These are troubling times for digital marketers. Recently labelled ‘dysfunctional and opaque’ by a group of UK politicians, with a ‘corrosive’ effect on the trust that advertising has traditionally been predicated on, brands are left struggling to understand the value they derive from digital marketing. There seems little doubt that 2018 will be defined as the year digital’s woes went mainstream with a combination of factors conspiring to deliver the perfect storm.

From the implementation of GDPR to the fallout of the Cambridge Analytica scandal to wider data privacy concerns following numerous data breaches, a litany of damaging stories has left the industry reeling. With Apple ’ s 2018 revision of its Intelligent Tracking Prevention taking a much stricter approach to cookie handling, the terrain isn’t going to get any easier to navigate. At the heart of this issue however is more than just the need to regain trust from brands and consumers. Vendors offering online services need to fundamentally reassess whether the way they both capture and repurpose data is done in a considerate and proportional way.

The uncomfortable truth is that some of them may conclude they don’t, and will be left to ponder whether they have a place in the new digital world order. Setting a gold standard A common conclusion in the wake of GDPR was that those businesses who can establish a trusted and reciprocal relationship with consumers will be those who stand to gain the most.

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