by Anne Mai Bertelsen, MAi Strategies-

Advertisers and publishers gathered at DPAC III Conference in New York this week all seemed to agree that data is the “scrap gold” of this recession.  They urged each other to become more sophisticated in their ability to mine, augment and leverage data in order to command higher CPMs and generate greater revenues.

In the quest to enhance their data, advertisers and publishers need to remember that they must provide value and relevance to overcome consumers’ privacy concerns — something that many social networking sites understand. Despite their calls for privacy protection, millions of consumers each day willingly post their personal information — from status updates, to photos, to events they are attending –  in the public domain on sites like Facebook and MySpace for others to see, comment and act on. They use GPS enabled software, like BrightKite, to post their location and hook up with friends.  Even offline, consumers willingly hand over their personal information to retailers, airlines, and hotels in exchange for special offers and discounts.

Studies corroborate this marketplace behavior:  consumers want marketers to provide personalized offers.

Source: ChoiceStream Personalization Study

In fact many are willing to provide additional information — via surveys or online communities — to marketers to deliver this personalization.  Marketers should take advantage of consumers’ willingness to exchange information for relevance:  invite consumers to participate in surveys or dynamic online communities, like MTV, whose community has even filled out detailed daily journals of their entertainment behaviors and preferences; leverage insight companies like comScore and RapLeaf to create “look-alike” profile models of target customers; and listen to what consumers are saying about your  products and services through “listening” companies like Radian6.

Undertaking these activities should not only strengthen advertisers and publishers ability to offer more relevance to consumers but it should also help reduce consumer retaliation via increased marketing opt outs, alternative/fake email addresses and demands for control over their information.

Anne Mai Bertelsen is the Founder and President of MAi Strategies, a marketing consulting firm specializing in integrated marketing strategy development and implementation.