This one was vaguely topical at the time. (It's from November 29th.)
If you've got a spare planner lying around here's the perfect brief to give them, for one of those look-we're-thinking-about-the-long-term, agency-point-of-view, added-value, please-don't-fire-us projects that come up now and then. Do some decent thinking about this and you might even be able to spin it into some PR in the FT. Here it is:
The government's loss of 25 million names has made everyone think about data, identity, who knows what about us and what they might be doing with it. At the same time, the popularity of social networks, and the nature of their advertising plans, is forcing folk to actively think about what elements of their identity they want to share, with other people or with corporations. It's also occurring to people that their identity data is worth something. Given that most of our clients hold large amounts of information on their customers, and that they're actively looking to get more, and that much of their marketing depends on it, it seems like it might be a good time to really understand people's attitudes to this whole field.
Some things to consider: What do we think of the emerging idea of Vendor Relationship Management? (try googling it). It's described as the reciprocal of CRM, a way of allowing individuals to manage their relationship with businesses on their own terms. People are writing and thinking about it and aren't far off getting some open-source code created to administer it. It promises to be user-centric rather than business-centric. A lot of brands will see it as something to be resisted, another dilution of their power to engage and influence, but if it works it could be hugely useful to both sides of the transaction. We talk of building genuine relationships with customers, surely those relationships will be more sustained if they're mutually beneficial and if the customer's in charge. And while you're googling, look up Dick Hardt's brilliant presentation on 'Identity 2.0'. You can find it on youtube too. It neatly illustrates the horribly dense thicket of issues and ideas we're plunging into here. If the next generation of marketing is about super-precise targeting and relevance, based on on-the-fly analysis of customer data and behaviour then we've got to think really hard about how we capture that information, what we do with it, whether we're actually allowed to do any of the above and, even if we are allowed, whether our customers will really hate us for doing it.
Oh, and while you're at it, can you just make sure we're not sticking any CDs of customer data in the post or anything? Just to be on the safe side.
I had a go at VRM a few weeks ago... I posted a load of detail about me and what I was looking for - a flight from SFO to LHR in December (http://www.realtea.net/too_much_info) - but nobody responded. I thought perhaps if I made my request machine readable (http://www.realtea.net/Xpose_Me_Lightly) , then someone who had a ticket for me might respond but still no joy. If I want to travel, I can still only rely on the old method of an hour online.
We'll get there one day...
Posted by: Gammydodger | December 17, 2007 at 09:56 AM