When Data Is Your Brand: Tips on Managing the Changing Landscape of Digital Advertising, Data Collection and Consumer Engagement

Chicago counsel Melissa Dillenbeck and Chicago associate Mita Lakhia spoke on a panel, which included Publicis Groupe’s senior counsel Chancé L. Cooper and counsel Molly Penn Stefanisin, and Workiva’s assistant general counsel Lynn Peng, on “When Data Is Your Brand: Tips on Managing the Changing Landscape of Digital Advertising, Data Collection and Consumer Engagement” on May 16, 2019, in Chicago as part of Drinker Biddle’s 2nd Annual Diversity and Inclusion CLE Event.

The panelists explained how digital advertising begins when data is collected on a consumer’s activity, with direct consent or through disclosure by notice, while interacting with a software-enabled device, such as by visiting a web page, using a mobile app with geolocation functionality while walking a store’s aisles, participating in a promotion and agreeing to share information with a company, participating in a loyalty program, or interacting with a company on social media. Essentially any online interaction and nearly any “real life” commercial interaction beyond a small cash purchase is captured by someone. Avenues in today’s digital advertising world include: paid search, displays, platforms and social media, targeted posts, behavioral advertising / sponsored content, influencers, user-generated content, tracking, gamification, email blasts, text messages and loyalty programs.

The panelists covered the topics of:

• The most effective ways of engaging customers
• Disclosure when using social media and influencers
• Reducing the risk of complaints from the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), including using specifics, not bundling consents and using opt-in rather than opt-out
• The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)—going into effect Jan. 1, 2020—which includes a consumer’s right to opt out of the sale of personal information to third parties
• How to learn how your company uses digital advertising
• Identifying how data privacy affects your digital advertising