The Record - Issue 19: Winter 2020

85 “Accenture is the first call I make,” said John Padgett, chief experience and innovation officer for Carnival Corporation in the Future of Marketing report. “It has a breadth of capabilities spanning the globe. Within 24 hours I can have anyone in any place of any discipline working on the strategy to guarantee success.” 5G is set to kickstart even faster transfor- mation. By significantly increasing download speeds while reducing latency, 5G promises to push forward the use of programmatic market- ing. Instead of a 30-second general television ad, for example, advertising will automatically appear at times and places in which it will be the most effective. A billboard could detect a person walking to buy lunch and display a personalised offer for one of their favourite brands. Similarly, as a driver approaches meal time, their radio might play an advert telling them exactly where they can stop to eat. However, the data required to deliver these insights will need to come from different sources to those that have been previously used. Consumer demands for greater privacy have resulted in a move towards the phasing out of third-party cookies, meaning that personalised data will not be available from numerous sources as it currently is. Acquiring this data will therefore be dependent on marketeers working with data providers that can provide digital signals such as location and log-in activ- ity while clearly communicating how they are going to use customer data. Predominantly, companies will need to activate first party data that they capture themselves. “Someone needs to take ownership of creating a single source of data-driven insights to fuel inno- vation and inform every touchpoint with the con- sumer,” says Haydn Townsend, managing director for Africa at Accenture Interactive. “Traditionally, marketing has been the voice of the consumer within the organisation, and – as data insights are the muscle behind increased personalisation – there’s never been a better time for marketing to take control of the data and choreograph insights to improve customer experience.” “There’s never been a better time for marketing to take control of the data” COMMUN I CAT I ONS & MED I A