Originally published: Marketing Magazine, 09 October 2020
Tasneem Ali considers how marketers can bring the human element back to their advertising strategy through market research and listening to their customers.
Data-driven advertising, at its core, is about finding the right sources of information and insights to determine who exactly your audience is. What do they care about? How do they spend their time? and – most importantly – what do they like to spend their money on?
Today, such sources of information vary widely, not just in terms of what can be uncovered, but also in terms of the quality of insights that can be delivered. Take web behaviours for example. ‘Cookie-based’ targeting is one of the oldest methods of harvesting data online, but with Google phasing out third-party cookies by 2022 – and many cookies in breach of new privacy laws – they’re on the way out.
