprises arising from China,” he said.

“The monetary policy and supply-side reforms are very important and can help rejuvenate China’s economy.

“But to me, the most important thing is entrepreneurship. If this can flourish in China, China will become successful.”

China’s slowdown had triggered panic among foreign investors, with some choosing to leave the country.

But this actually created fresh opportunities, Ma said.

History had proven that those who bucked the trend to invest in China during difficult times always received good returns, he added.

“China needs to develop its rural areas; China needs to develop its cultural industry. It is also shifting focus to services and IT industries. There are still plenty of opportunities around,” Ma said.

Global media agency in the making

http://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2016/05/03/global-media-agency-in-the-making/

In the second part of an interview with SCMP, Ma says he envisions the newspaper to leverage on Alibaba’s technology and resources.

JUST why does Jack Ma want to own a newspaper, and what will he do with it?

Those are the biggest questions that have confronted readers of the South China Morning Post (SCMP) since news broke of Alibaba Group’s acquisition of the 113-year-old English-language newspaper late last year.

Now, for the first time since the Chinese e-commerce giant’s takeover earlier this month, Ma has outlined his vision for the newspaper.

The acquisition has raised eyebrows, with some suggesting that the SCMP – which has for decades been reporting aggressively on China – would change its direction.

A few even believed the newspaper might henceforth gloss over sensitive or controversial issues that risked incurring the wrath of the Chinese leadership.

In a face-to-face interview with the SCMP in Hangzhou, eastern Zhejiang province, Ma addressed these concerns, explaining why he believed in having a narrative on China that was different from that of both the mainstream Western media and Chinese state media.

“I don’t see it as an issue of (coverage) being ‘positive or negative’,” the Alibaba executive chairman said. “It is about being impartial and balanced... We should offer a fair chance to readers (to understand what is happening in China), not just a fair chance to China.”

China’s growth will remain enviable for the next 20 years, says Ma.

As a reader, Ma said, he valued the importance of obtaining unbiased information in order to draw his own conclusion based on the undistorted facts presented to him.

“I believe the most important thing for the media is to be objective, fair and balanced. We should not report a story with preconceptions or prejudice,” he said.

With its access to Alibaba’s resources, data and all the relationships in its ecosystem, the SCMP can report on Asia and China more accurately compared with other media who have no such access.

“Sometimes, people look at things purely from a Western or an Eastern perspective – that is one-sided. What the SCMP can do is to understand the big ‘why’ behind a story and its cultural context.

“I want to stress the importance of being fair to our readers. You should not impose your own view and prejudice on the readers and try to lead them to a conclusion. As a reader, I understand what a fair report is.”

The tech tycoon said his vision was to transform the SCMP into a global media agency with the help of Alibaba’s technology and resources.

Alibaba, the world’s biggest online trading platform, is aggressively developing big-data and cloud technology. Every day, it analyses and processes a massive volume of data that can provide powerful insight into the world’s second largest economy.

Ma reiterated his promise that Alibaba’s management would not take part in the SCMP’s newsroom operations. Rather, it wanted to represent readers’ interests and give feedback on how to improve readers’ experience, he said. “As I said to Joe (Tsai), you are going to the SCMP as a representative of its readers. You don’t have to represent shareholders. You speak for the readers,” Ma said, referring to Alibaba’s executive vice-chairman who is now the chairman of the SCMP. Ma, who last year unveiled a HK$1bil fund to help Hong Kong’s young entrepreneurs start up their businesses, said he invested in the newspaper because he “loves Hong Kong”.

Hong Kong was stuck in a rut and in danger of losing its direction, the billionaire said, urging Hong Kong’s youth to hold on to the city’s uniqueness and have faith in its future.

“The city has lost its can-do spirit. The big businesses are less willing to take risks. I talked to some young people in Hong Kong and they said they are lost. Young people indeed have fewer opportunities than before. But is it true that there are no more opportunities for them? No!” he said.

Hong Kong had many strengths that were unique to the city, Ma said.

“It has the best location. The ‘one country, two systems’ allows it to enjoy the good things from China’s growth and the best things from the West... The quality of Hong Kong’s graduates can match the finest from any other city. Its services industry is first class,” he said.

“Hong Kong people say Hong Kong needs to preserve its uniqueness. I say Hong Kong’s uniqueness is in its diversity, its tolerance of difference cultures... China does not want to see Hong Kong in decline. I have full confidence in its future.” – SCMP

By Chow Chung-Yan The Star

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