Changes in data and privacy policy by social media companies will have a deep impact on the marketing strategies of multiple firms, but creative advertising can overcome this, according to guest speakers at the SBC Digital North America event.
In a Spirable-sponsored panel entitled ‘The Sports Betting Marketing Revolution: How to Win with Data-Driven Creative’, mediated by Payment Expert editorial Joe Streeter, Daniel Toledo, Head Of Performance Marketing at Entain and Dave O’Meara, Co-Founder and COO at Spirable, discussed creative marketing initiatives.
Toledo argued that the shift in data and privacy laws will make advertising strategies less effective. Although he noted that marketers will be able to sidestep this hurdle through a change in focus, he added that this could have potentially negative consequences for customers.
“The shift that I’m seeing is that we will be less effective from an advertising point of view,” he remarked. “We will probably go more broad and will go more towards interest targeting, while today with all the cookie data in place we are able to serve the right ads to the right customer.”
He added: “With the privacy talks that are happening and the changes that we are seeing I think that advertising will be more broad, and I don’t know if it’s necessarily a good experience for the customer.”
O’Meara agreed arguing that the ‘macro trend’ is that advertisers and marketers are beginning to lose control of the media side of their business, but added that this challenge can be met with a broadening of creative advertising to develop more engaging and targeted advertising strategies.
“Levels of targeting and social channels will become even more relevant because their first party data on how a user engages with content within their platform allows them to see what customer’s indicate with and what they interact with.”
Continuing, he added: “Social platforms will become platforms where you’ll have more visibility because they control more of that. I think on social media, the creativity that you deliver becomes really important.
“Making that creative more relevant – updating offers, countdowns or game schedules, making that creative work harder, and being more relevant – ‘future proofs’ you to a certain degree because you have the most control.”
Toledo, meanwhile, also observed that marketers have the correct ability to remain versatile and adaptable to meet any potential challenges posed by developments in social media privacy policy.
He remarked: “Digital marketers are used to change and we always adapt. I think the discussion about privacy is a fair one, customers need to be protected and we as individuals don’t want our data to be sold.”
When quizzed by Streeter about the process for developing and pushing creative advertising initiatives, Toledo remarked: “In reality, everything you have on site, every piece of data you have available, can be pushed on a creative.
“The main challenge is making those creatives as appealing as possible, to still reach an audience that has an ability to engage with your creative and make sure that the journey is still relevant for people and make sure advertisers do not have a lot of wastage in their expense.
“I also keep in mind that the customer service needs to be good, and that’s the interesting piece – can the customer experience still be good even after all these privacy changes that we are seeing? I think it can, but it will be different.”
Noting the versatility of the sports betting sector and its ability to create useful and inspiring content, O’Meara stated: “You’ve got to create that reason for someone to engage with the content, and I think that sports betting as a industry has a great ability to do that because there’s just so much variety in terms of what’s happening every day.”
Toledo and O’Meara were speaking on the Leaders in Sports Betting Track sponsored by Sportradar at SBC Digital North America, which ran from June 9 to 10, 2021. To access this panel and more, click here https://sbcevents.com/sbc-digital-north-america/
