Digital comms: Less than half of marketers following data collection laws

Marketers are well aware of the laws around data collection, processing, and protection with 75% claiming to understand them; however, just 45% agree that they are actually following those laws, a deeply concerning gap that reveals where marketers need to skill up ahead of a more privacy-conscious internet environment in the coming years.

This is according to a YouGov survey of more than 500 UK marketing professionals, commissioned by fifty-five, a data consultancy.

Why it matters

Marketers operating outside the law should be a concern to the whole industry, as it threatens to further consign the discipline to a field for amateurs. What’s worse is that as an internet that will become far more reliant on first-party data, which is valuable because of the demonstrable consent given for companies to use it.

On this front, the finding that just 24% of respondents are developing alternative plans for targeting post-cookie should spur a change.

Findings

The YouGov survey found the following:

• 75% of marketers are aware of data collection laws, but only 45% are observing them.
• 38% say their customers were unable to opt in or out. An embarrassing 16% say they simply don’t know.
• Just 24% are developing alternative plans for targeting once browsers sunset the cookie. A further fifth haven’t yet started but are aware that they need a plan.
• Worse: 33% of marketers say they have no intention of doing so.
• Individual sectors are behaving differently: 38% of IT and telecoms firms are prepared or preparing for the new landscape, as are 31% of media and marketing firms.
• Retail, however, is lagging despite support from CEOs and senior management. Under a fifth (19%) have a post-cookie strategy, despite frequent digital communications being typical in the sector.

Time to build new skills

The number one concern was the team not having the skills in-house to develop and implement a robust digital strategy (17%), followed by whether the team's skills are now up to date and relevant (15%) and an inability to accurately measure activity (15%).

Key quote

“It is a legal requirement to have a consent management tool in place and yet a majority of marketers either don’t have one or are confused about what this means. It is also imperative that marketers have a plan in place for how they can target customers in the future with the end of the cookie in sight” - Richard Wheaton, MD of fifty-five.

Sourced from YouGov/fifty-five