Episode #32: The Future of Privacy in Digital Marketing - Stephane Hamel
Because your privacy is important to us
Since the dawn of the digital age, B2B GTM strategies have become completely reliant on personal data.
This isn’t a bug; it’s a feature. After all, marketing automation platforms have always boasted about tracking a prospect’s “digital body language” and using data to personalize emails, ads, and websites.
When it comes up at all, data privacy is typically viewed strictly through a legal and risk-management lens. Companies generally aim to maximize the data they collect while complying with the letter of the law—no more, no less.
A case in point: visit a website from an EU IP, and you’ll (hopefully!) see a cookie banner.
Now visit the same website from a North American IP. A majority of the time, you won’t see the banner and your browser will have a bunch of new tracking cookies, all placed silently and without consent.
I’m not suggesting this is illegal in any way. But it would be disingenuous to say that such a company is concerned about privacy or consent as a matter of principle. It’s simply trying to collect as much data as it legally can.
I’ve grappled with this issue for some years.
It’s a bit like a GTM arms race. As a marketer or RevOps professional, it’s difficult to even suggest asking for more consent or avoiding invasive tracking, because it creates a perceived disadvantage, especially if all your competitors are doing it.
And where commercial interests clash with abstract notions of privacy, the commercial interests typically win.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that this sort of tracking largely feels like it’s not really hurting anyone—even though the implications of losing control of your personal data can be quite extreme, as today’s guest Stephane Hamel shares in the video below.
I don’t have all the answers here, but I definitely think it’s a discussion we should have. And Stephane is the best person I could think of to have it with.
He’s a legendary practitioner and thought leader in the digital analytics space and one of the foremost advocates for privacy and ethics in marketing.
This week he joins me to address one of the thorniest topics in GTM.
Thanks to Our Sponsor
Many thanks to the sponsor of this episode - Knak.
Knak is a modern, slick, and beautiful email and landing page builder that integrates directly with your marketing automation platform.
Click below to learn more and get a special offer just for RevOps FM listeners.
About Today's Guest
Stephane Hamel is a digital analytics and marketing expert with over 35 years experience. He has spoken at over 150 industry events and was named one of the Most Influential Industry Contributors by the Digital Analytics Association. As an educator, he’s taught thousands of students at institutions including UBC, SimpliLearn, ULaval, Harvard, YorkU, and others. In recent years, he’s focused his attention on the ethical use of data in a marketing context
Key Topics
[00:00] - Introduction
[01:49] - Current state of privacy in marketing
[03:30] - Vision of a truly privacy-oriented company
[08:20] - How a 100% consent-based model would work
[10:59] - Is privacy-respecting marketing better marketing?
[13:26] - Analogy of seatbelts
[17:32] - Getting people to care about privacy
[20:50] - Advertising in a privacy-first world
[24:21] - Conflict between privacy and commercial interests
[31:41] - Google and the “death” of third-party cookies
[36:47] - AI literacy
[41:44] - Career impact of being privacy-oriented