Part V: First-Party Data Facilitates Focused Alignment of Brands, Ethics, Consumers, and Creatives
According to research by Forrester, more than half of consumers (52%) factor a brand’s values into their decision of whether to make a purchase. Corporate social responsibility, ethical treatment of workers, representation, and inclusivity are increasingly important factors for customer engagement, and 2023 will see brands make more concerted efforts to communicate their values, and generate connections that extend beyond interest in their product or service.
When viewed within the context of first-party data, the issue of consumer connection becomes even more important: customers will be significantly more likely to share information with a brand that has demonstrated trust. Through this first-party data, businesses have the opportunity to deploy highly personalised want-based creatives that appeal to consumers on an emotional level.
Additionally, first-party data can help advertisers to better satisfy the growing number of diversity requirements placed on them. Naturally, showing the diverse makeup of our society is of vital importance, but without a strong grasp of their customer base, many businesses find themselves “ticking boxes” through their creative—the result is frequently insincere, transparent, and ineffective. Through first-party deployment strategies, brands can identify under-represented groups within their consumer base, creating appropriate narratives that are more genuine and, ultimately, more profitable.
Implications
Aspirational Marketing
By understanding its consumers’ values, a business has the opportunity to deploy personalised creatives that speak directly to subconscious wants and desires. Combined with programmatic delivery and effective targeting methods, first-party data and impactful ad creative offer significant opportunities for aspirational advertising.
Furthermore, by relying on data which has been responsibly sourced and consensually supplied, brands can make ethical use of these lucrative techniques without falling back on the Bernaysian “engineering of consent” ideologies of old.
Consumer Alienation
This is nothing new: brands have long struggled with the problem of how to convey their values and ethical credentials to their core customers, without alienating those whose views don’t quite align.
Through the use of effective audience targeting, a business can effectively advertise to those customers who are likely to be receptive to its values-based advertising, whilst deploying less sensitive and potentially divisive ads to the rest of its base.
Influence without Influencers
As a way of building consumer connection, more businesses than ever are looking to influencer marketing and user-created content to connect with consumers on a more personal level. In 2021, the total number of companies aligned in some way with influencer marketing hit 26%, and, by the end of 2022, the influencer industry as a whole is set to be worth around £14.0 billion.
Whilst the growth of the influencer market is impressive, the process of engaging with it is all too often time-consuming and speculative, with little guarantee of results, and the potential for negative impact on brand reputation. Though there are a growing number of end-to-end influencer marketing platforms that claim to offer an elegant link between advertiser and creator, we’ve yet to see one which effectively mitigates the considerable risks. As such, advertisers should look to develop ad creatives that “feel” organic and conversational, allowing them to capitalise on this trend without yielding too much control to unpredictable externalities.
Solutions
Adyoulike
Adyoulike is a native ad network with an emphasis on storytelling. For brands that want to generate awareness and build meaningful connections with their customers, Adyoulike’s simple and inventive native assets are the ideal canvas.
For added peace of mind, the company directly sources more than 99.5% of its inventory from reputable publishers—including The Guardian, Forbes, and CNN—offering the largest reach of any native network.
TikTok for Business
With over 1 billion active monthly users, TikTok has ascended the social media ranks to become the largest non-Meta, non-Google platform in the world. For advertisers looking to reach a progressive Gen-Z audience, the platform offers a range of engaging ad formats, specifically developed to match brands with relevant audiences likely to be receptive to their messaging.
In-Feed Ads and Spark Ads are ideal for businesses with the creative spark to convey their message through the short-form video which is synonymous with the platform. Branded Hashtag Challenges, meanwhile, offer companies the opportunity to engage more comprehensively with the TikTok community as a whole, generating brand awareness, engagement, and trust on a larger scale.
