speaker 0:   0:00
I'm Fred Faulkner. Ah, husband and father with a passion for marketing and technology. I work in a top 50 consulting agency, leading marketing for the growth and innovation team. On this podcast, I share my thoughts, opinions and experiences in business and in life. This is my view, the world according to friends, everyone. And welcome to the first episode of the podcast. I am your host, Fred Faulkner, and I am so excited that you're here to join me on this journey. We're gonna kick off this podcast with something that is, I think, kidding news more and more, and I don't want this necessary, be in news news podcast. But certainly it's a topic that I think should be on everyone's mind both as marketers and as consumers, and that is coming down to privacy and how. Marketers and consumers, in my opinion, are starting to become at odds with how we are getting enquiring data as marketers, how we're treating that data to market to consumers and how consumers air starting to take control with the tools they're being handed to them, such as new phones and new privacy options through browsers to allow them to manage their data more consistently, so it's a big, meaty topic. There's two points of view that released two parts of this that come out to, um, there's the marketers angle. And then there's the consumers angle. I'm gonna try and cover my opinions and thoughts on both of those one being a marketer that is using a lot of technology today to connect with prospects, connect with customers to connect with people that are helping Thio run our business and then as a consumer who is actually looking at new phones and looking at what new ways my data is being acquired and how my date is being used and sold and how I feel about that. So that's could be the topic of our first podcast. I hope you stick around and listen to you. It in its entirety will love your feedback. Feel free Thio. Connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter to You kind of share some thoughts on this, but let's get started. Marketers. We have had this amazing run of being able to collect data and use it to our advantage to create great marketing programs. Connect with customers, acquire new customers, advertise, send emails do multi Omni Channel marketing, where we're connecting experiences together. And in many cases that's been great because we've been able to give consumers value in how they interact with us awareness, engagement, retention, advocacy and loyalty. Technology has enabled us to do that on ways that no one would have imagined when the telephone book came out and you're in the back of the Yellow Pages to produce an ad today, you know, that has just been one of the amazing things with technology and giving us marketers tools to do that. In fact, again, they're still tools that are way beyond what a lot of marketers could handle. I think there's a gap between marketing, maturity and skill gaps between ableto really use these tools effectively. That's why I think a lot of organizations still struggle with what their marketing department's look like. Breaking down silos, connecting things together and being able to create great experiences that don't still that they actually straddle that line of freaking people out that creeping this factor of how an ad might follow you are hearing something, you know, you talk in the room and now it's on your phone has an ad and all the ways that kind of that underlying conversation that you know what happens with your friends like we were just talking about this and how all of a sudden this show up in a Facebook ad And that's all because there's definitely things that are going on behind the scenes. And technology is enabling us to do that as marketers, right cell ability to wait ability to you. Grab that content, grab that data being sold by an app to us that then retarget put inside Facebook, put inside Amazon, put inside some other retargeting platform and show that up. But but it is that creepiness that is really starting to get on people's people's nerves. But on the same tone. With that, I would also say that consumers have really let us do that, too, right there Is that that ignorance of free? There's an ignorance of I just want to get access because I need that the real time hit of dopamine, you know, in playing a game or downloading something, or because of the new hot, shiny object you know. This week it's tic tac. You know, two years ago it was it was Instagram. And where the cool kids using these days, those are all things that kind of come into effect. But really, marketers. We've had a great run, but now, without its speed bumps. So let's get down to you. Something that's really kind of basic technology is always gonna be more advanced. Then what consumers and marketers are willing to ur ableto handle speaking from the world of being in marketing technology for the greater part of almost two decades. And having been the email marketer, this e mailed an entire database from your work being the person that has been watching companies like Adobe and Salesforce and Microsoft and Face. But coming to fruition, where these APS air continued to you and there's these platforms or continue to create solutions or tools that can give marketers the ability to really target and hone in on things. It's it's interesting to see how our world has evolved. So, you know, we all remember when email started become really popular and more of, ah, mainstream thing. You know, spam start to come out right. Pornography. Ah ah, lot of other unsolicited marketing messages which consumer still get today, But a lot of that kind of stuff that came out and in the United States 2013 R. Two d 2003 we implemented cans Bam, which put in, basically started a wrinkle in the wild Wild West into some form of legislation that threatened organizations Thio put in practices you how they collected email information. How the collective email addresses, how they sent out messages, how they handled opt out scenarios on subscribes things of that nature. And that was a very interesting time as marketers toe navigate those waters. And certainly technology has enabled us to You navigate those easily now or more easily, and we've been educated and we still have ways to market without fear of getting sued. But it certainly doesn't come without its challenges. Of course, in the United States is not the only one that got into this in 2010 Castle came out with the base of the Canadian version of canned spam for all those north of the border and then 2018. We had GDP are which has started to evolve, not just about email. It is certainly about access, data or data collection and also trying to wrangle in this idea that there's one standard instead of lots of standards. And this is where we're starting to get into you a little more complication. The United States, where you have 20 something plus states, have already started. Thio put in legislation and variety of ways around, um around just ways we can collect data, so things that I have you know, looking at this little bit further we have in January 2020 is when the CCP A, which is California's consumer protection and data protection laws, air going in effect. But Vermont has one set of laws, but it's really focused on data brokers. Illinois has laws around biometric data collection and how that's used in which I didn't know about. But there's, you know, starting to have all these different states and GDP are was taking that idea and having one set of standards. Instead of having a fragment of 28 different national laws, you know that it might exist today. There's 29 laws in United States. California is really kind of getting theirs in the full play because there's a little broader and how that all works. But it's it's just causing complication right we've now our abuse of access, the data collecting data, how we use data using these great technologies that are out there have really started to. Now they're gonna bite us in the ass. Let's just put a plain and simple we have screwed ourselves. And the $64,000 question is whether or not we're going to be able to recover from this as marketers, it is gonna get really tricky as far as when you have different states having different laws with different ways of enforcement. House a business supposed to you communicate with a customer. California that has specific laws when they are headquartered in that business is headquartered in Illinois, which also has regional offices and say, Boston and Atlanta and Denver. You know, it's just gonna get it's going to get sticky. It's going to get tricky. And, man, is it going to be tough for us to find ways to communicate a choir and move forward with all this when you have potentially 50 states with 50 different legislations that are out there and we haven't really no one to blame but ourselves because we've been doing this for over, you know, almost two year, almost two decades now. And it's just been the abuse of your 5% of the organizations out there. It's causing all of this toe happen more and more because consumers are starting to pipe up. But we've had to let legislation come into play. Thio regulate how we do our jobs because we've been lazy life, a better word. We've been lazy. Now that laziness hasn't come without its challenges. Right? Legislations come into play because we've had companies get lazy and cybersecurity. We've had companies not take their data security as serious as they should. And we've had breaches, right? I mean, how many different breaches have we talked about or heard about over the last decade of not just, you know, a couple 100 accounts, not a couple 1000 accounts. You know, millions of people getting personal, identical out, personally identifiable information breached. Right, So we've had we've had credit. We've had the big credit providers have been hacked. We've got Yahoo's been hacked. We've had, I'm sure every major corporation, not every major corporation, but a lot of the big major corporations and those are the ones that kind of jump out to my mind right now, but we ever seems like every year we've had one of these, like Target got hit. Everyone's been getting hit in some way, shape or form. You don't find out for months later. All of sudden, everyone's getting notices that they can have. You know, there credit history locked down and, you know, deep Web scanning of their contact information being out there. And certainly it's always been top of mine, and that's really where legislations come into play. But the reality that matters still sits out of that date is being collected constantly, and consumers are constantly giving it up for a value proposition that may or may not be the right value proposition for them, but certainly they're doing it. And that's where we are taking advantage of that information and we're selling it and we're providing to other people, and that's business models that are coming on behind the scenes. Um, and that's something that I think as a society, we have to really start to get concerned about both as marketers and how we move forward with all these different legislation coming into play and then as consumers. At what point is it gonna take for us to get Riel about how we treat our own personal data as a currency as a transaction as a relationship with the brands we care about the brands we want to interact with versus just sharing information for the sake of sharing it. So what's gotten interesting is that not on Lee our legislation coming into play, but now you have consumer companies that are jumping into the ring as well. And so Apple, a few years ago with Safari, started doing things like killing third party cookies after 24 hours versus whatever timeframe that cookie might have been set for those of you that don't know what cookies do besides being a wonderful consumable items that are usually sweet and crunchy, sometimes soft and gooey, um, that consume from the grocery store homemade cookies in, uh, Internet marketing world. They're little, you know, things that sit behind the scenes that kind of collect the data that I was referring to earlier and has powering a lot of the data transfer that goes into marketing technology systems. So Apple has said no, you know, as much as you want to track our purchasers of our products and users of our browser. Ah, we Are you going to kill the third party cookies as much as possible? Thio to make give you more privacy and you've seen that start to come out more and more apples, taking a stance on privacy with some of their ads, most recently right before the iPhone 11 with the iPhone 11 as well, an android I started to do Google Android on Android devices have started do that as well. With their latest version, Andrew 10 I recently upgraded my pixel thio to that version of the software and certainly having more limited arm or ability to limit what APS have access to certain parts of my phone, whether be contacts using my microphone location service is things of that nature I could really designate to, not at all, which, which may make the app not dysfunctional or not work at all. Or I can have them only be used when the APP is, um being used as well. So location service is for face but could only be used when I'm actively using Facebook. Of course, you have to remember to close Facebook after you're done, using it versus letting it sit behind the scenes, running behind a kind of a behind the scenes mode. But you have those options now, and Google and Facebook are suited. Google and Apple are certainly making a push in that because they own these solutions that are out there. And when you think about the ecosystem of how many people actually have an iPhone that's using safari on a mobile setting, you have all the people that air using Max Mac devices or Mac machines, and that has safari on there. They have a pretty good steak in the market being able to control some of that. Give us the control toe, have some of that privacy restraint, no restrictions on their android being the largest operating system that's out there. And you think Samsung uses Android? Certainly Google phones. D'oh H D. C. You know a number of other providers is pretty much the ecosystem. Is he there? And greater Apple? Um, you know, you have all that now happening potentially at the other end of the spectrum because while you have some more privacy coming in at the AP level with the actual operating system, Google is also starting to you flirt with the idea of doing a similar cookie crushing going on. Um, with the Chrome browser, which is by far the most popular browser is out there outside of by the chrome that is safari between those two browsers you probably coming, consuming are covering 60 70% of the of the Internet usage out there. Think Internet Explorer is taken a huge nosedive. Certainly there. Microsoft's new version Edge is not as popular, either. So they're just at the end of the day you have now consumer companies starting to take privacy as a maybe it's, ah, benefit of feature. Use our browser, get more secure, have more privacy options of how companies are collecting your data and those air interesting ways to kind of play it out. Now, certainly when you have ah, organization like Facebook. Obviously, the Cambridge Analytica fiasco that's out there really never got solved, I think. But that was out there. You know, a lot of people use Facebook or instagram, which is also owned by Facebook. You have all these abs that are out there that are doing things. You have browsers that are collecting things. You have operating systems that are collecting things, your behavior, your usage. Perhaps you screen time how far you scroll down an app. I mean, we can track. As marketers, we can track a lot of stuff about your behaviour and then use that behavior to influence. Ah, predict do other elements to really drive into building better customer experience. And so is this. We're trying to collect stuff. You have consumers that our legislators that are damning things in the light of all this data breach that's going on. But now you have also consumer company is jumping in and saying, We're gonna give you more privacy options as well. No, I think it's a little bit of a twist to that. You have companies again. Look, we'll we'll go with Google, for example. So Google not only has a browser and they have an operating system, they have their own real ecosystem platform rights, and they have all these. Now they own nest nest devices that are out in the world. If the Google assistant that's capturing data now, you could do things in the new version of, um, the pixel phone. You can tell Google assistant to kill data. Um, that type of stuff but dollar. Part of what Google has is things like, Oh my gosh, they also have an advertising engine, double click and add sense and so on. They have Webb reporting tools like Google Analytics and other platforms from a marketing perspective. So now you have companies like Google that are delivering consumer products but also have business products. And so the question They're not the only one, though, too. So right. So Apple has their content engine, their hardware company there a software company. Um, they aren't as much of an advertising company. And I say that with a big ass tricks of ah of a yet, um, so it's interesting when you have companies that are owning ecosystems like Facebook again, an ecosystem of products that interact together that, ah, huge, vastly amount of organizations and companies and and he and individual people are using. And they're getting in other things, like, let's let's give Internet to the entire worlds. They got their doing. Technology that's putting solar planes up in the sky that are allowing Internet service is to be beamed off of it. And yes, that may be the altruistic effort of connecting all the humans of the world. Thanks, Mark Zuckerberg. But at the same time, you're also collecting a boatload of data on all these people, too. And you know what ramifications that having, I think Cambridge Analytica just just a tip of the iceberg of what could be possible. So privacy again like it from that perspective, it's interesting, interesting things. So data collection. But now you have organizations that are gonna limit some level of data collection but also have marketing engines that a lot of marketers use. So, um, let's think about this for a slightly different. You know, another way from a business perspective you have. So Apple and Google own content. Create content creation tools in some cases kind of delivery tools and marketing tools you have, then Adobe. That is a content creation, said a suite with Creative Cloud. You have a doctor of content marketing tool, this experience cloud, but they don't have browser. They don't like the real delivery solution yet that yeah, you can create an app and you can create websites. But that's still less. We delivered through a browser and that browsers was owned by Apple and Google. Will Google and adobe. They they compete in many ways on certain solutions becomes analytics and other products. Not so much, Ah, Adobe and Apple to really compete. But Adobe and Microsoft have a strategic relationship as well, from a business perspective. And so it starts to get really interesting. 10. Jinling Often to this idea of how many companies are gonna start to Lake, screw each other and a certain degree, right? So how did agree? Collected? So Adobe can do a lot from creating these experiences and stitching together on Omni Channel multi channel experience for you as a consumer. But if Google or Apple nix on how some of the ways that data could be collected, that value proposition of integrated experience starts to die because they want businesses to use Google on specifically, I'll just use them. Google may want them to use their marketing tools to deliver all that versus adobes tools. So is a business a market or my life becomes more complicated because again, privacy coming into play, Apple and Google are gonna use their privacy options as a consumer feature that to use my solutions and tools, but the same time either one of them could be pressuring businesses to use their tools because they might say everyone else can get access to this data. But if you use my marketing solutions my, my analytics solutions, my content creation solutions, I will give you access to that. And while it hasn't happened, this purely speculation, it wouldn't be far fetched to see that happen. As a consumer, I think we have this new power Thio start to regulate how our data is being used, but I don't know for there in a way that I think can go that gives us the ultimate right because at the it's still this relationship between companies and brands what you want to get access to you and how much are you willing to pay for it and when someone is willing to say, I'll give it to you for free free email. Address your name. How many people are gonna do that for saying I will give it to you for 4 99 a month? Your name, your email address? Um, other kind of demographic data about your household and a credit card, you know, you know, that's the whole I think, tricky part of all this which is, I just think, is the tricky part, right? How are we going to balance out transactional transactions for content? Entertainment service is when you always have someone is willing to go free. Um, without that idea of Well, what does free really mean? And free really means It's not free. Nothing's free. Ever in the market is world. You're giving me something that's valuable to me, which is your name and your email address, which means I could do something with it. It's your name, your email address and maybe a zip code. It's your name. It's your geographic location. It's an anonymous person that is engaging with my website and my content in my mobile app. And then they finally register a log in and nine. No more information about you to do something with those air. All the things that free really means. It means I have information, too. Use share cell. Uh, and I will make money off of you in some way, shape or form, right? That is just it's business. But so there's, You know, this rambling and random. Maybe there's there's two things I want, You know, you the listener, I kind of think about is your walking away and think about this. Sorry, there's two challenges I have out there, I think is marketers. We need to go back to the fundamental basis, which is to create valuable experiences to create value to our customer base, whether be acquiring them, retaining them. Um, having them turned into advocates for us, it really comes down to that. That relationship, and that is that comes down to trust. And it comes down to you value and that exchange between of my data, your data for me to give you that value. And that is a permission. It's not an expectation. So jumping back to maybe, ah, book that was written a long time ago by Seth Godin Permission marketing every marketer Go back and dig it up. If you don't have it, go by it. Because is that permission based marketing that we need to go back to? That really is what legislation is forcing us to do. Um, and we've kind of put ourselves in a position where we've lost our way from that. That perspective. It was a marketer. All the marketers that might be listening to this I challenge us all to go back to the basics, which is permission based marketing. The idea that our customers are so valuable that maybe we need to consider not the revenue option out of the gate, which is selling their data. But it is maximizing that relationship in the most positive way possible for both of us as a brand as a company and then the consumer themselves and how they decide to work with us. Because if we lose that trust and many companies do day in and day out there, one click away there one second away, their one fraction of a second away from going someplace else. And that's that's not good for us as business partners and stewards of that data and stewards of that relationship. Now, on the flip side, as a consumer, I challenge all of us to not blindly go into idea of sharing data for the sake of getting something for free, because free is never free. No, it, I'll tell you, flatten you. As I said before, I'll say it again. As a marketer, you as soon as you give up your information, that becomes valuable to me. So be wary that you may need to start thinking about. Am I willing to pay for this and that? Is it maybe a micro transaction of a few cents to get access to content? Maybe it's a few bucks to get access to something, maybe subscription, which is a whole other topic and of itself. Um, but how much are you willing to pay for that value proposition? Because the minute you're willing to pay for something, that relationship with that brand that the company, that organization becomes dramatically different, at least in today's day and age versus free, which basically you're saying I'm gonna give this to you for free. I don't have as many concerns about how I don't have any concern of how you use that information. I think we need to take a stand and say, I am concerned about how you're using that information. I don't want it to be sold. Maybe I'm not gonna work with you or use your product or service because you are being not trustworthy with that information. So I challenge us as consumers to you really think about what is free mean to me. What is free mean in the context of my data because data is a currency and my date, my personal information is certainly a currency. And what are we going to do about that and be really diligent? Or you just gonna let your bank account go open because, you know, that is you would never do that. You never just give someone your bank accounts and here take this much money as you want, But when you give your data up, that's essentially what you're doing. You're saying, take a cz much from me as you want, because I'm willing to give you my personal information that you can go do whatever you want with it. I think we need to stop that practice. So is it's an evolution. It's not a revolution, But it is certainly something that we need to be thinking about from both ends of the spectrum to bring value because in the meantime, was happening is you have legislators jumping into the mix because consumers are lazy and marketers are lazy. And we're finding that legislation is not gonna make things infinitely more complicated when technology is doing nothing but giving us opportunity to create better advancements in providing value to how we engage with organizations and brands. And when we have to start navigating legislation to find out when we can acquire and how we can communicate and when we can talk to you and how you can get feedback that just doesn't work anymore. That relationship becomes tarnished because we have to worry about getting sued. We have to worry about all these other legal things, and that is just the byproduct of us being at a point where, you know, we've just been lazy. We've been abusive, we've been untrustworthy. And, man, if I, as a marketer, have to start to navigate, if the different legislation 50 different legislations to find a way to communicate with my customer base or acquire new customers way, we're all gonna fall apart or it's just not gonna work, probably combination of both. So I'm gonna wrap up my pa this one first episode with that thought that we need to be more better stewards. And as consumers, we need to be better about how we are sharing our data with with those brands that were engaging. So that is it. Thank you for listening. If you have thought about this opinion, please hit me up on Twitter. Be up on LinkedIn. Share your thoughts. Let's have a dialogue. I would love to hear your points of view about all this as well. So thanks for listening. Looking forward to recording more episodes. And that is all. You guys have a great day.