Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from AdExchanger.com, a digital advertising news and discussion site.
Fundamentally, people prefer to be treated personally. We like being called by name at our favorite restaurant. A resort hotel is often lauded for the way it recalls the preferences of repeat guests. How much better is it to return to that Starbucks barista who remembers how we take our coffee? But when businesses take that personal approach online, consumers often feel uneasy because they don't understand the ways in which their data is being collected and used.
Efforts led by the Digital Advertising Alliance and others are encouraging companies to become more transparent about data collection and enabling more intuitive measures for consumers to opt out of online tracking.
But, instead of an opt-out approach, what if we considered letting consumers opt in?
Paying consumers for permission to use their data is not new. The broadcast advertising industry is built on radio and TV ratings, gleaned from consumers incentivized to allow their media exposure data to be collected. Retailers offer discounts to convince shoppers to scan their loyalty card so their preferences can be used to personalize future communications. Even free online services such as Facebook and Twitter provide a service worth something to the user in exchange for collecting data about them and permission to commercialize it. However, even within these examples, the more transparent the incentives to the consumer, the more likely the marketer-consumer relationship will thrive.
We are beginning to see baby steps in this direction already. Businesses such as Enliken explicitly offer a way for consumers to see their personal information in exchange for payment. Niche social media networks are emerging that offer consumers a "get paid to play" model. Websites like Personal.com are creating entire business models by helping customers decide with whom, when, and where to engage.
In an opt-in world, consumers get a fair price for use of their data and they retain complete control over whether and how their data is used. Their ability to revoke this data at any time gives them comfort to share it more broadly with marketers. The marketer replaces inferred data with real data that the consumer is incentivized to provide accurately, improving the relevance of customer interactions. The marketplace not the marketer determines the right balance between personal and intrusive for each customer.
I believe consumers want the ability to develop the same relationships online as they have in the real world. As marketers, this should be the relationship we strive for as well.