With guest to the grill, Gabe Mach, we got the hot take on privacy and data, with a few spicy side dishes thrown in this June.
Gabe is the Digital Advertising Manager for Bonfire – an award-winning digital performance agency that counts Water Corporation, St John WA and reiwa.com amongst its clients.
His role at Bonfire is leading the digital advertising team, delivering successful campaigns that have contributed to Bonfire’s accolades including Campaign Brief WA’s 2021 “Best of Year for Use of Data”, and Australian Marketing Institute’s “2020 WA Marketing Agency of the Year”.
He's also won many personal accolades including Top 25 Analytics Leaders in Australia (2019) by IAPA - Institute of Analytics Professionals of Australia and Australian Marketing Institute WA Future Leader of the Year (2018) and is a regular guest lecturer for Edith Cowan University (ECU) and the Association for Data-driven Marketing (ADMA), while also sitting on ECU’s Marketing Consultation Committee and the AMI WA State Committee.
Exhausting! I need a break after just reading his bio.
I met Gabe at an AMI WA event recently and we started chatting about Grill The Marketer and what his speciality topic would be if he was on the panel. And whilst he's no slouch when it comes to all things paid digital marketing, I asked what set his world on fire and he said "data and privacy" so we decided this what what we wanted to grill him on. There's no shortage of relevance with this topic with Apple's privacy rampage, the SafeWA app data being accessed by police, and the retirement of cookies looming - perfect timing to get grilling!
Photo Credit: Monique Boucher, Hidden deTours
What I really like about this event is that it's tailored to the audience.
Some of our smaller brands didn't think they had much data to worry about, or were worried they didn't have enough data to be effective. But it was quickly pointed out that a signup sheet from an expo or trade show, a list of emails from a giveaway or promotion, your database sitting in Eventbrite or Mailchimp - this is all data and you do have to bear in mind how it's stored, who has access and remember how you'd feel if it was your name on that list you're storing on Dropbox with the same password as literally everything else you access.
Gabe has some great tips for marketers of all levels to better store and share their data. Use strong passwords and a password manager, hash databases before sharing, and use a CRM to house your customer data.
He also pointed out that there was a gap between legal and ethical use of data, as the privacy and data retention laws are not really keeping up with technology (are any?) and so there's many grey areas. And if in doubt, best to strict to the right side. Remember how the data was obtained! You may need a double opt-in for your newsletter. You could need an extra check-box in your purchase forms. These extra steps demonstrate that you're respectful of your audience's data and also weed out the people not really interested in your messaging.
Specific tools and resources mention by Gabe on the night were:
Google Search Console for better search data than Google Analytics
LastPass password manager
Have I been pwned? to check if you have been compromised and need to change your passwords, like, now!
A great night of marketing bants, pizza and cheese, and a couple of bevvies with our ever-growing community of Perth's most collaborative marketers.
And with feedback like this on LinkedIn, we know we're onto a winner!
Can't wait to do it again in August with Callum McKenzie (Managing Director at Rare) as our special guest on the grill! Reserve your spot here.