Nobody Cares

Interesting title for a post, no?

I’ve said these two words countless times over the past few years as people within our industry talk about various justifications for the work they’re doing in online targeting, transactional media buying and data mining.  And now the transactional half of the industry is paying the price.

We do this without using Personally Identifiable Information…

Nobody cares.  They don’t want to know about the technical jiu-jitsu you used to aggregate data points on them.  They just know that what you know about them makes them uncomfortable.

But…but… the traditional direct marketing industry does things that are waaaaay more invasive.

Nobody cares.  Besides, your mother should have taught you better.  Since when do we justify doing something creepy by pointing at someone else’s creepy behavior?  Have you not noticed that people don’t much like junk mail, either?

Our privacy and opt-out policies are in compliance with industry best practices.

Nobody cares.  Those little seals of approval all over your rarely-visited privacy page and all your marketing materials didn’t get there because some governing board decided to ask web users how they feel about being tracked and targeted.

And so it came to pass, in a manner similar to how I thought it would, that someone wrote a high-profile yet ham-handed exposé (actually, a series of them) that came decidedly from the consumer’s point of view and illuminated the bigger picture for digital marketers: Nobody cares much how this stuff works.  They just don’t want you building digital dossiers on them.

“So,” you might be saying to yourself, “if I’m the type of marketer who wants to market digitally, but also wants to avoid all these sketchy targeting methods, what do I do?”

Call us – 212-647-8436.  Or drop us a line.  Our clients have a clear path to continued success, even if Congress decides to sweep away the third-party cookie and put an end to all this stuff.  We can also tell you about how The Wall Street Journal has only scratched the surface when it comes to this article series.  Are your current digital marketing plans at risk?  We can advise you.