"Dont target me ask me" ctrl shift report

www.ctrl-shift.co.uk

Don’t target me - ask me
(and make it fun)
a Ctrl-Shift report

Summary 2
1. Introduction 3
2. The study 4
3. Background 5
4. Our approach 7
5. Our findings 9
5.1 Inferred interest
5.2 Loyalty, retailers and deduced interests
5.3 Get customers to volunteer interests

6. Summary results 17
7. Conclusions 18
8. Comment 19

July 2012

Don’t target me - ask me (and make it fun) www.ctrl-shift.co.uk

Summary

Findings • Second, deduction. Based on shopping history, the
services assessed – Amazon and two loyalty schemes –
• Consumers are excited at being able to unclutter their offer recommendations or discount vouchers relevant to
lives of irrelevant messages. past purchases
• Consumers are realistic about their privacy and will • Finally, volunteered. These new services – VisualDNA,
reveal information if control is fun and not a chore. Dealboard and Hunch – all turn the problem around.
• Instant gratification is key, be that through gamification They ask consumers what they are interested in and
mechanics and/or something immediate in return for then deliver content against that interest.
their efforts. • This third group do this not by asking for traditional
• Inferring a consumers interests based on their digital demographics but by making the exercise fun – and by
history is a thing of the past, only with the consumer not asking for personal information such as age, address
input can marketers be forward looking. and so on. Instead they use non-personal information to
deduce this. For example, your personality, the films you
liked or brands you admire.
Our study
• Ctrl-Shift used a methodology that it has developed for
• This study looks at how giving control of “what I am the UK government’s Midata programme – TACT: • However, with advertising on Facebook et all, clearly
interested in” to consumers delivers a better transparency, access, control and trust. causing huge amounts of wastage (9,995 adverts are not
experience. clicked on), there is clearly a problem to solve.
• The three services that used volunteered information did
• The study, based on ten in-depth assessments of eight best in our tests (although Amazon gave them a run for • Using the information that people are willing to
services, looked at three ways of serving content their money). volunteer could solve this problem – delivering content
(adverts, recommendations and offers). to people who express their interest is marketing
• Surprisingly, perhaps, the loyalty schemes didn’t do well
nirvana.
• It assessed three ways of the supplier evaluating what – “they are clueless about me” said one assessor.
consumers were interested in. • But perhaps as importantly, this study revealed that
• And although the web-browsing trio did worst, there was
doing this in fun and engaging ways can provide a new
• First, inference. Based on browsing history, the services a genuine acceptance that, while information remained
service – analytics for consumers.
assessed - Facebook, Google and Bluekai - all deliver anonymous, this profiling was acceptable.
adverts that are targeted against those interests • Allowing consumers to work out why they buy, use or
like products, really would be a control shift – a game
changer indeed.

PAGE 2 © Ctrl-Shift 2012


1. Introduction

Information and communication technology Individuals are no longer limited to one-to-one voice or This data collection capability has not gone unnoticed
is evolving rapidly. It is common for virtually text communications. They broadcast views, photos and by the commercial world that is in the process trying to
just about anything else you could imagine through social find ways best to use this resource. Amazon uses past
everyone to carry a mobile phone and they
media, shop without having to enter a shop, search for purchase behaviour to suggest other items. iTunes does
are quickly acquiring smartphones. This just about anything and find it on a map and then get much the same.
transition is enabling a step change, or directions to it through their GPS, all at the touch of a
For quite selfish reasons, firms are finding that if they let
in academic terms, a paradigm shift in button – or should we say ‘the touch of a touchscreen’ as
people volunteer what they want and control the
the evolving relationship between there seems no end to the trend towards hand-held
information companies receive, they benefit. It enables
technology, enterprise and the individual. devices.
them to target precisely the right people with the right
However, this also means there is a lot more information product at the right time. Known as Volunteered Personal
about individuals available for exploitation. The new Information (VPI), it is a big improvement over the
technologies can glean our transactions, interactions, even deduction and inference-based market research that force
the language we use, and attempt to infer or deduce our suppliers to employ mass market techniques that hit both
future preferences. the interested as well as the increasingly annoyed.
However, what about the individual? How do they benefit?
How? Or are they just being manipulated?
Terms like exploit highlight a core challenge in this
market. Businesses see data as something that they It is the individual’s experience of this emerging
can use to their gain. Period. As the World Economic relationship with businesses that we explore here. Is there
Forum called it “personal data is the new oil’. Wrong. a better way of serving content to people without them
Businesses that exploit their customers don’t engender feeling that they are being spied upon, by using marketers
trust or loyalty. best guesses, by using complex mathematical algorithms
or simply by deluging the customer with special deals?



2. The study – Emerging VPI systems and their effect on the individual

We see three macro trends at play in Each is a driver of change but combined they create a We wanted to find out for sure and better understand how
this market: massive opportunity for a re-alignment between the the market is responding to this new phenomenon.
relationship between buyers and sellers.
We focused on five questions:
1. The rise in the volumes of data available
In order for VPI to work, people have to take time to
(so called Big Data). contribute information. If there is no benefit in either
• Do consumers know what information is held about them
and how it is used?
2. The lack of efficiency in the advertising model. saving time or there is a financial incentive, they simply
won’t bother. • Are they concerned by the information held about them?
3. How technology is now literally in the
This in turn has driven suppliers to offer just such • Do they like what suppliers infer or deduce from it?
hands of the customer. incentives, either saving them time searching for goods,
• Are they willing to let suppliers know what they are
they are presented to the willing consumer often with a
looking for more directly?
special voucher or discount.
• How might consumers benefit from the relationship?
The wonder of technology’s evolution in a market economy
is that it is driven by the needs and wants of consumers.
Applications that appeal to consumers win out over those
that cause despair. The soulless face of technology meets
the cruel realities of the market and the consumer seems
to be benefitting.



3. Background

Citizens in this consumer-driven world search Technology – part of the solution or A New Approach –
for information on their interests and are adding to the problem? Volunteered Personal Information (VPI)
inspired, some might say, bombarded by New media, customer loyalty schemes, online commerce, Not only are people switching off from mailing lists but
location-based technology and social media have opened they are also finding ways in which they can take control
messages and offers. So many in fact, they are
new channels both to collect data and to send messages. of the relationship with their suppliers. Telling them what
challenged, often irritated, to have to sort they want or think - think Amazon reviews or TripAdvisor.
through the chaff to find the wheat. It has enabled suppliers to make ever more precise
inferences and deductions about consumers. Whereas As information starting from customers has exploded, so
Reason for the deluge? before they might only know their gender and age or what have the business models designed to take advantage of
they could ask about them, suppliers can now gain insights them. A new paradigm is emerging mainly due its
For the last 20 years (and more) companies have been
from their behaviour. attractiveness to both suppliers and consumers –
looking to collect more and more data about their
Volunteered Personal Information. In other words, there is
customers. The more you know about your customers the
Action Conclusion a third channel opening up between suppliers and
more successful you will be. However responding to a
Inferred You’ve searched We should advertise consumers, and this time customer-initiated.
person when he or she doesn’t want what you have to
for babies toys baby equipment
offer, creates waste for both producer and buyer. Rather than businesses trying to collect as much data as
Deduced You’ve bought nappies You must have a six
possible, there is an alternative – ask your customers what
for the last six months, month old child
they want, right now and in the future. Instead of guessing
“
Half the money I spend on
always increasing in size
the sorts of things that people are interested in, why not
find quick and easy ways of getting them the offers
advertising is wasted; the trouble This has still lead to discontent on both the parts with they want?
suppliers still unable to know sufficiently well when to
is I don't know which half. “ contact people, and citizens approached with the wrong Action Conclusion
John Wanamaker. message or at the wrong time. Inferred You’ve searched We should advertise
for babies toys baby equipment

Deduced You’ve bought nappies You must have a six
Unable to target precisely, suppliers instead used a for the last six months, month old child
always increasing in size
shotgun approach that hits far more people that could use
or want the approach simply because supplier didn’t know Volunteered I’d like to buy a pushchair Let’s send some offers
for a 1-year-old
that much about them.



3. Background CONTINUED >

And governments across the world are supporting this. This new era, the control shift, is already beginning to
From the US’s Smart Disclosure, the UK’s midata initiative, develop its own lexicon. CRM could become Vendor
the Australian health records initiative to the World Relationship Management, which emerged from Harvard;
Economic Forum’s Reinventing Personal Data project, the the principal academic in this area, Doc Searls launched in
government agenda is to help businesses create economic April 2012 a new book describing a new economic age –
growth by helping customers make better decisions. the intention economy; and so on. And we at Ctrl-Shift
have added a four-letter acronym as part of our work
supporting the UK government’s midata programme – TACT.

“
In a world where people are taking
Transparency, Access, Control and Transfer provides
businesses with four pointers to help them benchmark
themselves. First, make it clear what is happening to data
back ownership of their data, what supplied; second, give people access to this data; third,
are the threats and opportunities “ give customers control over that data and finally, if they
want to leave, find a way that they can transfer their
for our industry and us. records out of your system.
Global supplier at a workshop in June 2012



4. Our approach

Ctrl-Shift has: They were asked to assess a number of services on a range
Our panel’s attitudes of criteria. The panel was asked to look at these services
• Reviewed the existing literature and At the end of the assessment, we asked our panellists in the same order (because we wanted to take them on a
information on the topic; to give us some insight into their attitudes to journey from the familiar to the unknown). They went
technology, personal information and privacy.
• Conducted panel sessions with a cross-section from Facebook, to Google (and online search) to loyalty
of the population to discuss citizen-initiated The panel want offers by email, not phone. and finally to some new services. The core continuum
through this journey was the profile that the services had
applications and the information already held They strongly agreed with “I always give my email
address so that I can get special deals” built up about the user.
about them and had panellists rate several
applications side-by-side; They disagreed that “email marketing is a waste of For this project we have adapted TACT (Transparency,
time because I just delete them “ Access, Control and Transfer), using this same approach to
• Assessed the experience of a cross-section look at the spread of services covered in this research. We
participants; and They didn’t want more offers by phone and, indeed,
have, however, replaced Transfer with Trust as, during our
most of our panellists told us they try to avoid giving
• Interviewed in-depth a cross-section of phone numbers on web-forms so they aren’t piloting of the work, the question of whether people
contacted. actually trust the supplier emerged as a key factor.
participants.
They tend to be ambivalent about advertising as they
The Panel didn’t have a strong opinion either way about whether How we analysed the feedback
Approximately 20 people were asked to take part in the having search paid for by advertising is a good thing.
Transparency A good service makes it clear how the
study. Each was selected if they had a Facebook page, use They aren’t worried about privacy. Most agreed that data is collected and used
Google search, had an Amazon account, some sort of “worries about giving away too much information are
Access Can you get a copy of the data that is
loyalty scheme and used an iPhone. For various reasons, over-stated” and disagreed with “liking the idea about
held about you?
people dropped out (eg “I didn’t realise I needed a getting offers without giving personal details away”.
Facebook profile” or “I gave up when there was no Google Control A good service allows fine control of
data on me”) as well as the researcher’s curse – people that data
who promised to attend and didn’t. Trust An assessment of the degree of trust
our users felt
In the end, a self-selected panel of ten people emerged.
They ranged in age from 18 to 57 (average 36), and were a
mix of males and females, married and single, with
children and without, PC users and Mac users. They had a
wide-range of views on privacy coming into the project
and also participation in loyalty schemes.



4. Our approach CONTINUED >

We focused on eight representatives of business models
aiming to exploit Volunteered Personal Information in Advertising
various ways.
Our first group (see methodology, as the assessment did
not run in this order) is based on an advertising based An advertising network that uses The dominant search engine tracks The premier social media site which
approach. your browsing history to serve up users and runs on an advertising- has access to extraordinarily detailed
The second uses shopping history to become a relevant adverts. based model. information on individuals and uses it
recommendation engine (you bought this, so this other to tailor advertising.
product will be relevant).
The third group, the new entrants, aim to create
Shopping history
recommendations based on your own information input
into their system.
The premier online retailer collects We chose two well known UK-based These schemes are, in effect, run by
data on purchases made through brands (Tesco and Nectar) but some global companies, Dunnhumby and
Amazon and responds with panellists were members of other Aimia, respectively, and so our
tailored offers. schemes too. findings can be applied to both the
UK and US markets.

Personal input

VisualDNA
TM

Recommends a set of deals (from Uses a personality test to drive better Bases its recommendations on your
thousands of daily offers) based on targeted advertising. For users, they reviews of products and services; and
personal preferences and “all without get a free personality assessment and shares these with other Hunch users.
sending you a single email”. advertisers get adverts served that It takes a crowdsourcing approach
are more relevant to the specific (but driven by machines) to
user groups. recommendations – ‘we’ve got a
hunch you’ll like this’ isn’t a
marketing strapline of theirs, but
could be.



5. Our findings
“
“
5.1 Inferred interest First, the overall sense from the panel was that they:
Comments on data held and profiles
• had little knowledge about what each company held on
Our first grouping of businesses was those with an them;
advertising-based business model. Of course, each one of
• had not looked at it before; and
these explicitly relies on volunteered information –
Facebook is all about me; Google search is, by definition, • were surprised by what they found.
“ I worry that information I put on there may be used by
something that I want to know about and Bluekai is simply
other people, but not by Facebook” “ I simply didn’t know that this sort of stuff was
a real record of websites that I have visited.
“ I don't trust them and limit the information I input. I only being collected ” (Bluekai)
put information there that I would be comfortable for the
Facebook Bluekai Google There was an underlying suspicion that data put on
entire world to know.”
Facebook was highly vulnerable to misuse and difficult to
Transparency control. Best not to put it there in the first place they
Access
thought.
“ It's not even sure what country I'm in. 'High net worth As consumers, they did not see any benefits to them in
Control
professional' - if only! ” Facebook’s use of the information to tailor advertising. Its
Trust “ It's inaccurate and it's a bit spooky but I knew my history attempts were so inaccurate as to be completely ignored.
was being tracked' sums up my thoughts ” Google surprised our panel, both with the deductions it
Good OK Poor made, sometimes more accurate than others, but also
with the overall profile they presented. Nevertheless, it
was clear that in many circumstances, our users found
“ Google seems to think I’m aged 45-54 just because I like that information varied stored varied.
travel, food and politics? That is way out, but they
definitely got some of my interests right.” “ My work computer had loads of details about me,
but my home laptop didn’t ”
“ It doesn’t bother me as they have got it basically correct
and it is kept anonymous, I’m quite surprised at how And that different people using the same machine caused
accurate it is actually.” a core problem of “who am I”?

“ I don’t know if my girlfriend has switched on any
privacy settings ” (Google)



5. Our findings CONTINUED >
“
“
The last observation that came out from our assessment is The advertising industry tends to use terms such as click-
Responses to advertising
the question of timeliness. There was little indication that thru to measure success. However, in many ways the
businesses that infer your interest are able to work out reverse is true. Wastage is legion. For example 9,995
what you are currently interested in. For example, one of people out of 10,000 don't click on Facebook ads. And
the sites identified that one of our testers was based in Google? Well it is forty times better than Facebook (4 in
the Netherlands – but that was 10 years ago! 1000) but that still leaves 9960 ads clogging up pages,
“ I see it but ignore it because I’ve “tuned out” of adverts
costing time and money.
Indeed, there was a sense that “Who am I” was something everywhere ”
close to a complete guess. We could not help noticing the relationship between our
“ I see it and ignore it because it is not relevant to me ”
panel’s comfort with the data held by a firm and that
“ While close to the mark on a few things, it doesn't
firm’s relative development of its use of personal
distinguish me from the wife and some of its information, and the inclination to respond to advertising
assumptions are way, way off ” on site.
“ They think I am only interested in TV and movies, I have a
“ I can’t work out how Google works out who Facebook, who came out worst on the perception about lot more interests than that! ”
I am ” (30 year old, whom Google thinks is 45-54) how it manages personal information, also had the worst
response to advertising. Likewise Google, who performed
“ I don’t use Facebook very often so it’s not like me ” best in our survey, also had the most willing respondents
to advertising. “ It’s ok because it is anonymous ”
Of course, this doesn’t apply to Facebook pages, since
Getting the consumer’s perspective right is clearly a “ I wish it was more accurate so I can get more relevant ads ”
these are largely self-generated. However, since the
business model of Facebook is to serve up relevant ads, success factor in effective marketing, yet we had a sense
there is clearly a missing link between the of these sites serving up content based largely on
data/information on the page and the inference that this guesswork about an individual’s profile.
can be used to serve relevant ads.




“What is that “ A male and a “Limited ability to change
advert for” female, interesting.” your interests.”

PAGE 11 © Ctrl-Shift 2012 Design: Boilerhouse.co.uk



5.2 Loyalty, retailers and deduced interests Loyalty but also because of timeliness and relevance.
Loyalty is business nirvana. Yet people who we screened “ It has no relevance to me today. It is all more than
One way that relevant content can be served is to tie it
for the work, had some interesting perspectives. 3 years out of date. ”
into specific buying history. For obvious reasons, this is a
defining moment. The buyer has clearly shown that they “ Is Clubcard a loyalty scheme? ” Returning to our theme of advertising, they key test for
are more than just interested in certain products. the companies that deduce interests is whether the
“ I’d never use Tesco’s clubcard, I really don’t want
For this research we chose to look at suppliers who work them knowing all about me ” recommendations offered were taken up. We were slightly
across different market sectors because these businesses surprised by our findings here. The most frequent response
are generally trying to get their customers to buy more “ I can’t see the point of any loyalty card ” to “what has been your experience with recommendation
goods – often in other market sectors. [To put it another on Amazon was “I see them and occasionally click on
way, if you join a petrol loyalty scheme, it’s pretty certain Amazon Clubcard/Nectar them”. For the loyalty schemes, we asked how relevant
that you are mainly interested in getting rewards for the offers and vouchers were and the most frequent
Transparency
buying petrol.] response was “Partly relevant (I sometimes use the
Access vouchers)”.
We chose Amazon and then suggested to our panel that
they think about how they used Tesco’s Clubcard and/or Control It isn’t that loyalty needs to be particularly rewarding, our
the Nectar loyalty scheme. panellists were mostly cashing in their vouchers for £20-
Trust £50 over a six month period.
The first point to make is that we aren’t comparing like-
with-like simply because the loyalty schemes work largely Despite all the data that is being collected by the loyalty
Good OK Poor
in an off-line mode. This means that customers can’t see schemes, there was an underlying current….
what data is held about them and the only way of judging Amazon was more trusted with the information, not “ They're clueless.”
whether or not they “know their customer” is on the basis because of the information quality, which seemed a simple
of the offers and vouchers that are made. Therefore, but accurate list of their purchases, but because Amazon “ They aren't very good with the data that they
unlike the other services under assessment, we had to rely was a trusted brand. The information they contributed was have about me.”
on the assessor’s memory. expected to be safe. The advertising that resulted though In conclusion, therefore, it seems as though reviewing
seemed a bit misdirected. actual purchases probably helps the customer more than
In part this may be because of the persona problem that the retailer. It helps the customer keep a record of
we have already seen, purchases and to use other people’s recommendations for
“ Can I use my husband’s Amazon account as we alternatives but the profile that is built up as a result is
clearly not about a single person.
share it? ”
“ I use a work colleague’s Amazon account as this is
more convenient ”




“The items bought regularly “Traditional segmentation at “Just who do they think this
are easy to find but nothing play here - how many kids do person is? Lady Gaga?”
about preferences.” you have”



“
“
5.3 Getting customers to volunteer interests
VisualDNA Dealboard Hunch Comments about personal profiles
Our next step was to ignore past behaviour as a guide to Transparency
the future. Instead, we had three applications that rely on
people inputting information. The information used is Access
what is called non-personally identifiable information – Control “ Quite like me, slightly wary knowing that it is an advert ”
information that only I know but if you have it, you can’t
“ It says I probably live in a household of 5+ people but I
work out it is me. Trust
have no kids - why? Also that I don’t love travel when that
If you use this effectively, it should reduce worries about is one of my defining characteristics - I love to travel! ”
Good OK Poor
privacy and yet make it highly personal. Conceptually, our
panel understood that in exchange for more personal VisualDNA
TM

details you might get better deals. VPI-specific business models revolve around the basic “ This profile was definitely the most like me, I was actually
“ Sounds like a great idea ” premise that you supply information about yourself, they quite shocked at how accurate it was after pressing just a
then arrange for the supplier to contact you. The contact few buttons ”
But there is a core concern that makes people inherently of choice for suppliers has often been to offer the
suspicious and questioning whether there is an underlying “ Reads like a horoscope, it uses lots of very general phrases
consumer a discount, voucher or other financial reward if
motive. and doesn’t say much ”
they buy the product being promoted.
“ I can’t work out how these companies Our panel liked this financial reward aspect. It really
make money ” encouraged them to contribute information and
And a certain degree of scepticism about whether our investigate VPI options after the research.
“ I quite like the idea that you can select this information
panellists were quite ready to use their smartphones. They also liked the ability to alter the profile to generate without entering personal details ”
more precisely the offers they wanted. Although this
“ I'd say I'm outside of the key demographic for “ OK there are no personal details but it relies on my
didn’t apply to VisualDNA in which you have to re-take the
something like this - someone in their early 20s information ”
test as there is no direct link for the user between the
would be much more open to this ” (32 year old) images you select and your personality test. In other
“ But won’t they know who I am because they’ll be words, unlike Dealboard where you can select particular
able to work out my phone number and location? ” aspects to change your profile, you can’t pick out
selective parts.

“ Oh I get it now, if I adjust the profile, I can get
stuff that is more relevant to me ” (Dealboard)




All of these approaches caused interest from panellists. Hunch was entertaining, but panellists did not know what Suppliers in this category do need to worry about getting it
use it was to them. right – and fast. Giving people too many options may cause
“ It’s different, intuitive, clever and made me think
problems.
in a different way.” (about VisualDNA) “ It seems a bit random ”
“ I did look at the longer version of the Hunch quiz
Yet one crucial measure – transparency – drew this What all of these applications did, which none of the
traditional approaches came even close to, was deliver an
to add to the profile but there were too many
comment:
instant result. By spending just a few minutes inputting questions ”
“ VisualDNA makes a big thing of the personality non-personally identifiable data got people their profile, “ I stopped telling Hunch about myself after about
tests but then asks you all same stuff that some recommendations or some deals. 100 questions ”
marketers ask – age, relationship etc – so I’m
Overall, how well an application caught the essence of the
worried that it is all a big front for an “ Each version seems to be as easy to use as possible
consumer and that in turn generated what they wanted,
advertising scam ” but people's attention spans being shorter than
when they wanted it was found to be the benchmark of
The others did not go without their comments either. success for all parties in this relationship. An accurate
ever it's important to engage quickly. ”
Dealboard was found to be very easy to use. profile increased consumer interest. A phone is a personal device but whether the mass market
is quite ready isn’t clear.
“Dealboard is really easy to use, quick which is And what an interest!
important and nice as an app ” Our panellists were intrigued by these applications and “ I tend to use my PC for online shopping, buying
It was let down by the narrow range goods offered, many unprompted declared they would being trying something on my phone would seem wrong ”
however and by the process of sorting the brand different applications after the workshops. (48 year old)
preferences. This inspiration was diminished a little by some of the
“ The problem was that the deals were all about unrecognisable profiling. Or by the presentation of some
looking good or house stuff ” irrelevant offers. But this was more an amusement rather
than a deal breaker. The proof would be in the results and
benefits they generated. The sting in the tail is whether
the personal data is used effectively. At least one person,
who like the VisualDNA test, worked out that the reason
for the test was really “to self-profile” – in other words to
put oneself in a marketers sights.




VisualDNA
TM

“Adjusting your
profile is easy
to do.”

“Lots of words to describe you but no feedback “Uses pictures to find out about you
on your interests” but no feedback”



6. Summary results

Our three groups of providers went largely as The challenge for the third group is still in ensuring that When we asked them to review some of this information,
expected. the content served is relevant. And indeed, because the most did not think that it accurately represented who they
basis of the profile is based on non-personalised data, they are either.
1. Those that infer data from browsing habits face a real challenge of serving up the “test” in a relevant
Not off to a good start then?
do the worst at using their customers’ way in the first place.
information. Quite the contrary. When the personal information based
Although initially some were quite sceptical about any
applications where introduced and tried, most were
relationship with a supplier being something they wanted,
2. Those that deduce data from "buying" habits excited and intrigued by the possible uses.
all were rather attracted to what was on offer in VPI-
do better. oriented applications. They were especially attracted by the ones that allowed
3. Those that request non-personally them to record accurately in ‘relevant’, what they
The scepticism many started with was multiplied once the
wanted, terms.
identifiable data can do best. facts about what was known about them already (and how
that information could be used) were made clear. They The fact that they contributed the data, or decided when
were largely unprepared for the extent of data collected to contribute (ie, turning on or off a service) eased their
about them. underlying fears about privacy.
It is perhaps a little surprising to some that the sometimes
dismissed ‘soulless progress of technology’ in a market
Total Score Transparency Access Control Trust
economy has been driven, at least in this instance, toward
Dealboard 10 delivering benefits to both suppliers and buyers. Who
Amazon 9 would have thought that suppliers would be willing to give
significant incentives to consumers if they just stuck their
VisualDNA 7 hand up and said ‘I want one of those now’, saving
Hunch 7 suppliers the effort of bombarding them with offers all the
time?
Clubcard/Nectar 6
Or that individuals as consumers would welcome the
Google 6 incentives so much that they would be excited about
Facebook 5 helping suppliers find them at the right time?

Bluekai 4

Good OK Poor



7. Conclusions

The challenges we examined at the beginning of Three generalisations emerge from this research: • Where the volunteered information is knowingly and
the research - data; advertising and new intentionally a core element of the value add (as in
• while incentives matter (it's why you do it in the first
Dealboard)..
technology – are now highlighted by the place), intrinsics also matter. If the process is
themes emerging. intrinsically rewarding (i.e. interesting, you are The interesting thing with Dealboard and its cohort is the
discovering something about yourself, or it's a bit of a relationship between 'volunteered' and 'inferred'.
First there is the question of persona. Most of the challenge like going through the levels of the game), this VisualDNA, Hunch and Dealboard are asking people to
examples we looked at had one flaw – the device or may be crucial to the levels of engagement you achieve. volunteer information in order to make richer, more
service wasn’t personal. Searches done at work; shared (Ditto, if you make it clunky, frustrating or difficult); accurate inferences.
laptops or shared accounts all combine to confound
businesses trying to guess what people are truly • iteration is a form of addiction. As per game playing, if This is very different to the Request For Proposals/intent
interested in. you can see it change in response to what you are doing, casting approach: a direct response model.
it sucks you in. This can be really powerful if the
Second, was the question of timeliness. To build up a These approaches will stall unless they become iterative:
iteration is a way to learn about yourself; and
profile online (or in a store) takes time (indeed, the term 'we've used the information you volunteered to make this
“account history” or “search history” tells its own story). • trust matters. inference [which is also potentially interesting insight/
The profile, judging by our panel, can be “quite like me” discovery for individual]. But tell us if we've got something
On this point, it may be worthwhile pointing out that VPI
but that doesn’t necessarily reflect what the user is wrong, and we will make our inferences even better'.
is a journey along a spectrum. Some staging posts along
interested today. the way include those listed below. The Ctrl-Shift The future looks bright for the relationship between
Finally, was a conundrum, the advance of technology – the hypothesis is that there is a journey through the spectrum technology, enterprise and the individual, at least where
smartphone. This is a “personal” device. Although some where different degrees/levels of information sharing Volunteered Personal Information applications restore
people have more than one phone (see persona above), require different degrees/levels of trust/personal control. trust and balance to the system. It is a relationship that
it’s unusual event that it might be shared across many appeals to both parties. That is why Ctrl-Shift has
• ‘Permission to collect'- as in Clubcard and Nectar.
people. What we heard from our panel were mixed predicted that the market for VPI will be worth £20bn in
feelings. They realised that delivery on a phone did make • Volunteered as a component of a broader process, with the UK alone by 2020.
it personal but weren’t sure that they would do much with no visibility or control over how the information is
the information. subsequently used.
• Volunteered as a component of a process, with promises
over how the information will be used.
• Volunteered as part of a process with visibility and/or
control over how the information will be used (e.g. the
TAC of TACT).



8. Comment

Game-changing
About Ctrl-Shift
But even beyond this this commercial Ctrl-Shift is an independent research and consulting
imperative for businesses to act is a deeper business. It has been commissioned for this study but the
issue. Volunteered personal information will report has been produced without the direct involvement
only be volunteered when customers feel of nFluence. It is the strategic advisor to the UK
comfortable that the information is going to be government’s midata project; it is a member of the World
Economic Forum’s project and is currently advising a
used correctly.
number of global brands on their personal information
Getting this trust framework right is no small feat – it management strategies.
involves up-ending the current relationships. At the
moment, all these policies are set by the terms and
conditions of the supplier (or by their privacy policy) and About nFluence
the consumer has no choice in accepting them. However,
Headquartered in Seattle, Washington and London,
as other previous Ctrl-Shift research has found, in
England, nFluence Media is a marketing technology
agreeing these terms, consumers are often forced in to
startup that is focused on making marketing work better
some form of data-sharing with third parties. This is not
from a consumer’s point of view. Their patent-pending
the way to build a better information sharing policy. After
brand sorter technology allows consumers to create
all, it is only the individual that can decide if they are
anonymous interest graphs, or “advertars,” for more
willing to share information – privacy is a personal setting.
relevant targeting of deals, offers, ads and
Critically, these services create a direct, added value link messages.Mobile carriers, broadcasters, retailers and
between VPI and traditional marketing analytics media owners can radically enhance the responses to their
(propensity modelling and so on). Before we started this assets with massively reduced intrusion on uninterested
study, we thought VPI would mostly replace analytics. consumers.
But with this, it looks like VPI will both enrich analytics
for businesses and transform analytics into a tool for the
customer.
That really is game-changing.



Ctrl-Shift t| +44 (0) 20 7000 1907
Somerset House e| info@ctrl-shift.co.uk
West Wing, Strand w| www.ctrl-shift.co.uk
Design: Boilerhouse.co.uk London, WC2R 1LA


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