NEUSTAR | PARTNER EXPERTS SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
T
he value in accurately resolving
customer identity across platforms
is beginning to get the recognition it
deserves. But to leverage identity,
marketers know they must first face an
enormous obstacle—getting the data right.
That can be extremely difficult to do from
within a large company that still employs
legacy approaches, with everything stored in
multiple data siloes. Encouragingly, “Bridging
The Gap: Advanced Identity Solutions for
People-Based Marketers,” a Forrester report
commissioned by Neustar, indicated that
brands are beginning to understand just how
necessary it is to be data-driven in today’s
landscape. The report found that three-
quarters of marketers surveyed anticipate
their spending on ad tech, mar tech and
programmatic tools to increase in 2020, with
24% expecting to spend significantly more.
While the investments are a welcome sign, they
also indicate just how far behind brands are.
The conundrum goes even deeper. Seven
out of ten respondents said that achieving a
360-degree view of customers is important
to the success of their businesses, yet only
10% are confident they are getting that view.
A major contributor to the problem is the
fact that many legacy brands are employing
disparate, outdated methodologies for
collecting consumer data. Plus, they are doing
so in a disjointed fashion, using patchwork
solutions to tie together incongruous data sets.FINDING THE RIGHT METHODOLOGY
Specifically, the research found that many
marketers are struggling to meld probabilistic
and deterministic data techniques together.
All in all, the use of both methodologies for
different tasks only serves to slow down a
company’s progress toward obtaining an
accurate and persistent customer view.
The proliferation of channels, platforms and
devices makes data resolution even harder,
and just when you think you have the data you
need, a new source emerges.
Of course, you can’t think about customer
data without thinking about data privacy.
Consumers are limiting the amount of data
brands can collect from them, and as VP and
principal analyst at Forrester Joe Stanhope put
it, “Brands are chasing a moving target.”NEW TECHNOLOGY OFFERS
NEW SOLUTIONS
Forrester also asked marketers for
their feedback about two newer identity
resolution techniques, both of which combine
deterministic and probabilistic data, but
with very different approaches and results.
Overall, survey respondents largely favored
a synchronous method over a sequential one.
Several marketers told Forrester that they had
started testing the sequential method only to
shift toward the more advanced synchronous
technique, given its ability to decipher which
linkages between multiple data sets areaccurate, as well as which pieces of identity
actually matter to brands.
In the survey, 59% of brands said
this methodology yields greater, more
reliable insights. In addition, synchronous
identity resolution wields the promise
of greater data scale without sacrificing
accuracy. Among the brands Forrester
spoke to, 80% see this method as valuable
for building an identity graph and improving
personalization across devices.ESTABLISHING ACCOUNTABILITY
When asked who in their organization is
responsible for customer identity resolution,
the range in responses was revealing. Almost
all of the respondents (92%) listed the head
of marketing, while 61% listed head of IT, 50%
listed head of analytics and 44% listed head of
customer success.
If everyone thinks they’re in charge of
something, that likely means that no one group
is fully in charge. The tendency to operate in
silos won’t be easy to break.
Regardless of what form of sophisticated
identity resolution techniques brands tap into
to improve their customer-centric marketing,
they won’t get very far if they don’t strive for
more organizational synchronicity. That’s why
we’re advocating for companies to treat quality
customer identity as not just a marketing
concern, but something that permeates an
entire organization.Here’s What’s Keeping Marketers
From Mastering Customer Identity
By Devon DeBlasio, Product Marketing Manager, Neustar
ADWEEK | SEPTEMBER 2, 2019 N