Increased transparency
The one influential trend all of our BT experts mentioned was an increased emphasis on transparency and privacy issues -- both by BT firms themselves and by publishers and advertisers. This trend is particularly poignant, given the looming threat of privacy legislation and lawsuits that could affect the industry moving forward.
Chad Little of FetchBack, a firm that specializes in retargeting, says the market has done an above-average job with transparency so far. However, he also believes that the issue needs to be approached more aggressively -- especially by advertisers. "I think networks and companies like ours have been very diligent and proactive in making sure this remains in a self-regulated atmosphere," he says. "But I don't think advertisers have done quite enough there, and I think it's up to us to help push and make sure they do."
Omar Tawakol of BlueKai, a data exchange that focuses on in-market data, notes that if the industry doesn't behave on its own, it will be forced to by outside parties. "The question is how fast are we going to get there, and are we going to be forced to get there faster than we wanted to?" he asks. Tawakol believes that being fully transparent is critical because once a company is perceived as wearing a "black hat" in the eyes of consumers, it can't pretend to wear a white one.
Roy Shkedi is CEO of AlmondNet, which specializes in aggregating purchase intent and other targetable data. He cites the number of companies joining the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) -- which gives consumers the ability to opt out of NAI member ad networks -- as a positive sign of how seriously the industry is taking privacy issues. "The number of companies, both large and small, who've joined NAI is very encouraging," he says. "Any entity that deals with behavioral targeting on any significant scale, I'd say that the vast majority of them are already members of NAI."
In terms of solving the privacy conundrum, Shkedi believes that government-imposed regulations would ultimately be less effective than if advertisers would simply refuse to work with companies that are not NAI members, or that don't offer privacy-sensitive solutions.
John Ardis, VP of corporate strategy for integrated online marketing firm ValueClick, believes the industry is better off than it was eight or nine years ago. But he also says that the way data is managed both online and offline is an issue that still needs to be addressed. "The seriousness and safety in which the online industry manages your data is much farther along than how the offline industry has done it for decades," he says. "So, if we're really talking about how consumer data is used, then let's get serious about it and talk about how it's used across the board."
