On January 1, 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act comes into effect, leaving businesses that market to US consumers just over one year to make the necessary changes to the way in which they operate and manage risk to ensure they fully abide by the new legislation.
The State of Play
The status quo sees privacy law adopted US-wide that lacks bite when stacked up against the burgeoning GDPR in the European Union. Furthermore, the current legislation was toothless when trying to prevent wide-scale data breaches such as the much-publicized Cambridge Analytica scandal. Once privacy-relaxed US consumers are now more data conscious than ever.
While the collection and sale of third-party data is merely bad practice in the US, not illegal, US businesses seeking to sell products or services to any of the 500 million consumers in the EU must abide by the greatly enhanced privacy and data collection laws of the GDPR.
This means multiple rules for multiple territories — a little bit of a headache for businesses that operate or hold personal data on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
What Are the New Rules?
The bill will grant greater control of personal data into the hands of the consumer. Under the new law, a consumer can request a business disclose any data they have on them, the sources from which that data was collected, purposes for said collection, and for what it is to be used for.
The law not only applies to businesses in California but any organization holding or transporting data relating to persons in the US — therefore it has the potential to impact any business, in any country.
92% of consumers are concerned about data privacy
What This Means For Marketers
Marketers use data within every area of their role, from segmentation to email, A/B testing to website analytics. Yet while the results are routinely scrutinized, the quality of the data seldom is.
The CCPA doesn’t seek to tie data acquisition initiatives up in red tape, merely properly regulate them. As well as handing enhanced privacy controls to the consumer, it will also strengthen the requirements around gathering data with greater emphasis on when you can collect and process personal data, and how you secure it.
That means making sure your prospects opt into campaigns and you’re specific when describing what their data will be used for.
92% of marketers believe using first-party data is critical to their growth
The Problem With Third-Party Data
Most marketers know best practices for how to collect data. But even so, too many have been guilty of loading their CRMs, marketing automation tools, and DMPs with third-party data sets from aggregators because it’s a quick fix.
Sadly though, this quick fix has led to consumer mistrust, stale data clogging up CRMs, and an era that requires new privacy law like the CCPA.
Third-party data purchasing is bad practice because it is commonly amassed from a host of unrelated and unreliable sources like credit scores, cookies, and click trails. As a result, it quickly becomes outdated. Consumer preferences, budgets, household sizes and the like all evolve and change over time, credit scores go up and down, and third-party consumer data rapidly becomes antiquated.
64% of marketers admit that bad data hinders their ability to provide a truly excellent personalized experience
The Solution: First-Party Data
It is possible for marketers to collect data that is intentionally and proactively shared directly with them by the consumer. First-party data is this — information willingly and actively given to you by your consumers.
A window into their motivations, interests, intentions, preferences, and what really makes them tick. Uber-relevant information from potential customers that can fuel your marketing, product development, and recommendations. Never inferred through income or device matching, nor is it observed through spending behaviors or cookie data.
Marketers can capture first-party data at speed and scale through interactive experiences that conduct market research, accrue opt-ins, and deliver an altogether better experience with a tangible value exchange for the consumer.
Cheetah Experiences has 85+ fun and engaging interactive marketing campaign types that can be published to any digital channel that collect first-party data on behalf of the advertiser. Experiences that offer a value exchange in return for first-party data.
85% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase if the offer is personalized
Putting the Theory Into Practice
Global Radio wanted to capture GDPR and CCPA compliant first-party data ahead of their annual Summertime Ball with Vodafone.
Enter Cheetah Digital, and Cheetah Experiences’ incentive-driven data capture mechanics in Instagram Stories that offer a value exchange in return for PII data. Upon swiping, fans were served a simple data capture form for the chance to win exclusive tickets to the event. The result: the brand was able to drive huge amounts of first-party data collection, far outperforming their traditional digital display advertising strategy. To learn more about how Cheetah Experiences can help your brand collect self-reported data, request a demo today.
