Evolution of Marketing Data Ecosystem

About the Guest

Ian Wright has more than 20 years of experience driving and deploying successful DaaService and SaaS solutions for the marketing services industry. As Chief Data Officer for Equifax’s Data-driven Marketing capability, he leads the IXI Network — the largest marketing-focused consortium of financial services firms. Leveraging the IXI Network’s economic and financial insights, he creates comprehensive and accurate marketing solutions that integrate regulatory-governed data applications with transformational ad-tech-focused growth.

Connect with Ian Wright

Quote

“I believe that your data will put a limit on your ability to perform. If you’re using great data, then you have the skies up, and you can create excellent results, and you can get the returns you want.”

Highlights from the interview

What are some of the themes around which the data ecosystem has evolved over the past decade?

We could look at this in several different ways, but it ultimately comes down to three different topics. Firstly, today we need to understand the customer well, but we also need to learn to connect with them through various platforms available. The second area to look at is the growth from offline static data to very dynamic signal data. The third is the advent of a dual citizenship-like space. Every individual today has both online and offline citizenship. We have more regulations around data now than there have been in the past.

What are some potential impacts of browser and platform identity activism that people might not be focusing on (e.g., Google ending support for third-party cookies, Apple letting users opt out of mobile ID tracking)?

One potential impact is the way it is helping us reset and look at our ecosystem and try to proactively address some of the parts of the ecosystem that came along and were developed during the process. Another area that this will help us address is attribution. The third area is fraud. There’s considerable fraud in the existing system with bot traffic and fake ad inventory, and a lack of transparency. We have the opportunity to do a reset in that area too.

What is one frustration or surprise you have about how the marketing data ecosystem has evolved?

I’ve been surprised that there hasn’t been as much emphasis on data maturity and data quality through the development of the current ad tech system. I hope that as we move forward and create this new system, we strive to understand those areas better.

Shout- outs

• Kevin Dean – Chief Operating Officer, Infutor Data Solutions
• Jay Stocki – Data Practice Lead, Prohaska Consulting
• Isio Nelson – Head of Client Services and Research, BAI