How the Eyeota Audience Data Summits Reflected A Year Of Change.

2018 has indeed been a year of change. Across the digital advertising economy in Europe, the swell of new legislation caused a wave of internal and external adjustments for brands and businesses in an effort to navigate the new regulations. 

This evolving mood was best reflected at Eyeota’s Audience Data Summits, held in London in May and October, respectively, of this year. The goal of the Audience Data Summit is to bring together leading advertisers, brands, publishers, and data owners to discuss the challenges and opportunities for using audience data to connect with customers. The timing of the 2018 summits yielded engaging discussions about compliance, consumer respect, and the future of audience data in a post GDPR world. 

Here are the top takeaways from the Eyeota 2018 Audience Data Summit events.

The need for transparency

The first summit, held 6 days after GDPR on May 31st, centred around The Power of Transparency and presented an opportunity for speakers to be open about their compliance process. This sentiment translated among attendees as they scrutinized real-life practices of privacy and wished to gain a deeper understanding than ever before on the mechanisms for data collection, processing, and activation to restore confidence in their continued uses of audience data.  

Making data make sense

Taking heed of the need for clarity and understanding around audience data, the second summit, 5 months after GDPR, focused on making data make sense for advertisers and marketers. Attendees were seeking knowledge not only about data collection processes, methodologies, but also how to transform and activate audience data for specific marketing objectives.

Respect for the consumer at every touchpoint

There were predictions before GDPR that we would go back to a world of pure contextual targeting and that the idea of personalization and audience targeting would disappear. However, a number of speakers resounded in the fact that there will be a renewed focus on ensuring that consumers are included in the equation every time we talk about data opportunities. Similar to how privacy by design has been adopted by many businesses to comply with the Data Protection Act in 1998, GDPR is forcing a responsible attitude towards consumer consent and preference management that will eventually become part and parcel of what we do.

Publisher collaboration

During October’s summit, publisher alliances was frequently mentioned as a monetization opportunity that would enable data owners to enhance their reach and scale through collaboration. Operating together will empower publishers to have more dynamic conversations with marketers and advertisers as they propose enhanced, vertically-aligned approaches to powering campaigns.

The opportunity to educate

A common theme across both events centred around the importance of education, not just within the advertising industry, but to the wider audience of consumers, who directly come into contact with programmatic. The majority of our speakers believe that there is a real opportunity for the entire industry to work together to educate consumers on how data is activated and transparently make aware the uses of third-party data that fuel our digital environments. Collectively and through collaboration we can aim to demystify the myths around third party to restore confidence in digital advertising for both the marketer and consumer alike.

A special thank you to our speakers and panelists who contributed to Eyeota's Audience Data Summits this year.

Don’t miss the opportunity to join our 2019 Audience Data Summit

The 2019 Eyeota Audience Data Summit will be held in London on Thursday, June 6th. Join leading advertisers and marketers to get the insider secrets of successful audience strategies and learn how to connect with consumers in an authentic, real way. Register now to secure your pass and stay tuned for further announcements of speakers and our central London location.

*Free registration to the Audience Data Summit is strictly for buy-side agencies, brands, marketers and advertisers. If you are a data owner or publisher, and are interested in sponsoring the Audience Data Summit get in touch with Katie Grannell, EMEA Marketing Manager at marketing@eyeota.com.