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.

If you know your customers so well, then why do you keep treating them like strangers? It’s a conundrum APAC marketers, brands, and retailers face every day – and a challenge they are desperate to solve. Let us deep dive into the economics of ‘messy data’, and how to unlock the value of personalised marketing efforts through the art of identity resolution.

In its simplest form, fragmented customer data is muddling marketing efforts to get a clear view of who customers actually are. Common critical marketing mistakes are sending customers promotional emails for products they already own, blasting them with ads for clothing they don’t like, or placing them on hold for 45 minutes as a customer service representative tracks down their details when they want to return something. 

And the impact to the bottom line is a lot higher than you may think – to the tune of AU$16 billion, in some cases. Meanwhile, according to the global Zendesk Customer Experience (CX) Trends Report 2022, nearly 70% of APAC consumers feel as though customer service is an afterthought for businesses. On top of this, 94% say they are willing to spend more with companies who personalise the customer service experience, and 71% reveal they would switch to a competitor after one bad customer service experience. 

Unlocking the value of your data with identity resolution

ID resolution is the process of connecting and matching different data points across multiple devices and channels to form a unified view of a single customer, allowing brands to connect the dots between fragmented data to form a complete picture of an actual person.

The goal of ID resolution is to identify the same individual within and across all data sources that contain customer information. Simple enough. But why, then, is it such a tough nut for brands to crack? Because a truly complete and up-to-date view of the customer must combine an individual’s transactions from multiple sources — point-of-sale, e-commerce, email interactions, loyalty data, mobile app engagement and more. It also has to include historical data as well as new data that are produced every day when customers interact with a brand. The scale and scattered nature of it all has kept effective ID resolution out of reach for most brands.

Consider this incredibly common scenario: your brand just received a new online buyer called Victoria. You send her your welcome series. At the same time, another in-store customer called Vicky hasn’t purchased from you in four months, so you send her discounts persuading her to shop with you again. Here’s the kicker — Victoria and Vicky are the same person.

Creating a new era of customer success

The benefits of getting ID resolution right are the cornerstone to any organisation’s success. With an accurate customer data foundation, all departments across the company have the same access to customer information in real time. This access ensures the customer will have a seamless journey at every touchpoint, whether that’s in-store, online or with customer service. 

Even more, quality ID resolution prepares organisations for a cookie-less future by building a hearty, privacy-compliant, first-party data set, providing a buffer against increasingly strict privacy policies that limit the use of third-party data. With deeper customer relationships, brands can speak to their customers on the individual level, boosting customer loyalty and increasing lifetime value. 

ID resolution improves marketing performance and ROI too. Smart segmentation allows brands to create highly targeted campaigns for specific customer segments, cutting down on redundancies. This gives brands the ability to react in real-time and effectively allocate budgets, cutting down on expenses. 

First-class ID resolution software should be powered by machine learning (ML). With ML, match rates and accuracy improve over time even when unique identifiers are incomplete, inconsistent or unavailable. At the same time, ML-based ID resolution uses probabilistic data linking, allowing human-like logic to catch inconsistencies that more rigid matching schemas couldn’t process. 

It’s also key for your ID resolution software to be transparent, providing a clear idea of the process. This builds trust and confidence versus ‘black-box’ processes that don’t show how an answer came about. ID resolution software should also provide a stable customer ID and allow for enterprise scalability – handling and resolving massive amounts of customer identities quickly and cost-effectively, regardless of the size of customer data volume.

Even more, the best solutions are flexible, allowing for simple updates and management and not ‘one size fits all’ to ensure they meet your unique business needs. Above all, expertise should be at its core, providing you with an implementation and support team with deep experience and know-how.

The right ID resolution platform enables brands and organisations to take control of their customer data, systematically improve customer relationships, foster brand loyalty and win.

3 reasons true ID resolution is solid gold for your brand:

A great ID resolution strategy takes ‘dirty data’ and turns it into value — forget about ‘garbage in, garbage out’. With true ID resolution, it’s ‘garbage in, gold out’. 

  1. Most marketing activation channels charge by volume, so having bad ID resolution wastes money in the form of duplicate marketing.
  1. Exceedingly simple ID resolution makes it impossible to accurately understand who the most valuable customers are, leading to bad customer experiences, incorrect analytics and inaccurate personalisation.
  1. The marketing technology landscape is cluttered with SaaS offerings that overly specialise in a subsection of data. Adopt a strategy that can handle all your data, otherwise, it will just reinforce silos and not truly solve the problem.

Find out more by downloading Amperity’s Identity Resolution: Connecting the Dots and Understanding Your Customer guide here.

Cheetah_Sydney_Feb2019-Billy-Loizou-5467-2

This article is written by Billy Loizou, area vice president of Amperity.

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

If you are a marketing leader and have insights that you’d like to share on upcoming trends and practices in marketing, please reach out to [email protected] for an opportunity to be part of the series. 

Seattle, USA – Amperity, the leading customer data platform (CDP) for enterprise consumer brands, today announces its expansion in the Asia Pacific (APAC) market.

Amperity also appoints Billy Loizou as area vice president to lead the company’s sales and marketing efforts and build a team of dedicated experts to help brands in the APAC market make better use of customer data to scale their business.

According to a report by the global industry body IAB, there’s been much talk but little action, which has led to a false perception of preparedness for the demise of third-party cookies in the industry.

With the opening of a new office in Australia, Amperity continues to experience tremendous demand from brands around the globe eager to leverage first-party data to connect more effectively with customers as the deprecation of third-party cookies draws near. 

The new office will offer local engagement to the growing number of brands recognising that — while inaccurate or incomplete profiles alienate customers and waste resources — a holistic customer view reduces expenses, grows revenue, and improves the customer and employee experience.

“By establishing a larger footprint in Australia and across Asia, Amperity will be able to service brands anywhere they are located or doing business,” said Barry Padgett, CEO of Amperity.

“Amperity has seen a huge amount of growth in the region over the past few years as brands grapple with how to put their customer data to better use and leverage it for growth. Our customers and prospects in this region will be able to draw from the expertise of Billy and his team from day one, so they can put the power of customer data to work immediately,” Padgett added.

Amperity has experienced great traction and success in the APAC market, currently working with several leading brands in Australia, including Endeavour Group, the nation’s largest hospitality and drinks retailer, and Servco Pacific Inc., the largest Toyota dealer group in Australia. 

Loizou, a board member at the CDP Institute ANZ and previously the Australian Loyalty Association, has worked with brands, such as ANZ Bank, Bakers Delight, Seek, Medibank, and Marina Bay Sands. He most recently led the go-to-market function as vice president for Cheetah Digital Asia-Pacific.

“Brands have been sold the dream of the [360-degree] view of their customer for years, what attracted me to Amperity is that they can actually deliver on that reality. Five years ago, Amperity set out to solve the massive challenge of unifying messy and complex data sources to help brands use the customer data to better serve their customers and facilitate growth,” says Loizou.

He added, “I’ve seen firsthand how instrumental Amperity is in helping brands make sense of the data chaos by creating pristine customer profiles. Australian brands are early adopters when it comes to technology but now face new challenges, such as privacy regulations and soon to be death of the 3rd party cookie. I look forward to working with Enterprise companies in this region to overcome these obstacles while increasing brand advocacy and loyalty.”

It’s a stressful time for marketers. Many believe that their lives will be disrupted to the nth degree without cookies. Meanwhile, consumers are more protective of their personal data than ever. In the Australian Community Attitudes to Privacy Survey 2020, 7 in 10 respondents nominated privacy as a major concern for them, while 87% wanted more control and choice over the collection and use of their personal information.

Experts like Lauren Solomon, CEO of Consumer Policy Research Centre, further notes how data processes are clunky and outdated.

According to research from the Consumer Policy Research Centre, 70 percent of consumers accept consent terms, even if they are not comfortable with them. When asked why, three quarters of consumers said it’s because it’s the only way to access the product.

Meanwhile, the research further revealed more than 90 percent of Australian consumers are uncomfortable with how their data is collected and shared – and they’re disempowered to do anything about it.

“They want the government to intervene and protect them,” Lauren says.

“There also isn’t actually any way for consumers to express the preferences that they have and to acquire products that meet those preferences – because it’s a take it or leave it proposition,” added Lauren.

What is the solution?

Companies need to stop ‘renting data’ and build their own database through direct-to-consumer relationships. The key to future success is building a loyalty initiative that offers mutual value exchange. Customers can willingly offer their personal details, in exchange for a better customer experience.

With the death of the cookies, the ‘value exchange’ between businesses and their customers’ willingness to share personal data has never been so important. Activating cookie-less data, using it to enhance customer experience and derive insights is a craft and skill that marketers need to invest in and develop.

Unlocking the value of loyalty in a cookieless future

The importance of loyalty programs should not be overlooked as a critical part of a marketer’s toolkit. Loyalty programs are the perfect replacement for connecting customers with brands in new and innovative ways now and beyond a cookie-less world. They give organizations a clear, zero-party data approach to unlock deeper insights into their customers, unlock fresh CX opportunities, and open powerful new ways to forge more long-lasting and meaningful customer relationships.

But what makes a great loyalty program? Adam Posner, CEO and Founder of The Point of Loyalty, shares the seven zones that make up the ‘wheel of loyalty fortune’. Organizations need to implement each one of these points to ensure they have a strong, steadfast loyalty program that will benefit both customers and brands.

1. Business: First and foremost a business must be profitable and sustainable.

2. Members: Organizations should understand their loyalty member’s behaviors, beliefs, and belongings.

3. Program: The loyalty program needs to be meaningful and desirable to consumers.

4. Team: The organization’s employees need to buy-in for the loyalty program and be willing to endorse it.

5. Technology: The technology should be fit-for-future rather than fit-for-now.

6. Data: Ensuring the loyalty program captures the data necessary for analysis and for relevant action.

7. Dialogue: Any company dialogue to the customer needs to be dynamic and personal at all times.

It’s time for a new marketing recipe

There is life after the death of the cookie. Zero-party data can help marketers connect with their customers. This preference data comes directly from the consumer. There are no intermediaries and no guesswork — it’s psychographic data that includes the customers’ values, attitudes, interests, and personality traits.

Marketers will need to survive, lead and stay relevant in a cookie-less society – a reality that is right around the corner. Leading with loyalty and adopting a Zero Party Data strategy will help marketers survive by creating long-lasting customer relationships with a clear and concise value exchange.

This article is written by Billy Loizou, VP for Go To Market for APAC at Cheetah Digital.

Cheetah Digital is a cross-channel customer engagement solution provider that enables marketers to create personalized experiences, cross-channel messaging, and loyalty strategies.