Personified VS Personalized Ads

We know (from the death of the third-party cookie) that privacy changes in data regulations and laws in recent years have marketers in hot water in regard to their approach toward a privacy-compliant future. In fact, according to analytics from Gartner, 63% of digital marketers are having trouble with personalization – and by 2025, 80% will have given up on personalization altogether.

So, in Succession speak, what’s the play here? What is the next step for marketers? If personalized ads based on personal data are out the window due to changes in regulation, how do marketers target their audiences in a compliant way and still achieve the same results? In an interview for AdWeek, Geoffroy Martin CEO of Ogur thinks he’s got the solution: swap personalized for personified ads.  

What’s the difference between personalized and personified ads?

Personalized ads: These are ads that are tailored to individual users based on their preferences, interests, demographics, or online behavior, all of which are tracked through the use of the dreaded 3rd party cookie. The problem, of course, is the data collected from these various sources is now massively limited and restricted due to changes in regulations. 

Personified ads: A term coined by Gartner back in 2015 to describe a digital experience that is based on customers’ inclusion in a certain segment rather than their personal identity. However, unlike the term, the tech required for this is entirely new. It uses audience interest data to qualify impressions rather than personal data to qualify the user. 

The problem with all this, of course, is adaptation. Advertisers and marketers will have to pivot their strategies to comply massively with new privacy regulations. Not only that, but they will face a long road to regaining consumer trust after years of sneaky data tracking. This shift will require changes in how advertisers target and engage with audiences, which will therefore require new tools and solutions.

Ogury, for example, is investing in technologies like contextual advertising, which focuses on the content and context of the user rather than personal data. We predict that personalization will shift from primarily 1-1 based on browser history to interest matching based on context and probabilistically modeled audiences.

Celtra is focused on building automation tools that produce commerce-driven ads with elevated designs that drive higher performance across the entire media buy. We understand that advertisers will need to experiment with various data sources to find a winning strategy, so our team at Celtra is building tools that allow you to tag, observe, and leverage specific creative elements for performance testing. 

Ensuring that personified ads provide value and relevance to users without compromising on privacy is a challenge, but with the right technology and minds, we can continue to deliver relevant and meaningful content to users without compromising their privacy.