Matt White, MD, Quantcast EMEA, shares his key take-outs from this year’s dmexco
As a Dmexco attendee for many years, I’ve seen the vast and sprawling event rapidly establish itself as a hub for ideas and innovation and become one of the mainstays in the industry’s calendar. Yet, this year, there was a remarkable shift in tone.
The once prevalent enthusiasm for the latest and greatest adtech offerings is now replaced by a deep sense of apprehension. While understandable given the issues of transparency, trust and measurement over the past year, there are also big question marks over what the the year ahead will bring.
A quick glance at the conference schedule shows that data and AI were hot topics. IBM’s chief digital officer, Bob Lord, called these “the most exciting innovations of the digital era” in his keynote speech on Wednesday. His session was also perhaps the loudest vocalisation of attendees’ apprehension as he addressed what AI means for the creative industries.
All this talk about data has driven an emerging realisation from brands and advertisers that the insights they’ve been relying on are too often no good. This year we saw more businesses than ever look for alternatives to replace their vague, out-of-date insights from third party suppliers.
[advert position=”left”]
Seeing these firms arranging in-person meetings with adtech companies to ask tough questions, rather than accepting data at face value, has been a positive step in the right direction, but it doesn’t go far enough.
It’s about time brands started interrogating the insights they receive before placing it at the heart of their campaigns. My advice to would be to go deeper.
The first questions being asked should be about where the data comes from. The second should be “how fresh is it?”. If the answer isn’t “it’s live”, they need to keep looking.
Bad data breeds bad outcomes, and even the best AI and machine learning technology only generates results as good as the data that feeds it.
Another major topic of conversation has been the spectre of GDPR. Coming into effect in May 2018, it has been well documented exactly how traumatic this regulation could be for advertising and marketing companies if they do not take action.
In the Debate Hall on Wednesday, “Preparing for GDPR: Embracing the Inevitable Regulations” began with a poll, asking the audience of several hundred whether they felt confident in their company’s ability to be compliant with GDPR by next May. The overwhelming response from more than half of the audience was “No”.
This is a major concern. Unless businesses can comply with GDPR, it’s inevitable that revenue will be lost and hefty fines will hit the sector hard. The industry needs to prepare itself in the next eight months, otherwise Dmexco’s organisers could be on the lookout for a much smaller venue in 2018.
