SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico\u2014Analyst Joanna O\u2019Connell spends much of her time at Forrester these days researching how consumers think about advertising. And while \u201cit\u2019s not an awesome story,\u201d she sees marketers taking the steps to better understand things like identifying overlaps in their user base and considering needed organizational changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo think that somehow everyone is okay with personalization, or to think that everyone hates personalization, is wrong,\u201d O\u2019Connell said at the outset of a fireside chat with GroupM’s\u00a0 Phil Cowdell<\/a> at Beet Retreat 2018<\/a>. \u201cNone of us feels the same as any other person.\u201d<\/p>\n As an example, she cited two hypothetical 25-year-olds that might have totally opposing attitudes toward the use of their data to better target them with ads.<\/p>\n \u201cSo that really is the crux of this, is that we need to appreciate that humans are individuals and we\u2019re not doing that very well right now,\u201d said O\u2019Connell.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have all this data and technology available to us. It\u2019s how we sort of tune the machines. The industry is kind of in the crapper. Consumers feel about different ad channels and formats, it\u2019s not an awesome story,\u201d particularly in the digital space, O\u2019Connell<\/a> added.<\/p>\n Addressing frequency capping of ads, Cowdell, most recently of GroupM, asked \u201cHow do we do it? Is it real or is it BS?\u201d<\/p>\n From an omni-channel perspective, \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of stuff out there where we are serving ads and we are just not cognizant enough of how all of those ads are interacting,\u201d O\u2019Connell responded. \u201cWe\u2019re doing a good job in little fiefdoms of making things better, and that\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n She talked about working with clients in the retail sector, one of which asked her \u201cwhat should we centralize versus allow the brands to own?\u201d Her response was to inquire whether the marketer understood the overlap in its user base, which it did not. \u201cThat might be a good place to start. Maybe the first thing to start thinking about is unifying your data. You can start thinking about execution a little bit later.\u201d<\/p>\n Cowdell then asked about the potential for marketers embracing a service offering as opposed to individual brand managers selling individual products. \u201cFor sure. It\u2019s starting to happen in little levels inside of these giant multi-brand organizations,\u201d said O’Connell.<\/p>\n