Driving value at scale with human-centred personalisation

Explore the growing need for brands to embrace authenticity

Brands that personalise at scale are not just winning online, they are educating people to expect nothing less. 

The drive for personalisation however has led to a crisis of conflicting expectations; people crave personalised experiences and yet are increasingly unwilling to share their data with brands due to privacy concerns and a lack of trust in digital advertisers.

Brands' personalisation strategies are also likely to be blocked by increasingly stringent privacy regulations that restrict how marketers can aggregate customer data. A recent Microsoft survey for APAC found that fewer than one-third (31%) of consumers believe their personal data will be treated in a trustworthy manner by organisations offering digital services.

To overcome these obstacles brands need to define the objectives of personalisation and how success will be measured. There must be a correlation between data collection and return on investment, not just for brands but for customers too.

Human-centred personalisation strategies that put the user’s wants and needs first are imperative. Before even starting this process brands need to align their promise with customers' expectations. Personalisation needs to be done in a meaningful and consistent way. Ultimately, technologies of scale must be balanced with a strong brand culture.

As data regulations get stricter brands have to find more creative ways to gain consent. They often make the mistake of taking the obvious route of discounts and promotions, and fail to explore non-monetary value exchanges. For premium brands, memberships or exclusive experiences may be more relevant. In fact, it is likely brand marketers are already getting consent to gather data from customers without fully realising it.

The challenge is that different departments might be keeping information in silos, or data is collected on a campaign basis and then discarded.

Even as they consider how to plot their personalisation plans, brand marketers also need to be conscious of the changing parameters of first-second-and third-party data. 

For more insights and analysis download Ogilvy’s Driving Value at Scale With Human Centred Personalisation report