Singapore – AI enterprise customer data platform Amperity has announced two new generative AI capabilities, Explore and Assist, to accompany existing AI-powered capabilities, Stitch and Predict, forming a new comprehensive suite known as ‘AmpAi’.

Through AmpAi, Amperity focuses on fixing data quality and access challenges many brands face with traditional CDPs, promising brands the confidence to make decisions based on a trusted data foundation.

Going into detail on AmpAi’s capabilities, Assist supports marketers, analysts, and data operators with creating marketing workflows more quickly. The first product within Assist is ‘Ai Assistant’, which removes the barriers to creating SQL queries and fixing potential errors within those queries.

On the other hand, Explore is all about enabling business users across the organisation to access and use customer data. ‘AmpGPT’, the first product in Explore, empowers marketers to interact with their data using natural language.

Amongst the new additions, Stitch unifies all data sources to create the highest data quality foundation to make business decisions, whilst Predict helps marketers understand what they need to do to keep the customers they have and make them even more profitable.

The company will introduce more products under Assist and Explore in the coming months to help further democratise customer data and make it accessible to all users in a privacy safe way.

Talking about this, Barry Padgett, CEO at Amperity, said, “We’re on the cusp of a transformative shift in how brands interact with their customer data. For too long, the complexity of data queries and segment creation has been a barrier, consuming valuable time that could be spent on strategic initiatives.”

“With Generative AI, we are empowering all users to be data scientists by democratising data usage and making customer insights accessible across the organisation. We’re not just helping brands save time; we’re empowering every team member to drive value and make informed decisions based on a trusted data foundation,” he added.

The loss of third-party cookies will completely disrupt the digital media ecosystem. While most advertisers think about third-party cookies in the context of targeting, they are used across a variety of tools that span data collection, audience segmentation, data onboarding, and, most importantly, measurement.  

How Google’s deprecation of third-party cookies impacts consumer privacy online

The deprecation of third-party cookies by Google will change the way consumer data is used online. With fewer third-party tracking cookies, there’s less opportunity for widespread tracking of user behaviour across different websites. This shift means consumers have more control over their personal data by allowing users to opt-in vs opt-out of data sharing. This will force companies to explore new consent incentives and test alternative tracking methods. 

For instance, there will be a significant move towards the collection and management of first-party data because of the numerous benefits it offers, such as improved data accuracy, enhanced customer relationships, greater data control and security, and more effective personalisation strategies.

The elimination of third-party cookies will also significantly alter the data compliance landscape. Companies will need to focus more on obtaining explicit consent for data collection while aligning with a mishmash of regulations across geographic regions, with  GDPR and CCPA. This shift could also prompt new regulations specifically addressing alternative tracking technologies and first-party data collection practices to ensure the data company is consensually provided.

Challenges and opportunities that brands may face as they shift from third-party to first-party data collection

Brands face fundamental challenges such as the need to invest in new technologies for first-party data collection and the potential reduction in the amount of available consumer data. This new reality will present opportunities, including building more direct and meaningful relationships with customers, gaining accurate and relevant data that can inform customer interactions, and enhancing brand trust and credibility. 

The key is to align on a strategic vision and select the right data management solutions to achieve it. Ones that are scalable, user-friendly with out-of-the-box analytics features, compliant, and capable of integrating seamlessly with existing martech and other systems.

Companies should revisit their data governance policies to ensure compliance with privacy regulations and ethical standards. This includes implementing robust consent management systems, ensuring compliance, and being transparent about data collection and usage practices. Investing in management and security to protect first-party data is also crucial. 

Finally, it’s important to remember that while many CDPs offer tools and features that can support compliance, transparency, and security, they are not a complete solution in themselves. Companies must actively manage these aspects in line with their specific needs and regulatory requirements.

How the Privacy Sandbox and other similar initiatives balance the need for user privacy with the commercial need for targeted advertising

Initiatives like Google’s Privacy Sandbox aim to create technologies that allow for user privacy while still enabling targeted advertising. These initiatives may involve using aggregated, anonymized data or machine learning algorithms that process data on the user’s device without transmitting sensitive information. 

But while Google’s Privacy Sandbox is beneficial from a privacy standpoint, it limits the depth of data brands are used to working with. They should not rely on Google to provide the data or tools they need to power personalisation capabilities compared to what first-party data used with a CDP offers.

CDPs consolidate diverse data sources to offer a comprehensive view of customer behaviour and preferences, excelling in personalisation through detailed segmentation and targeted campaigns. This contrasts with the Privacy Sandbox’s limited use of personal data.

CDPs stand out with their real-time data processing, enabling immediate responses to customer behaviours, a feature less emphasised in the Privacy Sandbox. They offer businesses direct control and ownership over customer data, allowing more flexibility in data management and use. This control is crucial, especially compared to dependence on third-party platforms like the Privacy Sandbox.

Additionally, CDPs offer customisation to meet specific business needs and integrate with other tools, creating a tailored tech stack that may not be as achievable with the Privacy Sandbox. They also support compliance with various privacy regulations, such as GDPR or CCPA, enabling responsible and ethical data management while still deriving valuable insights.

The role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the cookieless era 

The alternatives to replace third-party cookies for tracking and data analytics purposes we’re already seeing include first-party data activation tools, the return of contextual advertising, data clean rooms for measurement and collaboration, and AI. By using AI and machine learning for predictive analytics based on first-party data or using blockchain for transparent and secure data transactions.

As reliance on third-party cookies decreases, AI and machine learning will play a more significant role in marketing. As we move forward, it’s becoming increasingly clear that brands must embrace new AI-driven methodologies to effectively acquire and retain customers. This shift isn’t just about keeping up with technological advancements; it’s a response to intensifying business pressures and evolving consumer demands.

From a business perspective, the pressure is mounting for efficiency, scalability, and the effective use of data to drive greater returns. In this landscape, AI’s role is crucial. For CMOs, delivering a greater return on investment has emerged as the primary objective for 2023, underscoring the need for a more sophisticated, data-driven approach.

However, this shift isn’t solely about the numbers. Consumer demands are equally influential in shaping this new paradigm. There’s a growing concern among consumers about how AI and their personal data are used. They expect brands to be not only conscious but also responsible in their data utilization. Furthermore, as consumers become more willing to share their data, they anticipate a higher degree of personalisation and relevancy in their interactions with brands. They want experiences that are tailored to their preferences, delivered at the right time, and through the right channels.

The intersection of business efficiency and consumer-centricity is defining a new era in marketing. Brands that successfully navigate this landscape by leveraging AI in a responsible, consumer-focused manner are poised to thrive in this dynamic environment.

How brands can ensure transparency and maintain trust with their customers during this transition

Brands will maintain consumer trust during this transition by being transparent about their data collection and usage practices. Regular communication with customers about how their data is being used and providing them with greater control over their data will foster trust. Additionally, keeping pace with and adhering to growing privacy regulations and ethical standards is key.

There is no silver bullet to replace the third-party cookie, and advertisers have the opportunity to reimagine their digital media tech stack. In fact, we’re seeing that brands that leave the cookie environment now are experiencing a competitive advantage and will continue to do so since most of the industry has not shifted their reliance on 3P cookies.

This article is written by Peter Ibarra, head of adtech solutions, Amperity

The insight is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series under What’s NEXT 2023-2024What’s NEXT 2023-2024 is a multi-platform industry initiative which features marketing and industry leaders in APAC sharing their marketing insights and predictions for the upcoming year.

Melbourne, Australia – AI-powered enterprise customer data platform Amperity has recently announced its appointment by omnichannel retailer Accent Group, to accelerate its first-party customer data strategy and deliver highly personalised interactions for a better customer experience.

In partnership with Amperity, Accent Group will look to unify, manage and activate its customers from multiple online and offline touchpoints to deliver personalisation at scale.

This collaboration comes into fruition with Accent Group managing over 34 brands under its roster, and needing a comprehensive solution to bring together and manage multiple data sources of its various brands to advance its marketing goals.

With Amperity’s patented, AI-powered technology, Accent Group will utilise enterprise-scale identity resolution to build unified customer profiles to deliver audience segmentation and insights for retargeting and creating lookalike and suppression campaigns.

Talking about the partnership, Deena Colman, group general manager digital & marketing at Accent Group, said, “We strive to provide exceptional customer experiences across all of our brands, which requires a CDP that delivers on the promise of unifying all online and offline customer data and making it actionable. With Amperity, we can unify and activate all of our customer data with the goal of creating a seamless, personalised omnichannel journey for our customers.”

Meanwhile, Billy Loizou, area vice president at Amperity, commented, “Accent Group is solely focused on putting its customers at the centre of the experience—that starts with a clean and accurate data foundation. We’re honoured Accent Group has chosen our AI-driven platform to help them scale their personalisation efforts and optimise marketing spend.”

Washington, USA – Customer data platform Amperity has recently announced that more than 50% of its customer base has adopted Amperity for Paid Media. The rapid adoption of this new application of Amperity demonstrates the important role first-party data will play in informing paid media strategies.

Since its launch in May 2023, Amperity for Paid Media has used industry-leading ad connectors and first-party data to deliver more than 11 billion unified customer profiles each day. 

These are delivered to the ad platforms of Amperity customers, across a range of industries, including retail, quick-serve restaurants (QSR), consumer packaged goods (CPG), travel and hospitality, sports teams and leagues, and financial services.

Brands using Amperity for Paid Media also report experiencing a better conversion rate using unified customer profile lookalike audiences over third party audiences, an 85%+ match rate across major ad platforms, 30% onboarding savings, 5x increase in ROAS (Return on Ad Spend), 94% savings in data management and stitch processing, as well as a 70%+ reduction in marketing timelines. 

To quantify the impact Amperity is having on paid media, the company commissioned Forrester Consulting to examine the potential ROI enterprises may realise by deploying its CDP. According to the study, the composite organisation not only experienced a 505% ROI but also experienced other benefits over three years. 

Other benefits include a $3.4 million incremental increase in net operating revenue from effective messaging, a $3.8 million incremental increase in net operating revenue due to targeted paid media spend, a 25% increase in productivity impact of more efficient campaign preparation and execution, and $4.5 million worth of savings in paid media spend from deduplicating customer records. 

Barry Padgett, CEO at Amperity, said, “Today, we find ourselves at the epicentre of a marketing revolution. The tides have shifted and the old ways of acquiring and retaining customers are giving way to a new era of data privacy and consumer-centricity.”

“In Q1 of next year, Google is going to disable 1% of third party cookies and fully remove them by Q3. This poses a massive challenge for brands across the board. But within this challenge lies immense opportunity. At Amperity, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to lead the charge and help brands and agencies navigate this shift,” he added. 

Securing executive buy-in is critical for marketers is the fuel that propels organisational transformation. When leadership fully embraces the journey, they not only pave the way for change but also inspire their teams to rise to the challenge.

However, a recent Arktic Fox’s Digital & Marketing In Focus study shows we still have a long way to go. It highlights a glaring obstacle to this transformation. 

“What we found is that while organisations are embracing digital transformation – not enough are succeeding,” says Teresa Sperti, Director/Founder of Arktic Fox. “Nearly 40 per cent of leaders stated that one of the key difficulties they face is senior leadership understanding and buy-in. This topped the list.” 

This is a real problem, she says, adding, “A lack of executive knowledge and understanding when it comes to digital makes it harder to drive alignment and focus. This results in less investment while increasing the likelihood that more leaders and teams work against, not for, the change.”

Executive buy-in barriers: Why the resistance?

Despite its undeniable importance, securing executive buy-in remains the primary hurdle for leaders. Sperti says this hurdle can be attributed to a combination of factors, namely:

  1. Misguided beliefs: There is still a belief that to solve for digital transformation, organisations can hire one executive that is responsible for driving the change. 
  1. “Not my job” reluctance: Executives and boards don’t always necessarily perceive it is their role to understand the digital space, so they fail to educate themselves on what is occurring in the market.
  1. Persistent legacy mindsets: Digital is still, within many legacy organisations, not seen as how business is done in the modern age.
  1. Knowledge gap: Executives aren’t necessarily willing to admit their lack of knowledge and expertise, which inhibits their learning.

“Our research also revealed that the second biggest barrier to driving digital transformation was related to skills and capability of teams and securing investment,” Sperti shares. “We see this all the time with teams. We often work with leadership teams on new strategies, and there is enthusiasm around the strategy. But often, the organisation isn’t prepared to take the leap and invest to the level it needs to, thus hampering the ability to evolve.”

Overcoming executive resistance for transformation projects that thrive

There are four critical areas where executive decision-making and prioritisation will have a significant impact on future investments:

  1. Prioritisation: Balancing short-term vs. long-term initiatives
  2. Privacy: Preparing for changes privacy regulations and a cookieless world
  3. Personalisation: Investing in the right tools to understand your customer and build a clear value exchange
  4. People: Enabling teams and developing skills to overcome internal skill gaps

Let’s start with prioritisation. When it comes to balancing short- and long-term initiatives, executives must understand what projects and investments will make the greatest impact on the organisation. 

Drawing from the insights of industry pioneers like Les Binet and Peter Field from their research, The Long and the Short of It, executives can guide their decision-making to strike the right equilibrium between immediate results and long-term brand building, ensuring sustained success in today’s dynamic business landscape.

Striking the right balance for maximum impact

This means acknowledging that while short-term initiatives can deliver quick wins and boost revenue, long-term brand equity and customer loyalty are equally vital for enduring prosperity. Sperti’s research revealed that the key priority for 78 per cent of leaders is driving growth. Building a customer data strategy and better utilisation of first-party data came in as the second most important priority for the year ahead.

Sperti shares, “For our consulting work, often partnering at heads of level/chief-level executives, we still see far too many leaders and teams focusing on campaign and channel-based metrics as opposed to customer metrics and metrics that drive topline and bottom-line growth. Our job as marketing or digital leaders is to shift customer behaviour to drive market share growth to influence the bottom line.”

When asked to reflect on her two decades of experience client-side, gaining her perspective on how to help businesses see the value of long-term projects, Sperti says the key is to focus on the end game. “First, you need to understand how the executive makes investment decisions and the financial metrics that projects need to hit to garner investment.    

“In larger organisations, in particular, projects are assessed against metrics like NPV (net present value) and IRR (internal rate of return) and return and finance are looking for investments that meet their minimum benchmarks – alongside other metrics that are good for business like improving CX (customer experience). 

“Partnering closely with finance to develop the business case is critical,” she continues. “Engage them early on and get them to become advocates for your project and business case. You also need to paint a really compelling vision. Often leaders can get lost in the technical aspect, but the tech is not the end game – the experience it delivers is.”

Personalisation: Making CDPs a key priority for investment

As mentioned earlier, putting your customer at the center of the experience is critical for ongoing success. Mounting research suggests that companies that adopt a customer-centric approach tend to outperform their competitors in areas like revenue generation and market share.

Unsurprisingly, research shows that while leaders are beginning to pare back investments in MarTech overall, however, investment in CDPs is accelerating. In fact, the study demonstrates that 40 per cent of brands say that CDPs are a key priority for investment – double that of last year.

“2023 is clearly the year of the CDP. Over the past three years, we have been tracking investment in MarTech and priority areas for the year ahead. With demonstrable growth in the number of platforms available and the providers serving the industry, it is fair to say organisations are still trying to make sense of the complexity of what is out there and what is the right choice for their brand,” Sperti shares.

“And while there are promises of improved efficiency, effectiveness, relevance and automation at scale – for many the returns are still too elusive as they grapple with how to integrate and embed platforms to derive value and to my earlier comments invest in training so people know how to use the systems most effectively. CDP uptake is being driven by gaps in the MarTech ecosystem, limiting teams to go after opportunities and work through key challenges.”

CDP benefits in focus

Data is the fuel source of modern business. However, the value of data hinges on its quality — unreliable and outdated data leads to unreliable and ineffective decision-making. It’s a classic case of “garbage in, garbage out” and no amount of marketing or financial investment can change that fundamental truth. That’s why a CDP like Amperity is so important. 

A CDP acts as a unifying force for online and offline customer data. It takes data from every source inside your organisation, whether that’s point of sale, eCommerce, CRM (customer relationship management) web behaviour, etc and consolidates it, so you can understand who the humans are behind the data.  

That gives you a comprehensive 360-degree view of your customers. This deep understanding empowers your business with valuable insights, from past purchases that can fuel personalised recommendations to informing decisions in various departments like IT for analytics or marketing for communications. It’s unified, unlocked data. 

However, data unification is just the beginning. The true power of this unified data lies in its integration with downstream systems. Remember, it doesn’t matter what tools you have or implement if you don’t have a clean foundation of data to start with. Good data powers good marketing. 

CDP: The indispensable business tool

It’s worth noting that while CDPs were initially conceived with marketing in mind, their functionality has expanded significantly. Their ability to collect, integrate and manage customer data from diverse sources makes them indispensable for multiple business departments. From sales to customer service and even product development, the insights derived from a CDP can drive strategic decisions across the board. 

Some businesses even utilise CDPs like Amperity to calculate share prices. The reason is simple, a CDP should be the most trusted source of consumer data in your business. 

Closing the skills gap

With change taking place so quickly, organisations must keep their teams up to speed. As such, upskilling must be a key priority. However, Sperti’s research reveals that a third (33%) of leaders felt their teams’ lack of capability and skills make driving change challenging when it comes to digital transformation. 

She says, “Data and analytics once again topped the list of technical skill gaps within digital and marketing functions today – with nearly half (47%) of all participants, citing it as a key skill gap. What’s more, when we asked teams about the level of data literacy in their departments, only 35 per cent said it was strong. This means two-thirds of teams are operating without strong knowledge and skills in the data and analytics space.”

Sperti went on to say that little progress in closing the skill gaps in areas of data and analytics over the past three years has been made. “Trying to conceptualise and roll out strategies like a first-party data strategy is impossible if one, your team doesn’t have the capability to do so; two, your teams don’t know what good looks like; and three, if you are trying to build skills and capabilities whilst implementing change,” she explains. 

What’s more, the study also demonstrates that while skills gaps abound in both technical and soft-skill areas, brands and organisations aren’t doing enough to address them. Almost half (43%) of leaders admit they have no training budget, which is undoubtedly holding their teams back. 

A call to executives to future-proof your business

Executives must recognise that financial considerations are only one aspect of their role. Those who genuinely buy into the process of digital transformation are more likely to facilitate change effectively and communicate its benefits to their teams. Embracing these priorities and investing in the necessary resources, whether it’s data privacy compliance, personalisation tools or workforce development, is essential for guiding their organisations toward a successful and adaptive future.

This article is written by Billy Loizou, Area VP, APAC, Amperity.

The insight is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series under What’s NEXT 2023-2024What’s NEXT 2023-2024 is a multi-platform industry initiative which features marketing and industry leaders in APAC sharing their marketing insights and predictions for the upcoming year.

United Kingdom – Airline Virgin Atlantic has tapped enterprise customer data platform Amperity to aid in the airline’s unification, management, and activation of its digital and transactional customer data in order to deliver personalised customer experiences and drive revenue growth.

Virgin Atlantic looks after a vast amount of customer data generated from digital touchpoints and offline transactions throughout the customer journey. As part of its ongoing data transformation, the travel company will use the CDP to create a personalised ecosystem and improve the digital experience.

Amperity’s platform uses patented machine learning algorithms to deliver industry-leading identity resolution, audience segmentation, and predictive analytics which allows Virgin Atlantic to create the most relevant content and communications for each customer. 

Tom Barber, head of data at Virgin Atlantic, said, “When it comes to innovating for our customers, Virgin Atlantic never stands still. We’re building a digital core at the heart of our business so that our customers benefit from a seamless shop, book and service experience for our flights and holidays, with an innate understanding of their preferences across the end-to-end journey.”

He added, “We’re excited to adopt Amperity to help us get to know our customers better than ever, supporting personalised and meaningful content and experiences at every touchpoint, with the advantage of consistent and secure first-party data and customer segmentation.”

Meanwhile, Barry Padgett, CEO at Amperity, commented, “Today, customer data is at the heart of any ambitious organisation, especially one that aspires to make every interaction feel more like it is a one-to-one experience versus a one-to-many approach. By tapping into Amperity, the platform for customer data, Virgin Atlantic will be able to take advantage of patented identity resolution, with strict governance and activation capabilities that will make experiences even more connected and relevant.”

New York – Customer data platform Amperity has been selected by beauty brand Shiseido Americas as the foundation of its first-party data strategy, to assist with creating connected and personalised digital customer experiences across all of its brands.

As consumer shopping preferences and behaviours evolve, Shiseido Americas will be using the assistance of Amperity in bringing a comprehensive solution to managing multiple data sources across its various brands to advance their marketing goals. 

In this partnership, Shiseido Americas will be aiming to target shoppers with affinity-based, personalised communications throughout their journey using Amperity’s patented, AI-powered identity resolution and unified customer profiles. 

Commenting on this collaboration, Kristin Morseman, senior vice-president of digital transformation at Shiseido Americas, said, “As an omnichannel retailer, we are laser-focused on understanding our customers and the channels they want to interact in, while ensuring we are delivering consistent customer experiences. With Amperity, we can unify and activate all of our customer data with the goal of creating a seamless omnichannel journey for our customers.”

Meanwhile, Barry Padgett, CEO at Amperity, mentioned, “The luxury beauty market is at the forefront of digital innovation, and they are finding unique ways of using data to gain a competitive edge in an omnichannel retail environment. By partnering with Amperity, Shiseido Americas now has the critical data foundation required to enable them to deliver real-time personalised customer experiences across in-store and digital worlds.”

The digital marketing landscape is highly competitive and rapidly growing more challenging by the day. The deprecation of third-party cookies and increasingly strict privacy regulations have posed significant challenges for brands trying to make an impact in marketing. Now, brands are looking to first-party data to give them what third-party data never could — sustainable, robust and privacy-compliant results.

At the recent MARKETECH APAC’s What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia Pacific conference, Matt Hallett, Head of Product Solutions at Amperity, and Teresa Sperti, Founder and Director of Arktic Fox, led a panel discussion, addressing the challenges that marketers are facing in today’s landscape and how they can best navigate them. Here are their insights.

The challenges: Why your marketing isn’t measuring up

What’s holding APAC marketers back from making time for measurement despite the critical need for data-driven marketing? According to Sperti, it’s three things.

“Teams are stretched thin and lack the bandwidth to effectively invest the appropriate time and effort in measuring performance. They’re trying to balance short-term and long-term needs of the business. And trying to determine how to optimise performance or adapt strategy,” she says. 

The second challenge tends to crop up when it’s time to actually measure. Sperti argues that when provided with mountains of data, marketers aren’t entirely sure what they should be measuring. “Marketers often lack clarity around deciphering the most appropriate measurement frameworks to utilise to demonstrate value,” she says. 

“That’s largely because each channel, particularly from a digital point of view, provides a plethora of metrics to measure performance. It can be difficult to determine what the most important metrics are — this can create paralysis in marketers.”

The third challenge, Sperti points out, is the skills gap. In Arktic Fox’s recent research, noted in its annual Arktic Fox Digital and Marketing In Focus Report, half of leaders say customer data strategy and better utilisation of first-party data is a key priority. In fact, 59% say they are still trying to embed a more data-driven approach to marketing, and half of respondents (55%) say building a customer data strategy and better utilising first-party data is a top priority. 

The rise of digital

At Amperity, Hallett shares that there’s a strong focus on helping brands unify customer data across disparate touchpoints. This empowers them to drive better experiences for customers at any time but especially during a time of change. 

After working with a plethora of world-leading brands, he says the most successful amongst them have the right people at the top who understand measurement and why it is important. “Knowing what to measure ultimately starts with the people, strategy and the boldness to keep measurement as a number one priority,” he says.

With the rise of digital, measurement is especially critical, Sperti adds. “The rise of digital has created more complexity as much as it’s created more clarity from a measurement point of view because we have so much data at our fingertips now,” she says.

“Whilst the issues around measurement have intensified given the challenges of today, they’ve always been around. Historically, we haven’t been as accountable as we’ve needed to be around measurement and performance as an industry.”

Hallett agrees, saying, “Measurement issues aren’t a new problem. It’s just that tightening privacy regulations and cookie deprecation are adding more pressure to the space.”

Navigating a new privacy-first marketing landscape 

Significant change is looming on the privacy regulatory front, and it appears that leveraging third-party cookies may no longer be an option after this year. Despite these shifts, in the Arktic Fox Digital and Marketing In Focus Report, when asked about the key priorities leaders have in the data and analytics space across the next 12–18 months, less than one in four (23%) suggested that a focus on improving their compliance with data privacy was a priority. 

Meanwhile, less than half (41%) of brands indicate they have their house in order when it comes to privacy and consent, suggesting many brands will be caught off-guard by the magnitude of change that will bear down on the industry. Concerningly, only 11% of businesses from the study say they have a ‘clear plan and path’ they are implementing when it comes to evolving and adapting to changes in privacy and consent.

This finding suggests that leaders may not fully grasp the extent of the changes that will occur and the urgency of preparing for them.

With Australia tightening its privacy laws, Sperti says it’s imperative for brands to rethink how they are going to leverage that data and discover what, if any, gaps they have in their data sets. 

“Marketers are going to need to adapt their measurement approaches accordingly to ensure they have a reliable data set from which to form and make decisions,” she points out. “It’s going to be a challenging transition off the back of our current market skills gap for those that are trying to build maturity and capability around data, to then have to tackle these really big challenges around measurement brought on by privacy and third-party cookie deprecation.”

Hallett agrees completely, but also admits that there’s a silver lining to all of this change — it’s making an even stronger case for a robust first-party data strategy. With third-party cookie deprecation, brands are trying to leverage first-party data in new and exciting ways,” he says. 

“My day in and day out is essentially spent helping customers build the connectors to make sure that first-party data can be leveraged in a secure, safe privacy-compliant way.”

Embrace imperfection to drive marketing results

As businesses continue to navigate the dynamic digital marketing landscape, the pressure to deliver results has only intensified. In a world where success is often measured in clicks, likes and views, it’s essential to understand the different types of metrics that exist and how to use them effectively.

The best way to do this, Hallett says, is to maintain a culture of fast iteration and celebrate failure as much as success. “Because this is a period of such intense change, you have to forget your pride and be willing to walk away from a campaign if it isn’t working,” he says. 

“Brands are feeling the pressure. Customers can go to a different brand or a different retailer with the click of a button. Everyone is feeling the pressures of Amazon. To thrive, it’s important to make sure that you’re out there, testing and learning as quickly as possible.”

Sperti agrees, saying the celebration of failure is vital. At the same time, she says, it’s just as important to start being comfortable with imperfection. “Decades back, marketers would work on a big TV ad, and they’d be really focused on driving that big, broad awareness – the kind that requires a lot of precision and perfection,” she says. 

“Today, we need to start getting really comfortable knowing that our measurement frameworks aren’t perfect from the get-go. Often perfectionism stops us. We won’t start measuring until we have the ‘Rolls Royce’ of performance measurement frameworks, which means we never start. And when we never start, we fail to learn and evolve from a marketing point of view. What we don’t optimise, we don’t improve.”

Today’s opportunity is paved in first-party data

Ultimately, this new digital landscape demands a new journey — one organisations and brands must navigate together to find their footing as the foundation built upon shady privacy practices and third-party cookies begins to crumble away. 

In a privacy-first world, all roads lead to first-party data. And it’s time for brands to run, not walk, towards getting their house in order. Brands who make the change to leveraging first-party data see net-positive outcomes not just in match rates, efficiencies, time and security but also in revenue. 

The brands that say these challenges are tomorrow’s problems are missing out on the opportunity available to them today. 

Australia – Even amidst cookie deprecation continually hanging over brands’ heads, organisations have shifted their priorities, with the focus moving away from the long-endured preparation for stricter data collection. According to a study by marketing advisory Arktic Fox, companies are now eyeing growth more than ever showing how the recent economic challenges have put considerable dent in their business trajectories. 

The Australia-focused study showed that growth agenda is one of the top priorities for 78% of Australia-based digital and marketing leaders and their teams in the year ahead. Only 55% cited developing first-party data strategy as their number one goal. 

Moreover, growth goals also trump brand development and embedding brand purpose (54%) in the hierarchy of company objectives. This is specifically for organisations in the market generating in excess of $100m in revenues. 

Growth has moved to top the priority list since last year, showing the reality of present economic conditions, said the report. 

When it comes to challenges, the current research showed that balancing short- and long-term priorities is the main struggle of two-thirds of respondents, demonstrating the balancing act leaders are facing to deliver short-term performance outcomes whilst building for the future. 

Further to Australian leaders’ predicaments, some 60% of respondents struggle with resourcing and budget constraints, showing that current times are asking marketing and digital heads to be more laser-focused on priority areas and investing for impact.

On the key objective of incorporating digital transformation across the business, Teresa Sperti, Arktic Fox’s director, said, Today we still see far too many leaders believing that digital is someone’s role as opposed to digital capability needing to be embedded across the organisation to become central to the business strategy and operations.”

“When a separate digital or ecommerce function exists that is siloed from the rest of the business, it sends a message that understanding digital is not my job or responsibility and stifles teams’ ability to build capability and develop skills,” she added. 

The report was developed together with executive search firm Six Degrees and sponsored by martech Amperity. All in all, the 2023 Digital & Marketing In Focus study interviewed 230 marketing, digital, and e-commerce leaders across Australia within the period of November 2022 to February 2023.

Sydney, Australia – Automotive business Servco, one of the largest Toyota dealer groups in Australia, has tapped customer data platform (CDP) Amperity to handle its customer data strategy to achieve a comprehensive view of the customer and drive better insights for the company.

Servco has previously worked with Amperity in 2019 to connect siloed customer data across its businesses, create accurate 360-degree views of their customers and households, and get actionable business insights to better build customer trust.

The automotive business faced similar business challenges to that of its global headquarters but had the added challenge of having a number of legacy systems that came by way of an acquisition. With thaat, Servco needed an easy way to consolidate all of these disparate systems and make the data actionable. Amperity was able to provide a next-generation data foundation to unify all of Servco’s customer data into one centralised location.

Kane McHardy, chief operations officer at Servco Australia, said, “With Amperity, we’ve been able to successfully harmonise all of our data from across multiple disparate systems to achieve a unified view of each customer. This has provided us with more insights, enabling us to offer a more sophisticated approach to the utilisation of that data.”

He also added that in the longer run, they expect to see more engaging content, a better customer experience, greater retention and loyalty and less frustration for their employees.

Meanwhile, Billy Loizou, area vice president at Amperity, commented, “We’re delighted to see Servco achieve fantastic results on par with that of Global. You look at the three key things we want to influence and that’s business performance, employee productivity and customer experience, and we’ve been able to achieve all three with Servco.”

He added, “We couldn’t be more proud to help Servco drive the best results for its marketing and business campaigns with unified customer data — the foundation that powers every insight and action they take to deliver a powerful customer experience every time.”

Recently, Amperity has been tapped by Forever 21 parent company Authentic Brands Group and Reckitt to handle their customer data strategy as well.