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Privacy – What Advertisers Can Learn from the TSA
I’ve mentioned before that I really like many of the cartoons that @TomFishburne sends out in his Brand Camp posts. Today’s Brand Camp cartoon really hit home because it’s something I’ve tweeted about long ago.
I remember seeing this TSA sticker (below) posted on the x-ray machine at an airport I can’t recall in the blur of airport visits throughout the year. Although the sticker doesn’t ask me to “Like” the TSA, it does ask me to follow. Close enough. I have little interest in reading whatever it is the TSA blogs about, especially since I doubt they have a decent mechanism on their blog to actually engage (and make changes) with the flying public.
Three things I think brands can learn from this simple cartoon and sticker.
- Without an interesting message and a reason to truly engage, nobody wants to be your friend
- Transparency and trust is important – the TSA does x-ray your bag and put you through a sensor
- Be upfront and state the benefit – The TSA clearly states their expectations to travelers. The benefit for travelers is, barring any weapons or excluded items, travelers are permitted to the gates
In many ways the TSA reminds me of some of the privacy issues that are facing the digital media and advertising industry, when it comes to privacy. For example, if consumers had a better understanding (transparency) of how advertisers were using cookies or tracking pixels to provide a better service (targeted ads), I believe it could improve the relationship for advertisers, consumers and tracking technology providers. More importantly this transparency can lead to better self-regulation and ease potential over-regulation of Internet advertising by the FCC. And perhaps this could even work in the EU – I’m an optimist at heart!
Since I’m in a position to make decisions about these sorts of things, as the head of digital marketing for a large CPG company (see my disclosure), I have embraced what the folks over at Evidon are doing. Scott Meyer is leading an incredibly smart and passionate team at Evidon. In fact, I have even downloaded their Ghostery product. (The Ghostery icon reminds me of Blinky, that annoying ghost in Pac-Man that used to kill my Pac-Man!) The difference is that this ghost tells me who and what is tracking me on each site I visit – it’s pretty cool. And in the not to distant future the brands I work on will have this Advertising Option Icon on them.
The industry support for this program is great and growing. Just look at who is on board already. If you are an advertiser or a consumer, you should really check out this program of self-regulation.
It’s akin to what I hope will become a universal symbol for quality advertising online as well as complete transparency about data usage. This online privacy and data usage space has a long way to go and with a great partnership from within the industry (see above), I truly believe consumers will embrace ad data sharing, cookies and the wonderful world of targeted advertising. Who wants to see crap ads and ads from companies whose product or services for which they have no interest.
I will write a few more posts in the coming weeks about privacy, especially how to safeguard your individual privacy in the social graph – this will be especially good for a lot of college students that will soon be entering the working (professional) world, where showing pictures of keg stands won’t go over well with prospective employers.
As always, I would enjoy hearing your feedback. Ping me at @dougchavez or feel free to post on this page.
Social Media Monday Blues
I had a sneaking suspicion that today would be an interesting day. And it certainly has been a “Monday” for several folks in the social media world. One of the email lists i subscribe to is Tom Fishburn’s Maketoonist (@TomFishburne)”Brand Camp” cartoons. The cartoon today was especially interesting to me, since the cartoon nails what I believe a lot of brands get wrong – outsourcing social media management.
I’m certain there are many highly qualified and competent agencies that do a solid job for their clients. In fact, we use a hybrid model at my company. That said, I’m a firm believer that brands and their marketing (digital marketing) organizations should manage social media in house. Here’s why. First, Nobody knows the brand better than the brand team and the marketing organization supporting the brand(s). Second, paying a third party, exposes the brand to the risk of the constant churn in agency account teams. When that twentysomething leaves for the next step in their agency career all the knowledge leaves with the person. On the other hand, having a brand person (ideally multiple brand team members) actively engaged in the conversation keeps the knowledge of community management in house – and when that brand person switches brands that skillset stays withing the organization. It’s all upside. Granted people will leave the organization, however, I would rather manage that transition vs. a new junior person at the agency (which I will certainly have little or no control over)
I’m sure there will be plenty of agency types reading this and several will disagree with me. There will also be brand marketers reading this and say “I have no time for community management”. Both are fair points and I will certainly be happy to address them. In fact, I plan on writing a few posts with my thoughts on both of those viewpoints. Stay tuned.
Midway through today I heard the news that Gilbert Gottfried, the voice of the beloved Aflac duck was canned for tweeting some incredibly insensitive and moronic things about Japan. Not a good thing to do, especially given that 75% of Aflac’s business comes from Japan. Talk about a #FAIL of galactic proportions.
I’m a bit bummed since I do like Gilbert’s voice for the Aflac duck, especially since I don’t have to see Gilbert’s annoying squinting eyes. Perhaps Gilbert and the guy that thought he was tweeting from his personal account but tweeted from the @ChryslerAutos account and dropped the F Bomb, was subsequently fired by his agency, New Media Strategies, right before they were fired by Chrysler, can join forces and form one of those agencies that mange social media strategies. [See above paragraph].
I am biased towards in-house social media management but I truly think there is good reason. I’m always happy to hear your thoughts, so feel free to ping me at @Dougchavez or post a comment below.
