Getting you
up to speed with all the latest in the Catching up
Firefox torpedo sinks German publishers
Publishers
in Germany have seen programmatic ad revenues plummet since Mozilla Firefox’s latest anti-tracking update was brought in a few weeks ago. In a
country that traditionally favours Firefox due to its non-profit pro-privacy
approach, this is seen as another nail in the coffin for cookie-based
targeting. According to Index Exchange, average bid rates (how
frequently buyers choose to bid on a piece of inventory), are down almost 40%
on Firefox in Germany with further losses predicted in the future. The risk is
that publishers will turn to Google, Facebook and universal login which would
boost the tech giants’ grip over the German market and have serious
ramifications for data privacy.
The shifting landscape of digital analytics
In the
increasingly complex world of web analytics, there has never been a more exciting time for analysts or the organisations
hiring them. As well as attributes such as understanding the technical aspects of data
collection, marketing strategies and effective communication, potential analysts
are increasingly required to pack more advanced skill sets. BI platforms (Tableau, Power
BI, Qlik, Domo, etc.) are now
indispensable for their toolbelt, as well as the ability to program with data
using Python or R (machine learning and data science), not forgetting a
solid understanding of statistics.
Naturally it’s also important to aim for the most forward-thinking
analytics companies that have tools designed to be used
by everyone across the board. Despite the
growing appetite of analysts for advanced tools, the challenge is to provide
simple access to data that can be used instantly by business users who do not
have specific analytics skills. Fortunately, such a tool exists…
The cost of poor-quality data
With 97% of
companies committed to turning their marketing data into insights, quality data
has become a highly valuable asset. Indeed, over half of them are actively using
data to understand customer needs, find new customers and above all, increase
their value. So, what are the financial consequences of making do with poor
quality data? According to research, 83% of US companies believe that their
revenue is negatively affected by inaccurate and incomplete customer or
prospect data. The costs can involve wasted resources, loss of productivity and
significant communications expenses. However it is possible to turn the
situation around by implementing a series of practical improvements to your data management strategy.
Google vs the French news
Google is refusing to pay for French news snippets despite the EU legal requirement
(article here in French). The search giant
announced that it won’t pay anything to French news organisations for the
privilege of linking to their articles. Google believes that France’s version
of the law allows them to include an article’s headline in a search result, but
not the “snippet” that often appears below the headline. So to
comply, it will remove the snippet below links to French news sites, as well as
thumbnail images that sometimes appear next to news results. However, French publishers believe that Google is profiting at their
expense by showing portions of content for free, causing them to lose over €250
million a year.
As the tech giants continue to squeeze digital media, Google is sending a
clear signal that it has no intention of paying news publishers for linking to their content. Indeed
Spain tried to force Google to pay publishers for taking snippets of their news
articles, but that backfired after Google News pulled out of the
country entirely. So far France is the only EU country to implement the region’s
far-reaching copyright reforms adopted earlier this year – to try to preserve
the freedom of the European press.
GDPR consent consultation
In a new twist for the GDPR in France, the CNIL is launching a consultation on how companies obtain the consent
of Internet users (article in French). In July they announced the new
guidelines for the collection of Internet users’ consent – in particular,
consent for the deposit of cookies, which remains extremely vague for market
players, more than a year after the implementation of the GDPR. While this
announcement was received with mixed reviews, particularly from some consumer
associations, it reflects the CNIL’s desire to go further in its
recommendations in order to provide operators with a more precise, reliable and
tangible GDPR framework.
In parallel, various French digital comm & marketing associations
including GESTE legally requested that the CNIL
extend the scope of consultation beyond cookie consent to the realms of
commercial prospecting. There is widespread fear that marketing and advertising
activities will be completely undermined and that smaller players will cease to
be economically viable, to the benefit of the dominant international players in
this sector.
Responsible economic development in terms of personal data protection is
the hot topic of the moment.
Deep learning on your plate!
There’s a
brand-new app on the market that allows you to log everything you eat to follow
a healthier diet. Foodvisor lets users to take a photo of their
plate and instantly receive a full list of nutrition facts as well as setting
goals and monitoring diet progress over time. Advanced machine learning meets
healthy living!
Domino’s goes AI
Global
pizza chain Domino’s has gone all Minority Report with its new AI-based DOM Pizza Checker. As well as checking up on the quality of your pizza, the machine learning algorithms
are designed to better align stores around the world and even display pizza
checker scores on a live feed. The claims that the DOM is in fact a
sophisticated new surveillance technology are of course completely unfounded…
See you next time on the Internets!
Credits: Domino’s Pizza
