In an era where consumers expect personalised digital shopping experiences, a report launched from Dynamic Yield, by Mastercard, sheds light on the evolving landscape of grocery retailing.
Titled “The State of Personalisation Maturity/CPG” the report unveils critical insights derived from a comprehensive survey conducted across 12 countries and four global regions with responses from personalisation stakeholders in the c-suite and senior and middle management, covering marketing, business development, and growth functions.
The research reflects the growing anticipation within the grocery industry as 76.5% of customers express frustration when deprived of tailored digital shopping experiences. Moreover, with industry analysts forecasting a doubling of grocery eCommerce penetration from 11% to 23% in the next five years, brands are increasingly turning to personalisation to meet consumer demands, boost margins, elevate basket sizes, and foster customer loyalty.
However, amidst this optimism, the report exposes a disparity between recognition and action in implementing robust personalisation strategies. Despite acknowledging its potential, grocery and CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) brands struggle to make necessary investments in cultural shifts and evolved mindsets necessary for successful execution.
Key findings from the report include:
Recognition of the potential of personalisation programs, yet inadequate investments in cultural evolution and mindset shifts.
Diverse expertise incorporation but a lack of dedicated primary business resources hindering synchronisation in executing personalised strategies.
Challenges in implementing a scalable personalisation framework due to limitations in comprehensive testing and inadequate communication of testing outcomes.
Reliance on anecdotal decision-making hampering the development of a clear audience strategy for a competitive edge.
The report categorises companies into four maturity levels—Absent, Basic, Advanced, and Pioneer—based on signals such as culture, resources, processes, and effectiveness. It emphasises the criticality of a unified approach encompassing quantifiable business goals, talent allocation, streamlined processes, and data-driven strategies for optimal personalisation maturity.
Further analysis unveils insights specific to each signal:
Signal 1: Culture
Brands struggle to bridge the gap between recognising the value of personalisation and effectively implementing it. 80% view personalisation as a priority, yet significant portions have yet to allocate necessary resources.
Two thirds of companies plan to invest further in this field, however previous approaches need to evolve in order to drive tangible testing and personalisation efforts.
Signal 2: Resources
Lack of dedicated business operators hampers strategic cross-departmental deployment, impeding the scaling of personalisation teams across business units. However 88% of surveyed businesses have built cross functional teams, so now is the time to scale these up!
Signal 3: Processes
Organisational approaches hinder a scalable framework, with limitations in comprehensive testing and the age-old issue of data utilisation posing challenges in optimising strategies. According to the report although 86% use different data sources to fuel personalisation strategy, 52% have identified sources but have yet to fully action them.
Signal 4: Effectiveness
Brands often implement projects without a clear strategic direction, favouring short-term wins over long-term effectiveness (59% of respondents said they set campaign specific KPIs without informing the long term strategy).
Despite recognising the importance of audience strategies, alignment with broader business strategies remains a challenge for many, with a fifth (21%) failing to align personalisation strategies with the overall business strategy.
Businesses in Wales are continuing to face challenges regarding recruitment, the ongoing skills shortage and labour costs, according to Chambers Wales South East, South West and Mid’s latest Quarterly Economic Survey.
In the survey for Q1 of 2024, 46% of businesses in Wales reported that they had attempted to recruit staff, predominantly for full-time and permanent roles. 69% of those who attempted to recruit experienced difficulties in finding suitable staff, a 5% increase compared to the previous quarter, with businesses citing finding candidates with the correct skill sets and qualifications as barriers to recruitment and meeting salary expectations as a challenge for retention.
Salaries and other labour costs were also stated as a key business pressure, with 75% of businesses in Wales feeling under pressure to raise their prices because of these costs. This is also reflected in the national picture with the British Chambers of Commerce reporting that 68% of UK businesses cited labour and staffing costs as their main cost pressure.
However, despite these challenges, there is optimism. 46% of Welsh businesses believe that turnover and profitability will improve over the next 12 months.
Paul Butterworth, CEO of Chambers Wales South East, South West and Mid, said: “The results are a timely reminder of the ongoing challenges businesses in Wales face, particularly around ongoing issues such as recruitment, skills development and employee retention.
“While the economy is caught in a low-to-no growth cycle and managing the effects of interest rates and inflation, businesses have been hesitant to invest in training and skills. With consistent and lower inflation, we hope that the Bank of England will lower interest rates to stimulate investment into skills and the seeds of economic growth.
“In the new first minister’s leadership manifesto, he included pledges to provide flexible and timely reskilling opportunities, a much-needed reinvestment in apprenticeships and developing regional sectoral skill centres for excellence. It is our ask that he starts to deliver on his pledges to rekindle Wales’ productivity levels, a skilled Welsh workforce and business support for economic growth.”
The latest edition of the Quarterly Economic Survey also included questions specific to changes happening in Wales such as the election of the new first minister and the new workplace recycling law.
94% of businesses in Wales had heard about the workplace recycling law which came into effect from 6 April, with 71% aware of the changes and how it affected their business.
Over a quarter (26%) of Welsh businesses were aware of the recycling changes but were unaware of how it affected their organisation and only 3% were unaware of the changes or how it affected their business. These businesses suggested that clarity, simple guidelines and research would help them comply with the new law.
London, 3 April 2024: Virgin Media O2 Business has been selected by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as a strategic partner to provide mobility data. The anonymised data will be used to support UK Government work at national and local levels, providing insights that reveal population dynamics, travel patterns, and other movement trends.
From today, mobile network insights from Virgin Media O2 Business’ anonymised and aggregated data service, O2 Motion, will be available on the Integrated Data Service (IDS). The IDS is a cloud-based cross-government data sharing service delivered by ONS, to enable faster and more efficient decision-making across key policy areas.
The IDS is the first data sharing platform of its kind, acting as a collaborative service that enables co-ordinated data analysis to better inform policy decisions made at local and national levels. Accredited researchers can access O2 mobility findings on the IDS, eliminating the need for additional data agreements and providing a more cost-effective solution for government users. Integration of O2 Motion mobility insights into the IDS will allow users to harness the power of data to address complex societal challenges facing public health, regional growth, climate change, jobs and skills.
Beyond the IDS platform, O2 Motion data will also be integrated with ONS surveys and administrative data sources to create a series of future publications covering topics like small area population estimates. These will be accessible on the ONS website as part of a regular release, which will be publicly available. With access to topical publications and weekly movement data updates, the IDS will empower policymakers, researchers, and the public to make informed decisions that drive positive outcomes across various domains, contributing to a smarter, more connected future for the UK.
Currently operating in public beta, the IDS platform and data releases will scale at pace over the coming months with a planned pipeline of additional and transformational capability, data, projects and users onboarded. The O2 Motion data is already available on the platform and will be updated on a weekly basis to enable real time analysis. To find out more or request access, visit the IDS website: https://integrateddataservice.gov.uk/.
Geoff Wappett, Head of AI and Data Insights at Virgin Media O2 Business, said: “We are proud to extend our partnership with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and to integrate our aggregated and anonymised O2 Motion data into their Integrated Data Service (IDS). Generated from billions of daily network events, our mobile data will provide governmental organisations and officials with reliable information to inform their work addressing major societal challenges at pace. Beyond numbers, the IDS platform and our wider work with ONS will ensure quality insights are easily accessible to support data-driven decision making.”
Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council (BCP) and Kent County Council are showcasing how data sharing between platforms can be used to improve time consuming processes within local government and improve efficiency. Both councils are using Buchanan Computing’s ParkMap platform, to automate other time intensive data collation processes including land search information and streetwork data. The ParkMap platform currently provides over 90 local authorities with an accessible map-based inventory of parking and moving traffic regulations.
BCP has recently started using data sharing to access search information about new permanent traffic schemes so that its land search team can quickly answer property search queries. Buchanan Computing worked with BCP to automate and incorporate the data it needed into their existing ParkMap system which was already being used for traffic order planning in the region. By automating the extra data provision they needed, it meant that the team saved huge amounts of time that would have been spent in manually exporting that data and incorporating it into their existing platform.
Rob Walter from BCP Council says:
“BCP Council has been working with Buchanan Computing to explore data migration of proposed traffic orders, once advertised, to our Land Charges team. They were keen to help us improve our service by automatically integrating the data so it is always readily available for land search enquiries.
“Having previously had to input information into Parkmap as we prepared proposals for consultation and then do a similar process again for a land charges system, the process is now seamless.
“We now handle this data once, and not only does it save time, but it is also accurate and always up to date. We are excited to continue working closely with Buchanan Computing to explore further innovations and improvements.”
In the same vein, Kent County Council wanted to be able to view ongoing roadworks in the region on their existing mapping system run by one.network. They asked if the streetwork information they needed, could be integrated into one.network’s platform so that they had all that they needed in one place. Buchanan worked with one.network to enable the data required to be shared to their mapping system, allowing Kent County Council to have a clearer overview of all the information they needed. The new data brings in a view of the one.network road network data alongside a direct data feed of the streetwork system, allowing for better planning of roadworks.
Kent County Council, Buchanan and asset management company Brightly are also working together on a data sharing project involving integration of speed limits into maps across Kent. The Council is currently using Brightly to map assets like street furniture, street lights etc across the area and the Council wanted that map to also carry information about speed limits to help with planning of new road layouts and needs for future road assets. Buchanan worked with Brightly providing speed limit information which was then integrated with Brightly’s own mapping system. The collaboration also allowed Buchanan’s ParkMap system a view of speed limits across Kent which could then be integrated with other datasets including Traffic Order information.
Robin Chantrill-Smith, Senior Parking and Traffic Regulation Officer at Kent County Council says:
“Being able to view ongoing road works from the one.network platform within ParkMap has helped officers at Kent County Council to plan when new Traffic Orders are made so that the restrictions can be installed without delay. Being able to also share the parking restrictions from ParkMap with one.network gives officers drafting temporary orders within KCC up to date information on the restrictions that are currently in place on the network which is also really helpful.”
“These examples show how data sharing can transform time consuming manual tasks within local government. Now the principle has been established, this process could be used to automate all sorts of data alongside traffic order information, including information on where Parking Apps operate across a region, information on where electronic charging points are located as well as GIS mapping layers used by local authorities. Both these integrations show how you can use data to make the traffic network better informed and how you can share data with other systems to create efficiencies.”
Smart AI platform Planr.com highlights a profound gap in an industry that thrives on data-driven insights for value creation. The study paints a clear picture of a significant, yet largely unaddressed, problem: the underutilisation of advanced data analytics in private equity.
The study, which canvassed opinions from over 150 leaders and business heads from private capital firms across the UK and USA, depicts an industry hesitant to embrace the digital revolution.
The findings paint a clear chasm as 73.96% are willing to adopt AI tools to enhance data-driven value creation yet only 4% of PE executives believe their firms are highly effective in employing data analytics.
This chasm between desire and adoption demonstrates a very clear risk to slow-moving firms as data analytics and AI emerges not merely as a tool, but as a potential game-changer for firms seeking a competitive edge.
The distrust in data analytics is a well-understood industry struggle with 83% of respondents noting difficulties in acquiring consistent data formats and sources, vital for deriving significant insights whilst 85% observed that manual and laborious data analysis processes impede efficient data utilisation.
Such bottlenecks decelerate decision-making and hinder capitalising on real-time market shifts and prospects.
47% of executives surveyed highlighted a disconnection between the insights gleaned from data and their firms’ overarching strategic objectives.
Historically, this mismatch would lead to missed opportunities, as properly integrated data analytics can considerably influence strategic decisions, risk management, and operational efficiency.
Yet, the report isn’t entirely pessimistic. It illuminates a prospective path to solve data problems that executives have never truly been able to resolve.
We can quickly analyse large, complex data sets to produce insights aligned with strategic aims by utilising AI-enabled data analytics platforms.
In an industry where slight advantages can lead to substantial returns, the significance of data is paramount, by utilising AI-enabled data analytics platforms, we can now very quickly transform the landscape of data analytics in private equity by tackling the industry’s most pressing data challenges:
Inconsistencies in Data Formats and Sources (83% of respondents): AI’s machine learning algorithms standardise varied data formats automatically, creating a unified dataset from diverse sources. This capability ensures data consistency and reliability, streamlining the decision-making process.
Manual and Time-Consuming Data Analysis Processes (85% of respondents): AI-driven tools automate the analysis, rapidly sifting through large data volumes to highlight key insights. Such automation speeds up decision-making and allows analysts to concentrate on strategic considerations that demand a deeper understanding.
Disconnection Between Data Insights and Strategic Objectives (Nearly 47% of executives): Tailored AI systems ensure analyses perfectly align with a firm’s strategic goals. The insights provided are actionable and strategically relevant by training AI on specific business outcomes and priorities, aiding in informed decision-making.
Missed Opportunities Due to Mismatch in Data Analytics Integration: AI platforms seamlessly integrate with existing business systems, embedding data analytics into a comprehensive business intelligence strategy. This integration ensures that insights directly apply to strategic actions, enhancing risk management and enabling firms to adapt rapidly to market dynamics.
This embrace of a data revolution necessitates a cultural shift within firms. It involves transitioning from perceiving data as a mere by-product of business operations to regarding it as a core asset.
The crux lies in recognising the value of data as a strategic resource and embedding it into every aspect of decision-making processes, the question lingers: will more firms join this revolution and harness the full power of data analytics, or will they remain spectators, observing a select few redefine the game’s rules?
Leading brands share their vision for the evolving landscape of customer data, its transformation and its impact on businesses.
Written by Matthew Biboud Lubeck, Vice President EMEA, Amperity
The world of customer data is rapidly changing, and companies are responding with diverse strategies to stay ahead in this dynamic environment. At Amperity’s recent Amplify summit, industry leaders and professionals from iconic global brands like Deloitte, Patagonia, Taco Bell and more converged to explore the evolving landscape of data-driven marketing and the profound impact of first-party data.
Under the overarching theme of “Together We’re Electric,” the event explored critical facets of using customer data for strategic advantage, with a focus on the future of paid media, best practices for Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) and the transformative power of establishing a unified data foundation with Amperity.
Let’s dive in.
The Right Tools for a Shifting Landscape
Amperity CEO Barry Padgett kicked off the event with an analogy: a CDP is like an electrical outlet, with all the circuitry behind the wall making it work and the appliances that get plugged in making things happen. The data foundation is behind the wall, and all the marketing and analytics tools get power from the foundation.
He emphasised the importance of both halves of the customer data equation — what goes on behind the outlet and what gets plugged in — working in harmony to create a seamless flow, from data intake and unification to insights and activation to revenue.
“Customer data should always be two things: reliable and repeatable. Results are only as good as the data you feed it. We must get the data right,” he says. This collaborative approach is even more important at a time of heightened external pressures like regulatory compliance, technical evolution and the demands of knowledgeable and savvy customers.
Next was the keynote unveiling of Amperity for Paid Media, a new solution addressing the challenges to the traditional methods of digital advertising due to the continuing deprecation of third-party data and evolving content and privacy regulations. Amperity CTO and Co-Founder Derek Slager laid out a customer data strategy focused on using unified first-party data to power paid media and be much more effective than a third-party-forward approach.
This isn’t a future state: Amperity is already sending more than 12 billion profiles a day to the majority of top media partners, and brands adopting a first-party data strategy have seen great results, including match rates as high as 85 per cent on key channels, improved return on ad spend (ROAS) by up to 5x, and up to 90 per cent faster activation time for new campaigns. The keynote summed it up as “better data, better results.”
First-Party Paid Media Strategy in Action
Several sessions unpacked the future of paid media, making it clear that this moment in digital advertising is both evolutionary and revolutionary. Things are changing, and they’re not going back.
With third-party-reliant systems growing obsolete, it becomes critical to base your approach on first-party data to navigate the changing ecosystem. We heard from Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Citizen Watch, and Taco Bell about how they’re working with Amperity to unify and use their owned data for advertising, seeing tremendous results.
They shared their experiences with change management when transitioning to a unified customer profile approach. They also discussed how adapting their paid media strategy pushed them to think about other ways to use customer data in different settings, emphasising the critical role of a unified customer foundation in making any of it possible.
Mike Shiwdin, VP, Digital Optimisation, MarTech, Guest Intelligence and Engagement Strategy at Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, shares, “Anticipating your guests’ needs and acting on them is the core of hospitality. First-party data really allows us to truly understand who those customers are and what they want and need across our 20-plus brands globally. So that was really where we first started: How do we better understand who is a budget hotel customer, who is in a registry collection, who’s spending $700 a night at an all-inclusive resort?
“From a paid media perspective, we started with suppression. Without first-party data, we had a one-size-fits-all approach. So that was the clear proof of concept to drive value internally to build momentum in the investment. Now as we’re three years into it, we’re starting to build a robust retargeting effort. And we’re seeing material results. We’re starting to get more of a sense of how we expand out across paid media,” he continues.
“Once we saw the value of paid media at Wyndham, we slowly started to mature into the realisation of how first-party data isn’t just about the next transaction. And we started to see the real value of first-party data and a CDP with Amperity. The next transaction — the value of that is just incremental touchpoints to build a stronger relationship with your guests.”
CDP Best Practices: Scoping, ROI and Use Cases
During the summit, we also dug into the different aspects of using a CDP, including hearing from SPARC Group about building a multi-brand strategy with a unified data foundation and exploring the three pillars of ROI strategy at Vail Resorts.
We had the privilege of learning about how CPG company Reckitt makes a CDP work at a global scale. Bastian Parizot, Global Head of Tech and Digital at Reckitt emphasises, “First-party strategy for us is about how we take control of that ‘seed’ that helps us do better at media targeting, to be more relevant in advertising and start building a direct relationship.”
Sessions with Vince and Citizen Watch walked through a variety of specific use cases for marketing and analytics, with a focus on tying together the customer experience across all touchpoints. For example, Rob Harvath, VP Consumer Insights and Data Management at Citizen Watch, says, “The power of a CDP like Amperity is that it has made my life a whole lot easier, but it’s also made us a whole lot smarter about who our customers are.
“Amperity has helped me tell the company and our sales team who our customers are, all the way down to the individual model of watch they bought. So when you take into account all of our brands, all of the collections within those brands, all the way down to the individual model, guess what? Our data now is structured where I can answer the question, who’s the customer for this particular watch with these attributes.”
We also heard from Taco Bell collaborating with AWS on how it went from having no customer data to operating seamlessly between digital and in-person channels, using data to understand customer preferences and creating the kind of personal experiences that build loyalty. Dane Mathews, Chief Digital Officer at Taco Bell, emphasises, “Loyalty is transforming customer expectations, retail experiences and the QSR business model.”
From Unified Data to The Downfall of DMPs
The speakers emphasised that the success of their marketing strategies hinges on having a unified data foundation as the bedrock. They shared their experience of how important it is to be able to feed accurate data to a whole range of tools for various use cases like omnichannel, multi-databases and real-time profile API.
On the culture and change management side, speakers agreed that each organisation’s initial use cases and CDP rollout plan should be tailored to their specific needs. But regardless of what they’re trying, they need to be able to see ROI quickly.
There was also a session from David Chan, Managing Director at Deloitte Digital discussing the future of customer data. He explained why brands need to make the move from Data ManagementPlatforms (DMP), which were previously popular but dependent on third-party data and thus increasingly less viable. He recommended that brands move to a CDP, which maximises first-party data, and explained how clean-room technology is vital to making that move happen.
Strategies and Tactics Reshaping Customer Engagement
Some of the sessions asked, what does it take to put together a data foundation that can turn customer data into business value? Patagonia Manager, Customer Insights and Analytics, Dan Sundaram, shares, “[With Amperity] we can illuminate touchpoints across the brand that we’ve never been able to see or understand. And that lets us talk to people in a much more relevant, less intrusive way, which in a world of personalisation is the key to valuable customer relationships.”
Databricks also joined Amperity on the stage to discuss the concept of a ‘composable’ CDP, which involves solving CDP-related challenges using individual point solutions, also known as a modern data stack. One of the takeaways was that the point solutions within a composable CDP do not create unified customer profiles — which is itself a highly specialised technical problem that needs to be solved to make the other points work more effectively. (And, incidentally, is the problem Amperity was built to solve.)
The Future of Data-Driven Marketing is ‘Electric’
We’re on the cusp of a remarkable transformation in the realm of customer data. The Amplify Summit offered a glimpse into the future where the power of unified, reliable data is harnessed to drive unprecedented levels of innovation, engagement and growth. The future of data-driven marketing is here — and the possibilities are “electrifying”.
About the author
Matthew Biboud Lubeck, Vice President EMEA, Amperity
Matthew is the vice president of EMEA where he is responsible for the commercial expansion of Amperity, a leading customer data platform trusted by brands like Reckitt, Under Armour and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. Lubeck joined Amperity in 2017 to help launch the company and has served in a number of key roles building sales, customer success, and marketing functions. Matthew established Amperity’s LGBTQ employee resource group (ERG) and is a trusted advisor and customer-centricity change agent to the C-suite across leading consumer brands.
Prior to Amperity, Lubeck spent 10 years with global beauty conglomerates Estee Lauder Group and L’Oréal as Group Head of Customer Data Strategy and Analytics, leading 30 brands across luxury, mass and salon professional divisions to better use data & unlock incredible beauty experiences, establishing L’Oreal as an industry leader. He resides in London with his husband and four-year-old daughter.
About Amperity
Amperity delivers the data confidence brands need to unlock growth by truly knowing their customers. With Amperity, brands can build a first-party data foundation to fuel customer acquisition and retention, personalise experiences that build loyalty, and manage privacy compliance. Using patented AI and ML methods, Amperity stitches together all customer interactions to build a unified view that seamlessly connects to marketing and technology tools. More than 400 brands worldwide rely on Amperity to turn data into business value, including Alaska Airlines, DICK’S Sporting Goods, Endeavour Drinks, Planet Fitness, Seattle Sounders FC, Under Armour and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. For more information, visit amperity.com or follow us on Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Written by Matthew Biboud Lubeck, Vice President EMEA, Amperity
Research demonstrates that only 3 per cent of consumers feel in control of their data online. Yet trust is crucial to driving customer loyalty and growth. In fact, 43 per cent of people say they’d switch from their preferred brand to a second-choice brand if the latter provided a good privacy experience.
From the strategic adoption of zero-copy data practices to the intersection of customer experience aspirations with data management realities and the ever-evolving landscape of AI ethics and regulations, the year ahead promises to reshape how we approach these critical facets. Let’s dive into the practical implications and emerging trends that will redefine marketing strategies, offering valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
1. Zero Copy Data: Data Should Live in Fewer Places
The paid media and advertising landscape is poised for a transformative shift, driven by a recognition of the limitations in current practices. A key trend emerging in the coming year is the adoption of a zero-copy data philosophy. This approach signifies a strategic move towards centralising customer information and minimising data duplication across platforms.
Marketers will strategically embrace data minimisation in response to challenges posed by privacy regulations and consumer dissatisfaction with intrusive tracking. The industry will shift away from scattered and duplicated data sources, opting for a zero-copy data philosophy that prioritises efficient and non-redundant data access.
This transformation will extend to a comprehensive revamping of the data ecosystem, with a focus on aligning practices with the zero-copy data philosophy. Advertisers and data management platforms will reassess bidding language and communication protocols to ensure privacy and prevent data leakage.
Identity resolution will become a central focus, with advertisers seeking accurate and comprehensive first-party data to build unified customer profiles. This shift aims to address challenges arising from data deprecation and ensure a more reliable and consistent approach to customer identity.
In adopting these strategies, businesses can anticipate improved conversion rates, increased return on ad spend and reduced timelines, costs and risks associated with data management. Next year ushers in a paradigm shift towards zero-copy data practices, where businesses prioritise streamlined, non-redundant data access to enhance customer experiences and align with evolving regulatory and consumer expectations.
2. The Reality of the Personalisation Dream
In the coming year, we anticipate a growing realisation among brands that the aspiration for a seamless and personalised customer experience must be closely tied to effective data management and identity capabilities. While many brands may continue to showcase their “personality dream” through impressive customer journeys, we predict an increasing awareness that the actualisation of this dream hinges on addressing underlying data challenges.
Organisations will recognise the imperative to break down silos that separate data management, identity verification and customer experience teams. They will actively work towards integrating these components, acknowledging that a cohesive approach is vital for delivering the level of personalisation and efficiency customers expect. As a result, brands will invest more in modernising their data infrastructure, linking systems and training teams to utilise data accurately.
The shift will be from presenting an idealised version of customer journeys to actively resolving the practical challenges in data management and identity verification that often impede the achievement of a truly seamless customer experience. The coming year requires a transformation in mindset, recognising that the success of the “personality dream” is contingent upon addressing the intricacies of data, identity and customer interactions in a more integrated and strategic manner.
3. Embrace the AI Advantage (but don’t completely let go of the steering wheel)
In 2024, marketers must push the boundaries of AI adoption to improve the customer experience – scaling hyper-personalisation by integrating AI across ecosystems. Yet, many marketers continue to face a fundamental problem: How do they deliver a personalised experience to millions of customers? And how do we explain the role of AI to consumers so transparency is maintained, especially in the context of the new European Artificial Intelligence Act (if you follow me on LinkedIn, you’ll know I VERY much support any legislation that improves digital accountability and ethical behaviours)?
AI will play a significant role in enabling hyper-personalisation by leveraging data analysis, predictive algorithms and machine learning to tailor experiences, offers and messaging to individual preferences and behaviours with efficiency and speed.
However, marketers need to know what questions to ask to reap the full benefits of AI. Therefore, “prompt engineering” will become a critical skill. This refers to deliberately crafting prompts or input queries to elicit specific responses or behaviours from AI models. Marketers should understand the capabilities and limitations of the AI model, and then tailor prompts to achieve their desired outcomes.
Of course, this can only be done effectively with accurate data. If the data feeding the AI is dirty or incomplete, marketers run the risk of receiving inaccurate insights that can impact their strategies and outcomes. By using AI’s predictive capabilities fed with accurate data, marketers can improve the customer experience and help brands collect and retain customers.
In this new landscape, marketers must also evolve their roles to become AI governors. This will allow them to become creative about applying AI throughout the marketing process while retaining checks and balances to remain accountable for AI-powered experiences. If done correctly, AI can help add significant speed, ease and improved performance across campaign and audience strategies. I predict we will increasingly lighten human intervention across more of these workflows, but not in the first few years of experimentation.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matthew Biboud Lubeck, Vice President EMEA, Amperity
Matthew is the vice president of EMEA where he is responsible for the commercial expansion of Amperity, a leading customer data platform trusted by brands like Reckitt, Under Armour and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. Lubeck joined Amperity in 2017 to help launch the company and has served in a number of key roles building sales, customer success, and marketing functions. Matthew established Amperity’s LGBTQ employee resource group (ERG) and is a trusted advisor and customer-centricity change agent to the C-suite across leading consumer brands.
Prior to Amperity, Lubeck spent 10 years with global beauty conglomerates Estee Lauder Group and L’Oréal as Group Head of Customer Data Strategy and Analytics, leading 30 brands across luxury, mass and salon professional divisions to better use data & unlock incredible beauty experiences, establishing L’Oreal as an industry leader. He resides in London with his husband and four-year-old daughter.
ABOUT AMPERITY
Amperity delivers the data confidence brands need to unlock growth by truly knowing their customers. With Amperity, brands can build a first-party data foundation to fuel customer acquisition and retention, personalise experiences that build loyalty, and manage privacy compliance. Using patented AI and ML methods, Amperity stitches together all customer interactions to build a unified view that seamlessly connects to marketing and technology tools. More than 400 brands worldwide rely on Amperity to turn data into business value, including Alaska Airlines, DICK’S Sporting Goods, Endeavour Drinks, Planet Fitness, Seattle Sounders FC, Under Armour and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.
Amperity, the AI-powered enterprise customer data platform (CDP) for consumer brands, announced today that it has achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Advertising and Marketing Technology Competency in the category of Audience and Data Management. Achieving the AWS Advertising and Marketing Technology Competency recognizes Amperity for its expertise in providing customers with solutions that offer improved audience and customer data management capabilities for marketers and digital agencies.
As advertisers and marketers look to leverage the cloud to innovate and achieve digital transformation, they are increasingly in need of partners with services and solutions that are purpose-built to meet their needs. AWS Advertising and Marketing Technology Competency Partners provide these customers – including advertising agencies, marketers, publishers, advertising and marketing technology providers, and analytics service providers – with AWS-validated solutions and services, helping to accelerate their transformation.
Achieving the AWS Advertising and Marketing Technology Competency differentiates Amperity as an AWS Partner Network (APN) member with demonstrated technical proficiency and proven customer success in running cloud solutions on AWS for the advertising and marketing industry. This program showcases advertising and marketing technology consulting and software AWS Partners who have domain knowledge and are providing cloud services powered by AWS. To receive the AWS Advertising and Marketing Technology Competency designation, AWS Partners must undergo a rigorous technical validation by AWS solution architects and have verified customer references.
“Our North Star in this journey is to build future-proofed, first-party data solutions. The industry is experiencing a fundamental shift affecting both customer acquisition and retention. We are privileged to play a key role in helping brands to get closer to their customers, understand their needs, and build trust in a digital age where privacy is paramount,” said Derek Slager, co-founder & CTO at Amperity. “We are proud to achieve the AWS Advertising and Marketing Technology Competency, which recognizes our ability to support scalable solutions where privacy, security, and exceptional customer experiences can coexist, driving unparalleled growth.”
AWS is enabling scalable, flexible, and cost-effective solutions from startups to global enterprises. To support the seamless integration and deployment of these solutions, the AWS Competency Program helps customers identify validated AWS Partner solutions and services for specific industry use cases. Explore the AWS Partner solutions and/or services offered in AWS Data Exchange, AWS Marketplace, or APN Partners, including Amperity.
To learn more about how Amperity is working with AWS, please visit here.
About Amperity
Amperity delivers the data confidence brands need to unlock growth by truly knowing their customers. With Amperity, brands can build a first-party data foundation to fuel customer acquisition and retention, personalize experiences that build loyalty, and manage privacy compliance. Using patented AI and ML methods, Amperity stitches together all customer interactions to build a unified view that seamlessly connects to marketing and technology tools. More than 400 brands worldwide rely on Amperity to turn data into business value, including Alaska Airlines, DICK’S Sporting Goods, Endeavour Drinks, Planet Fitness, Seattle Sounders FC, Under Armour and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. For more information, visit amperity.com or follow us on Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Written by Nathan Vega, Vice President of Product Marketing and Strategy at Protegrity
The technology landscape has evolved significantly over the last year with the introduction of technologies such as ChatGPT and other generative AI tools taking the market by storm, while raising concerns about data security and more. As we move forward into 2024, we anticipate that the impact these new technologies have made this year means they will continue to pave the way forward, with AI remaining a hot topic in the industry, while data security concerns rise around it.
Transparency
While data is considered the new oil, customers are going to expect more transparency from companies in terms of what they are doing with the data. Similar to Heinz Ketchup, which became a leading brand when it introduced a transparent bottle that allowed customers to truly see what was inside it, customers are going to expect a level of transparency from businesses when it comes to data.
Currently, companies are being forced to share details of what they are doing with customer data, and we expect to see more privacy regulations coming into effect to protect citizen data further. At the same time, we anticipate that companies will start to explore options for international data hubs that have been designed to meet stringent privacy laws to keep customer data safe.
Fragmented AI
There has been an impressive uptake in AI by businesses over the past year and, thanks to the likes of ChatGPT, many consumers today are using it as well. We expect to see the adoption of AI continue to grow in the year ahead. However, AI is currently quite fragmented and complicated, and we expect to see this changing in a similar way to cloud computing, starting out fragmented and simplifying over time.
A big issue for AI is the skills shortage. While the overall technology industry is facing a skills shortage, there is a major shortage of AI experts and talent in the industry. There will not be a quick fix, and this will hamper development in the AI space. At the same time, businesses are likely to experience the trough of disillusionment with AI and GenAI as companies grapple with the technology without realising its full potential.
Analysing and protecting data
Businesses are realising the value of analysing data, which has been made easier to extract with the help of AI. As such, companies will continue to invest in this technology and those that haven’t will be playing catch up. However, AI presents a challenge, in that privacy could be easily compromised as anyone with access to GenAI could extract the data too.
As such, companies will need to consider how they protect data from being accessed and used by unauthorised individuals, while at the same time giving those who need the data the required access. Companies are coming to realise the value of protecting data with solutions such as tokenisation, which keeps information segmented while giving access to the specific data that business units or individuals need to perform their jobs. In doing this, they are able to protect the most valuable data and minimise the risk of unauthorised users accessing data they shouldn’t.
With data breaches only set to rise in 2024 and beyond, this is of the utmost importance.
Disinformation and the impact of AI
While businesses are adopting AI with caution, attackers are adopting and using these technologies much faster and collaborating together to weaponise AI. This is where we are likely to see the biggest development taking place. As such, 2024 is likely to bring about breaches led by GenAI techniques either in the form of phishing emails, videos, doctored videos and images or even all of these combined.
At the same time, a clever use of data manipulation could damage data models, allowing for inaccurate predictions that could have a massive impact on a business or government entity. This data poisoning, which involves tampering with Machine Learning (ML) training techniques to produce undesirable outcomes, is going to be a growing concern for organisations that have a lot of data, as the more data you have the more likely it is that there could be bad data contained within it. This is another reason why companies will be turning to data protection tools to aid in data security.
Data, data everywhere
The pandemic might be behind us, but it changed the way we work forever. The gig economy has grown significantly, and this is likely to have some implications for business going forward, as skilled workers sell their time and access company data wherever they are, which will continue to impact the way in which we work.
Already innovation in hybrid work environments and being able to access whatever data and tools you need from wherever you are, has great appeal for many workers and they are unlikely to want to work for an organisation that does not at least offer a hybrid option. From a data perspective, this accentuates the need for it to be protected and for companies to implement solutions that meet regulation requirements across various territories to remain compliant, keeping commitments to secure customer and employee data and ensuring you have happy employees.
In addition to meeting customer expectations for data security and privacy or risk the chance of losing them, more and more companies will be investing in meeting compliance standards, while others will be fined for non-compliance to regulation standards such as PCI and DORA.
Data is going to either make or break businesses in 2024. As technologies continue to evolve, people will demand their data is secure and, as threat actors become more relentless, organisations will have to continue to go beyond the regulations and checkboxes to keep data secure. They will need to bring data security to the boardroom table, making it a key topic for discussion that focuses on data use and the protection of it for the best interest of their customers, employees and their business.
Yugabyte, the modern transactional database company, today announced the release of YugabyteDB Managed Product Labs, a new quick-start, in-product learning experience to shorten time to productivity with the database. Yugabyte also expanded the availability of YugabyteDB Managed multi-region clusters to 21 global Microsoft Azure regions.
With the new YugabyteDB Managed Product Labs, developers can quickly familiarize themselves with the rich capabilities of the database by exploring key features of YugabyteDB through real-world applications running on live YugabyteDB clusters. Product Labs continues Yugabyte’s ongoing investment in learning and enablement of distributed transactional databases. In addition to providing extensive self-service documentation, Yugabyte offers Yugabyte University, an education programme featuring a variety of instructor-led and on-demand courses to teach YugabyteDB fundamentals, development, and administration in a variety of ways that suit you best. To date, Yugabyte University has helped over 16,000 new users expand their skills.
Many organisations are going global and discovering that they must minimize their application and database latency to provide seamless and consistent experiences to users across the world. The first YugabyteDB Managed Product Labs experience focuses on helping users minimize application latency for global applications.
With YugabyteDB Managed Product Labs customers can quickly and easily explore and evolve deployments ranging from a single-region deployment, to multi-region clusters with read replicas, to multi-region clusters partitioned by geographical region. Additionally, the built-in Query X-ray feature allows users to evaluate query latency and execution time during global operations across Asia Pacific, the US, and Europe. Users can also use the built-in Cloud Shell to interact with the live YugabyteDB clusters powering the labs.
The Product Labs release, along with YugabyteDB Managed’s expansion to 21 Microsoft Azure regions, helps organisations to effectively architect robust, distributed, global applications.
Increasing Customer Demand for Geo-Distribution and Global Availability
Several YugabyteDB Managed customer stories recently published in Yugabyte’s 7-in-7 customer series demonstrate how important geo-partitioning and a globally available DBaaS are to modern companies. For example, an emerging healthtech company uses YugabyteDB Managed to power a geo-distributed application that must operate seamlessly across countries and regions and safeguard sensitive data for healthcare professionals.
Scout24, a leading digital real estate marketplace that delivers its ‘Kotao’ management system to hospitality and restaurants, sought a distributed database that met their global needs. Nico Miebach of Scout24 shared his thoughts on this search: “In our quest for the perfect database solution, we thoroughly evaluated other players in the market like CockroachDB, ScyllaDB, MongoDB, Planetscale, and SurrealDB. YugabyteDB Managed stood out with its unparalleled Postgres compatibility and distributed architecture, ticking all our boxes. This was particularly crucial for us in handling ACID transactions within our financial payment systems.”
Yugabyte celebrated the two-year anniversary of YugabyteDB Managed this month with the release of Product Labs. Fueled by strong customer demand for high availability, on-demand scalability, and simplified operations, YugabyteDB Managed has seen tremendous growth over the past year.
This fully-managed YugabyteDB-as-a-Service offering experienced a 166% year-over-year increase in monthly active users. The platform’s thriving community attracted well over 10,000 new sign-ups, with curious users experimenting with over 10,000 sandbox clusters to explore YugabyteDB’s features.
The platform efficiently manages over 225% more clusters than the previous year. Underscoring its reliability, YugabyteDB Managed maintains 100% database uptime, complemented by 99.99% uptime in its control plane, evidencing its commitment to high availability and robust service.
“As YugabyteDB Managed marks its two-year anniversary, we are proud to introduce Product Labs, a pivotal step in our journey towards enabling businesses to build and manage geo-distributed applications more efficiently,” said Karthik Ranganathan, Co-Founder and CTO of Yugabyte. “This launch and our expansion into 21 Azure regions highlights our commitment to supporting the evolving needs of companies building global applications.”
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