There’s almost nothing bigger and more buzzworthy in the direct marketing space right now than Big Data. It’s big, it’s divisive, it’s misunderstood, it’s lionized—and it’s the main topic of discussion at the first annual Data Innovation Day today.
Data Innovation Day includes a variety of webcasts on what it means to live in a data-driven—and somewhat divided—world in which consumers demand data innovation and pitch-perfect targeting from marketers while regulars seem dead set on stymieing a marketer’s ability to provide it. (Our own Ginger Conlon, editor-in-chief, is moderating DMA’s webcast “Data-Driven Marketing: Where the Innovators Are” at 2pm ET today.)
As recently appointed DMA president and CEO Linda Woolley told Direct Marketing News back in August 2012 following the congressional probe into data brokering practices: “This is a matter of catering to the customer and knowing what they want and what their preferences are.… If [a data broker is] any company that collects and uses consumer data, then that pretty much covers every company on the face of the earth. Where do we draw the line?”
To get you in the mood for the Big Day, here’s a roundup of some of our recent Big Data coverage:
- Big Data, little privacy (July 25, 2012): A congressional caucus on privacy has its gimlet eye trained on data brokers. [As one commenter on this piece cynically, though truthfully, noted: “Wait, it is an election year, right?”]
- DMA to Congress: Data brokers are not evil (August 15, 2012): The DMA defended a direct marketer’s right to bear data in a letter to Congress, noting that “in the digital age, data-driven marketing has become the fuel on which America’s free market engine runs.”
- Data broker investigation: Acxiom’s story (August 24, 2012): Acxiom’s chief privacy officer Jennifer Barrett-Glasgow set the record straight on its data gathering process.
- Database marketing discord requires consumer education (October 1, 2012): Congress’s probe into the practices of database marketing firms is causing a schism between lawmakers, privacy advocates, and marketers.
- Live from DMA2012: DMA launches institute to challenge regulation of consumer data (October 15, 2012): The DMA’s Data-Driven Marketing Institute will advocate against data-regulating legislation and provide education for consumers.
- Infographic: Demystifying the data broker (October 19, 2012): Consumers want to be clued in on data broker activity.
- Breaking down rumors, building up data (November 15, 2012): Acxiom’s CMO and Chief Strategy Officer Tim Suther takes the hot seat and discusses controversial issues, including Do Not Track, data misconceptions, and the CMO’s new role.
- FTC orders “data brokers” to disclose operations information (December 18, 2012): Nine companies were asked to provide the agency with details on the consumer data they collect, where they get it, and what they do with it.
- Watchdogs on a data trail (December 20, 2012): Privacy activists hound financial services marketers they think are dodging the Fair Credit Reporting Act. With the FTC picking up the scent, their bark may draw attention.
- Navigating the Murky Boundaries of Privacy (January 1, 2013): Marketers using customer data to improve performance must balance customers’ expectation of privacy with their preference for relevant communications.
- With Woolley as CEO, DMA Focuses on Data Marketing (January 10, 2013): Linda Woolley was appointed president and CEO the DMA, continuing the organization’s agenda to support and advance data-driven marketing practices.
