Commentary

GDPR, Upfronts Face Long-Term Consumer Data Issues

The arrival of GDPR in late May is perfectly timed for U.S. marketers: It means more disruption right at the start of TV’s upfront ad market.

Although GDPR are European-based rules, a good chunk will involve U.S. consumers who might not opt-in on specific websites. The GDPR -- General Data Protection Regulation -- rules give consumers more control of their data.

A survey of top media buyers and planners at 32 major media agencies asked what percentage of their clients’ consumer data would become “unusable” given the new regulations. The average of all responses was 43%. (The highest response was 85%.)

How much of this will actually affect negotiations of data-based, audience-segmented TV deals? No results as yet. No doubt, major marketers already have a keen sense of their first-party consumer data and its current value.

advertisement

advertisement

But if some data becomes “unusable,” will marketers revert to more age and gender metrics?

And now there are more lawsuits as well -- against Facebook, against Google -- media data from two major sources that brand marketers use to provide consumer trend directions.

Digital media programmatic deals could be impacted. Programmatic TV deals? They are slow-moving. With more consumer data being more important for future media deals -- including legacy TV networks -- all this might slow down traditional TV networks to shift more to audience-based TV upfront deal-making.

Complicating efforts: Consumers have largely either ignored, opted-out or put off their consent, according to a recent survey. Only 30.4% of the respondents said they agreed to those requests.

Over the last few years, TV networks have been feeling emboldened that digital media concerns from advertisers and consumers, in regard to viewability, fraud and privacy, would bring digital media dollars back to TV.

That’s the near-term good news.

But as traditional TV continues to shift to more digital media platforms in the coming years, all types of consumer data issues will be waiting as well.

1 comment about "GDPR, Upfronts Face Long-Term Consumer Data Issues".
Check to receive email when comments are posted.
  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, May 31, 2018 at 10:06 a.m.

    Wayne, the primetime national TV upfronts are almost totally about linear TV buys, not digital buys. As a result, the GDPR should have virtually zero impact on the upfront now pending.

Next story loading loading..