Jim Conning of Royal Mail Data Services (RMDS) provides some practical advice for how to use customer data in promotions, based on new research

Accurate, comprehensive data on customers and prospects is the essential bedrock of successful promotional marketing campaigns. But as it becomes more vital to marketers, new challenges, such as ensuring compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), are growing in importance, according to a new study from Royal Mail Data Services.

Based on research with UK brands and marketing agencies, the survey highlights four trends:

GDPR compliance is marketers’ number one concern

Nearly three in 10 (29%) of respondents listed GDPR compliance as their biggest worry, up from just 12% in the 2016 study. Breaking this down, a quarter (25%) of brands saw GDPR compliance as their greatest challenge, rising to 35% among agencies.

The study drilled down to ask brands and agencies how confident they were that their internally held customer data was GDPR compliant. The positive news is that 78% of all marketers were either “very” or “reasonably” confident that it complied with the new regulation – although worryingly, 11% were not confident, including 2% who did not know if they were compliant or not.

The barriers to using marketing data effectively

Marketers are facing churn rates that see nearly one in five (19%) customers leaving every year. Consequently, finding and acquiring replacements remained the number-one objective for marketers, with 42% citing it as their biggest challenge. However, this has fallen from 52% in 2016. Interestingly “analysing customer data”, a new option for 2017, has emerged as the top concern for just under a quarter of respondents (24%). Clearly, boosting analytics capabilities is a fast-emerging priority for brands and agencies alike.

Companies also seem to be giving up on the idea of reactivating dormant customers, rather than searching for new ones. In 2014 nearly one-quarter (24%) said this was their number-one marketing priority, but by 2017 the figure had dropped to just 6%. This could be linked to worries about poor-quality customer data or whether dormant customer data is GDPR compliant and can be used in marketing to this group.

Turning data into successful campaigns

How can marketers effectively use the huge amount of data they now hold? What is holding them back?

When asked where the gaps were that need filling, the results mirrored overall marketing challenges. The same number of respondents (24%) pointed to analysing customer data as their biggest issue, a figure that rose to 28% within brands. This demonstrates a clear need for greater analytics skills and capabilities, particularly for brands.

Perhaps reflecting that they already had analytics skills, the biggest area for improvement that agencies flagged (29%) was access to better-quality customer data. Brands also struggle to embed data cultures within their businesses. More than one in five (21%) said that a having a better understanding across the organisation of the importance of good-quality customer data would improve business performance.

When it comes to driving successful campaigns in terms of response and conversion rates, marketers agree it is all about data and how you use it. On a scale of one to five, the four top success factors reported were quality of contact data (4.6), segmentation and targeting (4.6), personalised content (4.4) and timing (4.3). In comparison, creative design scored just 4.0 out of 5. These top-four factors all rely on good-quality data and analytics in some way, and marketers reported that they had all increased in importance dramatically since last year.

Ensuring better data quality

Poor-quality customer data was cited as their biggest challenge by nearly one in five (18%) marketers. The main drivers of poor-quality data were basic errors – specifically out-of-date information and incomplete data. This was above factors such as duplicate data, spelling mistakes and data in incorrect fields.

Marketers understand that data is a living entity and quickly becomes out of date. This is leading to them focus on more formal, regular data cleansing – 22% do this daily or continuously. However, one-third (33%) still have no formal processes in place to clean customer contact data, although this has dropped from 37% in 2016. This means a sizeable minority are putting themselves at risk of data-quality issues – and potential GDPR investigations over non-compliance.

Poor-quality data hits business performance – marketers estimate that the average cost of poor-quality customer data is 6% of annual revenue. For major brands this is measured in millions of pounds – and excludes any potential fines for GDPR non-compliance, which can be as much as 4% of global turnover.

Data is the lifeblood of promotional marketing campaigns – having the best ideas in the world mean nothing if you can’t reach the right customers and prospects. However, as the Royal Mail Data Services research has found, marketers face key challenges around GDPR compliance, analytics, and quality that they need to overcome if they are to deliver successful campaigns that boost the bottom line.

A full copy of the report, “The use and management of customer data”, can be downloaded from the Royal Mail Data Services website.

Jim Conning is Managing Director of Royal Mail Data Services (RMDS), which is the specialist data business of Royal Mail Group. It provides organisations with customer contact and address data, data-quality, addressing and marketing services. It is committed to developing new ways for customers to look up, capture, validate and use contact and address data more effectively. Royal Mail Data Services helps organisations improve customer data quality, marketing performance and customer engagement.

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Brand experience agency ignis has launched the first product from its new tech venture, ignovation labs.

Ignis claims its new Retailemetry is “a unique data capture, reporting and insights system that delivers live audience and activity analysis, when activated in a retail promotional environment.”

The launch took place at the recent Tax Free World Association Exhibition & Congress in Cannes, as part of the TFWA Digital Village. TFWA attracts the world’s leading travel retail operators and the brands which sell through the travel retail channel.

Ignis says Retailemetry collects data at point of purchase and allows it to be assessed in real-time to instantly measure how campaigns are performing. Data is automatically uploaded to the cloud with a web app front end meaning that data collection can be made across multiple devices at the same time.

That data, such as demographic, attitudinal and purchase insights, can then be accessed in real-time to monitor, measure and report on the success of each event activation.

An API means Retailemetry can be deployed to work with other tech-driven applications and products. For example, it can be used with intelligent flooring to record footfall in store and produce heat maps of shopper movements in real-time, or it can be used with local weather data to analyse the impact of changes in the weather.

Ignis announced the launch of ignovation labs in September. It is a new in-house department tasked with identifying and developing pioneering technologies and reinforcing a culture of innovation within the agency.

The department is headed up by ignis’ Oliver Carew. Carew says: “Innovation has always been an integral part of ignis’ DNA, and the ignovation labs are an extension of that philosophy. The labs exist to develop several new proprietary technologies each year that solve big problems for existing and new clients. At times parties may feel uncomfortable in the ideas we put forward, but ultimately we hope to inspire them to push boundaries further then they have ever done before.”

As part of ignis’ commitment to innovation, the agency has also invested in DRNK?, a spontaneous socialising app that helps users meet new individuals and groups when they’re out and about.

Stephanie Whitaker, Managing Director of ignis, observes: “Incubating and accelerating growth in tech start-ups allows the agency to operate on the cutting edge. DRNK? has significant potential in its own right, and also provides an interesting opportunity for our current roster of drinks brands to advertise on the platform.”

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Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab is running an experiential pop-up shop, The Data Dollar Store, at London’s Old Street Station on September 6^th and 7^th, in an attempt to highlight the fact that people do not understand just how valuable their personal data can be to big brands – and criminals.

For two days only, consumers will be able to buy products, including artwork by London graffiti artist Ben Eine, using a new currency, Data Dollars – basically, photos, messages and emails on their phone. Their personal data will then be displayed on two full-length screens in the shop front, in view of some 70,000 people who pass through the station daily.

People who want to learn more about the store are being asked to sign up at www.datadollarstore.com/. The activation also has a hashtag, #dataiscurrency.

The activation was created for Kaspersky Labs by London-based brand, marketing and communications agency Radley Yeldar (RY), which also created a currency symbol for The Data Dollar.

Research showed that in order to make something meaningful to people, it needs to have tangible value. RY built on this insight to create The Data Dollar – a currency for data.

“The Data Dollar Store will ask shoppers how much data they are willing to part with in order to get tangible things in return,” says Rainer Bock, Head of Corporate PR and Strategic Projects at Kaspersky. “Our hope is that consumers will in turn better value their selfies, their contacts and their emails – and protect them.”

“We took inspiration from recognisable, international currency symbols for the Data Dollar’s design,” said Emily Jeffrey-Barrett, Creative Lead at RY. “The result is a bold, flexible symbol which can be drawn in just one stroke and applied seamlessly to all marketing collateral – working alongside numbers, integrated with copy and as a standalone logo.”

The idea behind Data Dollars is to encourage consumers to change their attitudes and behaviours when it comes to their personal data and be more vigilant against hidden cybercrime.

“People don’t protect their phones very well against hackers, even though they are just as vulnerable as computers. This means they can take anything – from personal photos, to messages, even bank details. Our currency is designed to help people instantly recognise that their personal data has real value and needs to be protected,” said Jeffrey-Barrett. “So, we kept the name simple and set up a shop where people can actually use it. It’s been a brilliant project – particularly working with such an ambitious, creative client.”

Kaspersky Lab is encouraging companies around the world to accept Data Dollars in exchange for goods and services in order to spread the word about the value of data.

Kaspersky Lab is a global cybersecurity company celebrating its 20 year anniversary in 2017. Kaspersky Lab’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. Over 400 million users are protected by Kaspersky Lab technologies.

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A new experiential marketing company, VIP (Very Important Pooches), has launched to offer brands a route to target dogs and their owners.

VIP will be appearing at more than 30 events this summer, kicking off with PugFest – the UK’s only official pug festival – on June 18^th. The agency plans to run a VIP Zone, a dedicated event space offering an array of attractions for pooches, at each event. The VIP Zone will feature a VIP bar offering treats, Snuffle brand dog beer and pooch-friendly ‘pawsecco’; fun for four-legged guests in need of refreshment to unwind, including a giant four-metre tennis ball, ball pond and paddling pool; and a glamorous red carpet area and pooch photo booth for VIP selfies, allowing dog owners to capture and share their VIP experience.

All visitors to the VIP Zone receive a free doggie bag of exclusive samples, goodies and promotional vouchers from the industry’s biggest brands. W

Maria Amany, VIP event co-ordinator, says: “We believe every pooch is a VIP. That’s why we’re so excited to be launching The VIP experience at shows across the UK this summer. We look forward to welcoming and meeting thousands of very important pooches and their owners to enjoy all of the attractions and free treats in our VIP Zone.

With the UK’s 8.5 million dog owners spending more on their pets each year, the dog product market is booming. A January 2017 U.S. study found that the average dog owner uploads a picture or posts about their pet on social media six times per week, while one in ten have even created a social media account for their pet. VIP points to the rise of dedicated pet social media sites such as Dogster and MyDogSpace as evidence that the UK’s dogs are more valued than ever before, both by their owners and by the pet industry’s leading brands.

VIP is a bespoke marketing and promotions agency working solely within the dog marketplace. Its mission is to deliver outstanding promotional campaigns for clients using a suite of proven marketing approaches to build brand awareness with dog owners and drive sales. It aims to use online and offline channels to create an integrated marketing network that will enable VIP and its brand partners to target 8.5 million dog owners across the UK. With a focus on sampling through local dog shows and events, VIP plans to develop a comprehensive database and use sophisticated data analysis to provide both VIP the agency and its brand partners with insights into product trends as well as information for product development and marketing.

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