1. CAMPAIGNASIA.COM DECEMBER/JANUARY 2014 campaign 129
CHINA REVEALED
likely want anyway and at a time and place they
were going to anyway and are probably quite defi-
nitely in the market for? Where’s the harm in that
almost win-win unlikely scenario?
Luckily however there is a process that can in
theory overcome such pesky issues as the commer-
cial exploitation of PII data. It’s called ‘onboarding’.
Or more fully, ‘CRM data onboarding’.
This essentially involves transferring CRM data
to an ‘onboarder’, which matches brand data key
identifiers, adding in some website registration
data, which then anonymously links the CRM data
with browser data, and send to advertising plat-
forms. Simple really.
Actually it is pretty straightforward, but does in-
volve clever data preparation/formatting, algo-
rithms, secure silos, consumer opt-out options and
absolutely no PII cookies to name but a few of the
steps in achieving onboarding.
For Asia and in particularly the China market
where we operate, we see this new onboarding
process or function as being a step in the right di-
rection. Many in China have tried to safely match
CRM and PII data with online consumer data but
without many credible signs of success so far.
More importantly we also see this as another key
building block in the evolution of the RTB/DSP/
DMP phenomenon in China. Advertisers should ask
their media agencies what they are doing in this key
digital area: do they have a DSP? Who do they use?
Where does the DMP data come from and when can
they too get on board?
The answers are coming soon to a DSP near you.
Malcolm Thorp is vice-president of business
partnerships at hdtMEDIA
D
uring our China Revealed lunch in
Shanghai, the prickly question of on-
line privacy once again raised its ugly
head with various comments mildly
for or against more or less privacy.
This meant I was forced to stick my
neck out and take a stance right down
the middle. The term ‘data manage-
ment security’ can easily be applied to numerous
industries or generic PC-related viruses issues
equally. But when it involves our brands, our com-
pany reputations, possible PR nightmares or ena-
bles fantastic communication strategies, we
should all sit up and take note.
Data plays such a critical part in the online
media buying process, the CRM process and ulti-
mately the consumer purchasing process that the
proper management and security of all this data
is often overlooked or left in someone
else’s hands. Potential lapses in prop-
er data management and security
usually happen when attempting to
integrate different sources or types
of data. This is where people com-
pare apples and pears, shove round
pegs into square holes and maybe
make the odd infringement of pri-
vate confidential personal informa-
tion.
To that end, we are seeing big adver-
tisers take an increasingly hands-on
approach to their data management
and security by developing customised
data management platforms (DMPs).
This way they can effectively link
their own consumer and brand data
with their online media buying proc-
esses securely and without breach-
ing any privacy laws.
People do sometimes suggest that
using actual CRM data, which in-
cludes personally identifiable infor-
mation (PII), with consumer online
data would make life so much easier
for advertisers and their agencies. Re-
sults really would be much, much bet-
ter.
“Wesee[CRMdataonboarding]asakeybuilding
blockintheevolutionoftheRTB/DSP/DMP
phenomenoninChina”
Iseveryoneonboard?‘Onboarding’allowsadvertiserstomergeCRMdataandonlineintelligence
withoutfallingfoulofthelaw.Malcolm Thorp explains
hdtMEDIA
However this is not actually in
most cases legal. So we can’t do it.
But if you could you would, yes? And
in some countries you would proba-
bly get caught. A few companies en-
gaging in activities involving so-
called ‘history sniffing’ in New Jersey
last month ended up in court
for it.
But hey, that’s the US,
and this is China. Some
would say that for on-
line goings-on, with
over two million gov-
ernment employees
totally focused on
monitoring all our in-
ternet-related activities
we do not have any privacy
anyway, so what’s the prob-
lem? And personal informa-
tion, usually mobile phone
lists at least, is bought and
sold as readily as fake DVDs,
so linking our PII data as di-
rectly as possible to our on-
line activity shouldn’t be out
of order in China, correct?
Well, fortunately it is. But
are we then missing out on
rich and valuable source of
proper consumer informa-
tion that would at the very
worst, in theory at least, actu-
ally connect with consumers
with something they most