Insights Will Replace ‘Impressions’ as the Currency of Advertising

For generations, “impressions” have been the currency of advertising. Impressions – how many eyeballs an ad supposedly reaches – are used to sell everything from billboard space to banner ads. The rise of data-driven commerce and proliferation of mobile devices will combine to deliver something far more valuable than impressions: insights.

Several factors are now converging to significantly improve data collection and drive its value to new heights. The first is collection of data from mobile devices, which are quickly overtaking laptops and desktops as the Internet portal of choice. Privacy concerns worldwide are another factor that is shaping how companies and consumers view data collection: Anonymous data is emerging as a safer alternative.

Anonymous data collection at its best results from mass advertising to individuals – permission-based offers delivered to consumers via smartphones at or near the point of sale. This form of data collection completely protects consumer privacy since only non-identifying metadata is collected, such as time, place, date, length of stay in area, phone make and model, offers accepted or rejected, etc.

Multiple studies show that consumers are more likely to act on offers they receive at the point of sale, so a proximity marketing strategy makes sense for retailers. But in addition to driving revenue higher, a proximity marketing approach that collects anonymous data delivers a valuable commodity in the form of the insights contained in the data – insights that have intrinsic value beyond the immediate marketing campaign.

Anonymous data collected at the point of sale via mobile devices functions in the brick-and-mortar retail space similarly to how cookie tracking works on sites like eBay and Amazon.com. It enables merchants to gain insight into customer interests, preferences, frequency of visits and much more to deliver actionable business intelligence. So what’s the value of these insights as a commodity?

Experts at Baylor University examined that question and came up with a preliminary estimate for each unit of insight: $0.20. They also projected that when combined with additional information, such as loyalty program data, the value of each insight could rise to $4 per unit or higher.

Considering that a single proximity marketing network can generate a terabyte of data every three or four days, it’s easy to envision what a gold mine anonymous data can be for its collectors – and how valuable the insights can be for buyers in generating additional sales with targeted offers. By creating value for consumers through relevant offers, generating revenue at the point of sale for merchants and becoming an incredibly valuable commodity in its own right, insights delivered via anonymous data are poised to replace impressions as the currency of advertising.

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