Yes, data ownership and data control are indeed inextricably linked, but it’s only when Fortune 1,000 & FTSE 100 advertisers (and/or their digital media agency partners) begin to closely look at how they can CONTROL the data collected via their rented [3rdparty] ad management platforms will they realise that there’s little in the way of efficient incremental value that can be derived from 3rd party serving platform data. When this realisation is reached, the ownership question is easy to answer (which is that advertisers never really ever truly owned the data).
How can it be that advertisers don’t own the data generated/collected by 3rd party ad serving/tracking platforms (e.g. Google’s DoubleClick DART, Micosoft’s Atlas, ValueClick’s Mediaplex, Aegis/Isobar’s Bluestreak, et al)? On a contractual basis, sure, they might.
But look closely at the domain from which the data originates and to which it is continually keyed over the course of an advertiser’s use of a given 3rd party platform (3 examples below):
- Google’s DoubleClick DART platform
The originating domain of the data is doubleclick.net (not the advertiser’s domain); all cookies and cookie data are keyed/locked to the doubleclick.net domain. Cookies and cookie data are foundational to the vast volumes of data collected and manipulated for ad targeting and digital media investment performance measurement/analytics.
- Microsoft’s Atlas platform
The originating domain of the data is atdmt.com (not the advertiser’s domain); similar to the above, all cookies and cookie data are keyed/locked to the atdmt.com domain.
- ValueClick’s Mediaplex MOJO platform:
See above.
So, what should advertisers do to ensure they both truly own and control the digital marketing data generated by the platforms that they directly use for the distribution and measurement of online marketing comms programmes?
Similar to how many of them have their web site analytics and eCRM platforms deployed, advertisers should look to have their ad serving/tracking (including standard, rich, video display, paid search and all other forms of bought media) deployed on a “1st party” basis i.e. from their own domains.
It is only when advertisers serve and track their bought media on a [encouragingly, also a privacy-friendly] “1st party” basis that they can truly begin to create a data asset that is 100% owned and controlled by the originating advertiser organisation.
To be clear, “serving and tracking on a “1st party” basis” means that the advertiser can read and write to its own cookie data as/when its ad campaigns encounter it [i.e. the cookie data]. The advertiser also enjoys the added benefit of knowing that only it and no one else can use its own-domain [cookie] data, which is NOT the case with 3rd party ad management [cookie] data.
Currently, advertisers are creating [cookie and vast database- data assets] that are keyed to/from domains that are completely foreign to their enterprises (albeit native to Google/DoubleClick, Microsoft, etc). The disconnects, the chasms, the gulfs, the permanent voids between those [foreign] data assets and advertisers’ desires for greater digital marketing visibility and, ultimately, profitability is nothing less than gargantuan and, arguably, preventing industry innovation and business growth [through more precise & productive online ad targeting].
Ok, enough for now.
I’d love some thoughts. Feedback. Corrections. Assumptions checks. Pokes. Prods. Agreement. Etc.
This post was originally published to the LinkedIn Digital Ad Targeting Innovation group discussion board here: http://bit.ly/bmnmul
