London, UK – (May 22nd, 2023) – Acxiom, the data-driven marketing experts who create customer intelligence solutions enabling better customer experiences, has announced the launch of the second generation of its UK customer insight product, InfoBase®️.
InfoBase UK leads the way, with its innovative privacy-enhancing approach and new cohort-based attributes. InfoBase can now be used as an anonymous source of marketing insight, which is futureproofed against regulatory change and simplifies compliance with UK GDPR.
Decades of expertise and Acxiom’s extensive history of data-driven marketing and customer intelligence, combine to create a product with meaningful insights with full coverage across all the UK. The result is a rich source of marketing intelligence using both address-level segments and cohorts of individuals. Acxiom’s unique approach to privacy-by-design and high-resolution cohort data maintains individual insights in a way that is anonymised to protect everyone’s individual identity. By using this intelligent approach, brands can analyse customer data more effectively, personalise their marketing messages, and engage people in a relevant manner across all digital channels, giving businesses a competitive edge.
Answering the ‘personalisation paradox’
Acxiom has introduced cohort-based insights to enable personalised experiences and simultaneously enhancing data privacy: a complex problem we refer to as the ‘personalisation paradox‘.
After commissioning research into the value of personalisation, Acxiom found only one in three people (31%) have lower levels of concern about the sharing of personal data. The remaining two in three people are concerned about privacy but the majority would consider sharing data if there is a fair value exchange and privacy governance. The ‘data protection by design and default’ approach of Acxiom’s InfoBase addresses these concerns within its design.
McKinsey’s ’Next in Personalization’ report reveals that people have high expectations for personalised marketing and brand communications. Specifically, 71% of people expect personalised interactions and 76% feel frustrated when these expectations are not met. Most importantly for brands, companies that excel in customisation generate 40% more revenue than their competitors, while also fostering repeat engagement and long-term customer loyalty.
Together, these research reports indicate it is more important than ever for brands to deliver personalised experiences that are relevant and that also take data privacy seriously. People are overall comfortable sharing data and accepting of brands using their information for advertising, but that there is still a range in attitudes that needs to be considered when sourcing insight to develop data-driven marketing strategies.
Finding the right balance between data privacy and personalisation
Customer intelligence solutions need to find the balance, providing brands the right level of customer insight to drive relevant marketing experiences, while using personal data in a way that is meaningful and respectful (and of course compliant with regulations). Moving from individual-level data to cohort-based insights offers highly accurate and predictive insight that respects people’s desire for individual privacy. Put another way, as well as accuracy, data privacy is an integral part of data quality.
Brands using InfoBase engage their customers with the relevant, meaningful messages that they love, but with new ways to manage how personal information is being used. Brands achieve the marketing performance they need with easier data access, and with simpler regulatory compliance than would be associated with third-party personally identifiable information (PII) based solutions.
David Keens, Head of Product, EMEA, at Acxiom, says: “People want to see advertising that’s meaningful to them and they don’t want to see advertising that isn’t relevant. However, being able to do this, getting this personalisation right, requires data about people: data that describes what someone is more or less likely to be interested in.”
“The industry needs a clear way of futureproofing data-driven marketing. Approaches that are fully centred on the individual, transparent on how data is used, and comprehensively support privacy regulations in a manner that is resilient to future changes. This involves protecting the privacy of every individual person in a way that respects and understands the changing privacy landscape and enables more relevant advertising.”
“This makes InfoBase an ideal solution, allowing brands to enrich and enhance existing customer intelligence with descriptive and predictive insights, enabling in-depth analysis, modelling and segmentation, more effective personalisation, more relevant advertising, and an improved customer experience.”
About Acxiom
Acxiom is a customer intelligence company that provides data-driven solutions to enable the world’s best marketers to better understand their customers to create better experiences and business growth. A leader in customer data management, identity, and the ethical use of data for more than 50 years, Acxiom now helps thousands of clients and partners around the globe work together to create millions of better customer experiences, every day. Acxiom is a registered trademark of Acxiom LLC and is part of The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (IPG). For more information, visit Acxiom.co.uk.
