Breaking data silos: Digital marketer’s checklist for strategic data collaboration

The following checklist distills actionable strategies for digital marketers from Lotame’s “The 2024 State of Data Collaboration: A Global Perspective” research report, fielded by Cint. It’s designed to enable smarter, faster and easier decision-making for forward-thinking marketers. 

Key takeaways from the research

• Data challenges: 98% of marketers and agencies face barriers in data orchestration and utilization. They struggle with identifying quality sources, dealing with first-party data limitations and with internal data silos.
• First-party data: 70% of respondents see first-party data as urgent, but challenges include unstable identifiers (email, mobile IDs) leading to data collaboration considerations.
• Third-party cookies: Continued reliance on third-party cookies, but a shift toward a portfolio approach in identity solutions.
• Programmatic spending: Decline in programmatic spending, with an even split between budgets for walled gardens and the open web.
• Tech stack: Surge in technology adoption, particularly in marketing automation and data collaboration platforms. Retirements of analytics platforms and clean rooms signal challenges.
• Clean rooms: Widely used but facing scrutiny due to costs and scaling challenges, leading to a balanced adoption and retirement rate.
• Data collaboration platforms: Emerging as versatile tools for unifying data, uncovering insights and improving audience targeting, showing tangible positive outcomes.

Actionable items for marketing teams:

Data strategy:

1. Evaluate current data orchestration processes and identify barriers to address.
2. Prioritize the collection and activation of first-party data. Explore strategic collaboration with external partners to combine and analyze data assets.
3. Monitor the reliance on third-party cookies and proactively diversify identity solutions to reduce dependency.

Technology investments:

1. Plan for the adoption of new marketing technologies, with a focus on platforms that offer robust data orchestration and activation capabilities.
2. Conduct a comprehensive evaluation of your current tech stack and identify any outdated, underperforming, or redundant technologies.  
3. Explore data collaboration platforms as a solution to unify disparate data sources, enhance targeting, and expand audience reach.

Marketing and advertising:

1. Balance programmatic spending between walled gardens and the open web.
2. Advocate for greater transparency and standardization in real-time bidding to optimize open web investments.
3. Adopt a portfolio approach to identity solutions, leveraging a mix of methods for comprehensive reach and targeting.

Clean room management:

1. Evaluate the ROI of clean rooms and consider alternatives if costs outweigh benefits.
2. Address the technical challenges associated with clean rooms, including the integration of authenticated IDs and the need for specialized data expertise.

Ready to turn data challenges into opportunities?

Uncover more insights in Lotame’s 2024 research report, “The State of Data Collaboration: A Global Perspective.” This report, fielded by Cint, surveyed 1,200 marketers and agencies across six global markets: Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Singapore, the UK, and North America.

Here’s what’s inside:

• Part one: Something is rotten in the state of data. 
• Part two: Open web goes toe-to-toe with walled gardens. 
• Part three: What’s on the tech stack shopping list? 
• Part four: Data collaboration platforms are marketing’s Swiss army knife.

Download the full report now for more actionable takeaways to help you make smarter, faster and easier Data Empowered decisions.