Francisco Cardenas
Francisco Cárdenas, director of Digital Strategy at Richards/Lerma, recalls that three years ago, people contradicted one another in talking about data. “At the 2015 SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas, on the one hand we had Edward Snowden warning the world about the vulnerability of consumer data; and on the other, folks were talking about how brands could and should capitalize on that data to target those same consumers more effectively”.He says that this contradiction led participants from a little panic to a sense of opportunity, a chance to accurately pinpoint consumers with more relevant messages.Today, after the Facebook scandal involving data manipulation affecting 50 million users by Cambridge Analytica, he warns that although with this discovery, harm has already been done, the potential of social networks has also been made evident due to the previously unimaginable volume of users revealed by Facebook. “It seems unbelievable, but when brands and marketing executives were talking about big data, they were only thinking about the likes of Simmons databases from CRM, ComScore or even ‘massive’ targeted surveys. And while there is tremendous value in those sources, few understood the potential of platforms beyond interfaces like Facebook Insights and audience segmentation that was increasingly more specific and robust.” But now with the scandal, the public’s trust has been lost, the executive says, and it reflects directly on the brands that benefit from segmentation capabilities when buying media spaces on Facebook. Cardenas makes three recommendations: 1. Brands must see the potential of these platforms and of the tools they offer a company to know its consumers better. 2. Advertisers must remain loyal to their values: if consumers come first, a company should always think about ways to make their lives easier with its products and services. Advertising agencies have the advantage of being agnostic about these channels. They try to take their clients by the hand to navigate these platforms and get their messages across in an honest, relevant way to audiences that visit them frequently. 3. If a brand has the vision and maturity to capture its consumers’ data, it should immediately analyze the consequences of breaking their trust. I invite you to see how leaders with powerful brands – such as Tesla and SpaceX led by Elon Musk – have shown that paradigms can be broken. Don’t stop sharing on Facebook.
