The business of corporate investment isn’t quite like gambling, despite what can frequently be uncertain outcomes.
But, for one former media agency boss who now is now part of a private equity company, the next gamble make in marketing is clear.
“If I were a betting person, I would go long on identity,” says Laura Desmond the former Starcom Mediavest Group CEO who is now operating partner at Providence Equity, in this video interview with Beet.TV.
What does Desmond mean by “identity”? Simply, the idea that marketers shouldn’t just treat audiences as anonymous pieces of programmatic data whom to push out messages to; they should have bona fide relationships with active prospects, and they will need the technology to manage that.
“We’re going through a tremendous pivot to first party data,” Desmond adds. “Identity is going to become the backbone of the personalized marketing experience, and the advertising ecosystem.
“It is the authentication of the real person, the device as well as who you are from your online and your offline purchases, which is going to make the difference to marketers being able to find you with relevant advertising.
Providence’s portfolio includes DoubleVerify and Chernin Group. It previously acquired and sold Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1
Desmond sits on the boards of DoubleVerify, Adobe Systems and Syniverse Technologies.
“You now need first party data and an identity graph that is your own, both something that you curate and build yourself, as well as partner with other first party data partnerships to create a bigger collective,” she says.
This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of LUMA Partners’ DIGITAL MEDIA EAST 2019. For more videos from the conference, please visit this page. This series is sponsored by 4INFO.