The Q&A

Mi3: You had a enlightening conversation with other marketers recently. What happened?

Lark: It was really a conversation with a bunch of CMOs and digital marketing leaders. Firstly, around the impact of the shifts in policies and use of cookies; how was that going to impact media companies and what it meant for them in terms of their own data. Secondly it was around GDPR, what it means for them and did they understand it. 

Mi3: And did they?

Lark: It would be fair to say there were a fair amount of blank looks around the table. People are really struggling to digest the issue. There's a complete lack of education out there around new privacy and data regulation. The worrying thing is not just that they don't necessarily fully understand it at this stage, but that it means effective policies and thinking around strategy are not being informed by the changes. 

Mi3: Why are they not across something this big?

Lark: You've got to say in terms of marketer awareness, an enormous echo chamber in itself, it requires a degree of thinking journalism that I'm not sure is there. But [to be fair] the average media company or tech vendor marketers are buying from is unlikely to say 'by the way, that stuff we just sold you might not work this time next year'. 
      

Mi3: So what is it that marketers should know?

Lark: The question will be whether the regulatory intent offshore will extend to even the use of first party cookie data. You've really got two issues here. The first is Google and Apple. Largely out of self-interest, they're blocking the use of third party data which I think is deplorable. In the future there's every probability that regulatory intent will be that you can't buy data or people from a publisher who are interested in, for example, travelling to Bali. Some of the subtlety in the language of regulation that is being written is not to be lost. It's unequivocal permission that needs to be granted. There are huge issues emerging around policy and governance on first party data and third party data.

Mi3: What could it mean in how marketers are able to harness user data?

Lark: The average marketer is going to wake up over the next two or three years and see large marketing channels switched off, large parts of their technology investment not working and some of their vendors not around anymore. The challenge for most of us looking at the consumer side of the equation is that we worry that the major publishers, whether they are News Corp, Nine, Seven or whoever, get swept up in what is essentially a set of initiatives designed to limit bad actors.

Mi3: And so what needs to happen? 

Lark: There's some real challenges in GDPR; how marketers see it and how they implement it. But if you ask the average marketer if they've been on the GDPR website and read the sections related to marketing, because it is called out quite explicitly, the number is low. And worryingly the number of media and web people I talk to who have taken the time to read it is one in 10. We should be influencing policy as it starts to evolve in Australia. I worry we'll end up with a one-size-fits-all strategy like GDPR, not something that actually reflects consumer-side dynamics.

Mi3: So where do you sit on Google and Apple's changes to their cookie policies?

Lark: What worries me most with all this is that cookies aren't actually the problem. My biggest concern is that technology companies, masquerading as media companies, exercise their quite absurd market power to suddenly change the business landscape. It's entirely unacceptable that someone with 80% marketshare wakes up one morning and says 'yes, we're going to change the world. And actually the only one who is going to benefit from this is us.' They are essentially masquerading as their own government entity. That's wrong. 

Tune in next week for a discussion between Andy Lark, News Corp's Suzie Cardwell and Performics' Jason Tonelli on the where consumer data ownership and consent is headed for marketers and how publishers and media companies are preparing for it.