A dynamic shift in the landscape of digital marketing and data centric advertising has occurred this week when Apple changed its privacy procedures. In this installment of my blog, we are going to cover what happened, why it happened and how it affects us as marketers and advertisers.
What did Apple do?
On Monday, June 22, 2020 Apple hosted its Worldwide Developers Conference where they announced certain privacy changes to their upcoming iOS 14 software. This change will make tracking users across digital platforms like apps and websites much more difficult.
Apple allows default access to the company’s IDFA or Identifier for Advertisers. This allows advertisers to gather important data during a user’s journey through apps and websites. This data is then used to build target markets, lookalike audiences and maybe more important attributing conversions.
When iOS rolls out this fall, advertisers will no longer have default access to Apple’s IDFAs. The decision to share this data will be up to the user. Each person will have to opt in through pop ups by developers, publishers or third parties.
Why did Apple do this?
Online privacy has been a concern coming from the consumer’s voice and Apple has been one of the fastest moving tech companies to combat this fear. It began when Apple introduced its first version of ITP in 2017. ITP stands for Intelligent Tracking Prevention which bars tracking cookies to roam openly through Apple’s Safari Browser.
This is the next step in Apple’s apparent mission to give its consumers the privacy they want. The reason why they are heading in this direction can be rooted from what Apple makes money off of. Apple is a consumer tech company, not a data distribution company. Apple is protecting the value of its products by giving their consumers what they want. From this viewpoint, it is clear where the motivation comes from.
How does it affect marketing?
According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s twice-yearly report by PwC, Mobile Ad revenue in 2019 was nearly $87 billion. This represents almost three quarters of the digital ad spend market that year. Now think of how many of your family, friends and co-workers have an iPhone or apple device. This change in access to data will fundamentally change the way advertisers can identify markets and commit to ad spend.
Another affect this has on marketing is tracking conversions and ROAS. For example, if an app developer is using Facebook mobile ads to drive downloads, it has become impossible to track if targeted users ended up downloading without the user opting in to tracking. This not only hurts the app developer because he or she can’t definitively know if the ad spend is working, but it also hurts Facebook because marketers might become weary of spending money without clear ROAS. According to an article written by George P. Slefo of Ad Age that a spokesperson has reached out to the publication and said, “We share the industry’s desire for more transparency and controls in the way ads run online, while ensuring personalized advertising continues to deliver value to both people and businesses.”
What does the future look like?
Other companies with ad platforms and data gathering systems may have to join the privacy movement. Companies like Google will more than likely follow suit, but they will hold off as much as possible.
This is the time for technology companies and media companies to collaborate and create systems that cater to the modern consumer’s want for privacy and to protect the idea of personalized and relevant advertising.
Here are some great articles to read if you desire more information on the topic.
Campaign Spotlight:
Social media platforms are a focal point of life in this digital era and now more than ever, these platforms need to be aware of what things they allocate time and money into. Facebook is in the midst of a brand boycott because of its lack of response to brand ads being placed around offensive content. Twitter has been proactive in managing respectively the content posted, amplifying the messages the Black Community want to deliver and supporting its Black employees.
To build on the actions Twitter has taken, the platform has put into place a campaign that pulls important tweets from Black users and puts them in the real world. For example, Bernice King, CEO of The King Center, had a tweet of hers plastered on a building in Los Angeles. Other names involved with this campaign are Ashley Simpo, Coretta Scott King and Frederick T. Joseph.
The digital landscape is fast and messages have short lifetimes even if they go viral. Through this campaign, Twitter has come up with a way to lengthen the life of important messages. This is a wonderful campaign and a great show of support from Twitter.
Below is a link to the official Twitter account and Twitter Blackbirds account, which is an account run by the Black employees of Twitter. If you would like to view more executions of this campaign. Please visit these accounts.
