Natalia Mila, Chief Technology Officer at Upstream.
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Digital marketing is experiencing a watershed moment. The growing consumer awareness around data privacy that led to the creation of regulations like GDPR, CCPA, LGPD and POPIA has now impacted advertising and third-party tracking cookies. For years, third-party cookies were the backbone of digital advertising, allowing marketers to deliver personalized offers and advertisements via a web browser.
Now, however, browsers are changing. Already, Apple’s Safari and Firefox’s Mozilla browsers have removed third-party cookies, and come 2024, Google will follow suit, meaning around 83% of web traffic will no longer receive tracking cookies. By eliminating tracking cookies, one of the most important items in a digital marketer’s toolbox is removed.
A Digital Marketing Dilemma
Yet, the challenge for marketers doesn’t stop there. Although consumers are concerned about privacy and how their data is used, they nevertheless expect brands to personalize communications with them. Research results from Data Axle have found that 9 in 10 consumers find it annoying if the messages a brand sends aren’t personalized. This situation has led to retailers and e-commerce brands being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Although they want—and need—to offer personalized messages, legislation and the removal of tracking cookies are limiting their abilities.
However, despite this, technology is once again providing a solution and putting mobile network operators (MNOs) and mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) at the center of marketing. The growing demand for personalization with improved data privacy has created an opportunity for operators to look into the future of consumer advertising and marketing and put themselves in charge of their own destinies. How is this possible? Well, operators are sitting on one answer to the challenge digital marketers face.
The Operators’ Opportunity
For a mobile device to connect to a network, operators provide devices with a unique identifier. This identifier, known as a mobile station international subscriber directory number (MSISDN), is mapped to a subscriber identity module (SIM). This system ensures that when a call or request for data/information is made, it is received by the right device. However, by using this same system, operators can tailor advertising to a specific subscriber. With the right mobile marketing technology applied on top—as well as the user’s consent, of course—an operator can enable the delivery of highly targeted advertising and promotions.
These new mobile marketing systems aren’t meant to be a like-for-like replacement for tracking cookies either. Compared to third-party cookies, they’re agnostic to browsers, websites and apps, and they establish a one-on-one relationship between brands and consumers without third parties involved, taking privacy concerns seriously. What elevates them is the facility of mobile messaging services such as short message service (SMS) and rich communication services (RCS). SMS, for instance, has been consistently shown to drive significantly higher engagement than email marketing. Data from Gartner analysts has shown that whereas marketing emails have an open rate of 20% and a response rate of 6%, SMS delivers results of 98% and 45%, respectively.
RCS, too, has come into its own. With tech giants including Google getting behind the messaging standard, it’s seeing increased adoption, and with its ability to provide highly visual and engaging content, it’s rapidly becoming a prime channel for marketing campaigns. Like SMS, RCS is already built into mobile networks, so operators don’t have to invest heavily in new solutions to make it viable.
Simple Setup
Setting up software-based user identification technology over a mobile network is straightforward because this kind of tech can work as a “black box” that plugs into preexisting systems. Its implementation takes only a couple of days of a network engineer’s time. For operators looking to grow their revenues and expand the services they offer, the simplicity of such a mobile marketing technology makes it a great place to start.
As digital marketing experiences a watershed moment with the removal of tracking cookies and the growing demand from consumers for personalized, targeted advertising, a new opportunity is presented to mobile operators. By leveraging network infrastructure and installing mobile marketing platforms, MNOs and MVNOs can simultaneously offer a new tool for digital marketers while expanding their business offerings.
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