Rob Fountain, Consultant at Stream:20, explains why investing in data security is a good move for everyone
My aunt still sends cheques rather than use JustGiving like everyone else – it’s because of concerns over identity theft. "Bless her," I think – she doesn’t work in the wonderful world of data, and believes all that she reads in the media.
But with companies like Sony, Zurich, and of course News International all recently in the news for losing or miss-handling data it got me thinking again. Maybe she’s actually the opinion leader here, and it’s the digital marketing industry that needs to catch up.
Ever decreasing returns
Now, I’m not suggesting for a minute that anyone in the industry takes anything less than total care with any data we handle, but I am suggesting we do not make nearly as much effort to lead data and digital security as we do the more exciting stuff – digital creative, data acquisition, and data modelling and targeting.
Historically this may not have been within the remit of marketing's functions. But today, alongside the very obvious, immediate and huge damage to a company’s reputation from any data breach, there is an additional phenomenon that is well within our remit. One by one, people like my aunt are opting out, communicating anonymously, or choosing not to set up accounts. Indeed, a recent Marketing Week study reports that 18 per cent of people will not provide any data in any circumstances, whilst Chris Combemale at the DMA reported earlier this year that as many as 31 per cent of people are refusing to give even their name.
The end is nigh then?
Possibly not. There is one over-riding cause for the numbers of people choosing to disengage from the online databases: trust. People are reading the papers and believing that all their data, including credit card numbers, is stored in something no more secure than a desk drawer. Moreover cyber-bots are tracking them through various websites in some Big Brother-type world.
Of course, with the bad-news stories in the news, this lack of trust is understandable, but for our industry to progress we need to start countering these stories and reassure our customers (and our clients' customers) that data can be stored securely, and that giving us this data brings real tangible benefits.
Take Betfair’s recent lead – its launched a ‘Customer Charter’ which has data security as issue 1.1. eHarmony, the online dating site, gets responses from 250 questions at each new member sign-up – a huge amount of info which people are happy to share because they understand the reasons for it being requested.
So, how do we go about changing as an industry? First up, look to add data storage and security as an area of expertise to your marketing function. Not just from an infrastructure perspective, but regulation too – as is playing out in the news at the moment, the alleged News International ‘dump’ of old emails could well be another criminal act to go alongside the lengthening charge sheet. Do you know how long, and where you need to keep your records? If you need some advice, speak to your agencies and consultancies – we call ourselves experts in all things data and so should be ready to advise our clients on this too. Indeed, you can almost guarantee we’ll be having similar conversations with other clients – so we’ll have knowledge to share.
Alongside this, work with your brand teams to weave in trust and reassurance messaging to any comms. This sounds obvious, but whatever we’re doing as an industry is not enough – especially as other industries are doing their utmost to keep hacking stories front page. Aim to be an industry leader in this area – explain and explain and explain again what you’ll do with a customer’s data and how this will directly benefit them.
And if you’re concerned it’s not an attention-grabber and that your boss won’t be impressed without words like ‘clouds’, ‘apps’ and ‘cross channel super-social e-wonderfulness’– don’t be. Not only can this compliment these activities, but this is in the news, companies are becoming more and more concerned, and database sizes are dropping. The good news being, the digital marketing industry has the tools to take the lead for the benefit of the industry itself, our client’s bottom lines, and our client’s customers.