The Krux of it – data challenges in adland

Pippa Chambers
By Pippa Chambers | 16 January 2015
 

From data privacy and compliance to its misuse and cross device implementation - data is one hot topic that continues to help, yet baffle many marketers and advertisers.

In its skip from 'big data' to 'actionable data' its use has become paramount across the industry and with that sprouts new companies, trends and challenges.

Krux Digital is one such new company. It's a cloud-based data management company that works with Foxtel and NewsCorp.

Krux was founded in New York in 2010 but only arrived in Sydney in June this year – after it raised $35 million in Series B Funding to accelerate international expansion of its data management platform.

Ex sales director at Yahoo!7 and former CEO at Digital Media Options, Jo Gaines, sits at the helm as country manager of Australian and New Zealand, heading up 11 staff.

On data security and first party data sharing, Gaines said publishers and brands are now recognising that their first party customer and audience data is a vitally important asset.

“It represents the trust that brand or publisher has built with its people,” Gaines said.

“No matter what size or scale they have, clients across all industries now face the challenge of protecting their data, whilst also evaluating opportunities for data sharing partnerships with similar businesses to increase reach and generate income.”

Gaines said in 2015, the industry will likely see publishers and brands assessing their current data management capabilities, as well as opportunities for data sharing with stringent controls to protect this important asset.

“A natural outcome of this process will be an increase in data sharing partnerships as like-minded organisations invest in strengthening their datasets. We also believe that companies will seek solutions and partners who have no conflicting lines of business and allow for easy data portability between vendors, with tight controls and rules for data protection,” she said.

Back in November last year real estate advertising business the REA Group announced it would be selling off its first party data – allowing advertisers and digital trading desks to more accurately target consumers in campaigns.

TubeMogul’s online video platform consolidates REA's vast pool of household transaction data, which in turn can be used by advertisers and their digital trading desks to help boost the performance of branding campaigns.

Gaines said this is something she expects to see happening more, especially as clients' confidence around data continues to grow.

'Significant' challenges

Seth Yates, VP of technology at Krux, said challenges on multiple devices and frequency management will also be a major issue across the industry.

He said as the volume, variety and velocity of data continues to increase at an exponential rate, marketers are faced with significant challenges in uncovering actionable insights.

“The challenge is furthered by the variety of devices used by customers – with interactions often moving across multiple devices in a short period of time,” Yates said.

“For marketers, an important factor is ensuring consumers are targeted, not only when and where it’s most effective, but also the optimal amount of times. We see this practice of frequency management continuing to gain importance in 2015, with DMPs playing a crucial role in recognising and filtering out overlap.”

With the increase in data use comes the new and interesting job titles too as businesses stock up on data gurus in-house too. Gaines said more Australian marketers and advertisers are realising that they need people with data and analytical skills to help make sense of the plethora of data they have.

Yacov Salomon, head of data science at Krux said: “As we see an increase in the availability, granularity and scale of data, businesses will need to rely on experts with analytical and computational skills to mine insights from the data. Companies that fail to do so, may lose their competitive edge.”

Salomon said big data, coupled with machine learning and distributed computing are a “powerful disruptor force” which fundamentally transform many industries - including marketing and advertising among many other sectors.
“Such technologies are also increasingly leveraged to offer SAS type analytics and insights tools that compliment in house data-science capabilities. This trend will continue to grow in 2015.”

For more news:
The Annual: Woolworths CMO dubs data 'the Emperor's new clothes'
FFA's data play to lure sponsors
REA Group to sell off data in major ad targeting drive

Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at pippachambers@yaffa.com.au

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