Defending digital marketing as we move to Web 3.0
Recently I’ve found myself in conversations where digital marketing is blamed for everything from social media’s ills to privacy-eroding data usage (ads that follow you across the Internet) to SPAMmy click-bait content. These technologies and behaviors aren’t “digital marketing”! Or are they? How should digital marketers view their contributions to the impact of social platforms, digital data, and online content on consumers? What’s apparent is that digital marketing has had a massive impact, and can’t just blame any negative press on the fast-growing and ethically ‘loose’ technology platforms, or the relevance and revenue-seeking online publishing industry. With the next ‘wave’ of digital experience now upon us, it’s time for digital marketers to recognize their contributions — good and bad — and put in place solutions for the future.
First, social media. Digital marketing didn’t hack elections or expand neo nazi groups online. But those engagement algorithms that make social media sticky were designed expressly to display more and more digital ads, and create more and more digital engagement data to sell to marketers. Social media targeting opportunities are generally very efficient options for marketers, especially for product categories that suit the audience’s affinity categories or current online e-commerce activities. We have to “own” it, digital marketers, and channel this into supporting comprehensive and socially responsible regulation of social media platforms.
Second, data capture and privacy. Outside of regulated industries, there has been a relatively light amount of constraint placed on marketers looking to capture personal data and use this data to hyper-target consumers online. Tactics such as annoying popups and intrusive, ‘creepy’ targeting and messaging within email and SMS channels have generally been constrained by a fear of consumer backlash and poor conversion. To wholly blame marketers here misses the larger point — established data platforms such as Google use their AI to improve ad relevance and placement, and they are moving to improve data privacy through eliminating 3rd party cookies. Marketers can and will “mail a list until it’s unprofitable” and that doesn’t put an incentive to prioritize consumer data privacy, so the industry should ensure compliance across baseline efforts to improve data privacy with consumer-granted permissions, even at the expense of attractive return on ad spend (ROAS) that we use to justify our spend to our business partners. Clarity and specificity from regulatory bodies and tech platforms would usher in a welcome world of responsible — and still profitable — digital marketing.
Third, and finally — commercial content. The first 10 years of digital advertising trained a generation of banner blind consumers, so digital marketers developed content that entertained and/or informed, to draw consumers closer to the brand. Simultaneously, marketers and publishers saw profit in ‘click-baity’ content where consumers were coaxed to click ‘next’ on 20 pages of relatively anodyne content displayed with 10+ ad units braying for your attention. Digital marketers should take credit for the product selection guides, user guides — even advice blogs — that serve a commercial objective but also, arguably, helped consumers to make informed decisions. Unfortunately, we get a smack for participating in the click-bait sites, often driven by a cost-per-lead model that delivered low-quality prospects for brands. We marketers can and should do better here — focus on entertaining and helping; ditch the performance models that drive SPAM.
In sum, digital marketers have a lot to manage without being saddled with what people find wrong about social media, data privacy, and online content. Digital marketers will have to insist on responsible social engagement algorithms and data privacy standards. The tech industry, the media and the government need our partnership to move past the ‘wild west’ of our past and into the Web 3.0 we’re heading towards. We may never solve for cat videos and memes, but the online experience will be less offensive to people who end up at dinner parties, blaming digital marketing for society’s woes…
