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The Big Brother is trying to serve the good. How data collectors and program companies are involved in the fight against coronavirus

The world's largest aggregator and seller of user data has stepped out of the shadows and has become an active participant in media pressure over the dangers of coronavirus. It helps the state find the most effective appeals for the most susceptible US populations. Most likely, you have not even heard its name before.

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Programmer for Good


My name is Roman Nester. I am an entrepreneur, co - founder of a Segmento data startup and curator of a master's degree in marketing and product management based on data from HSE. Recently, at the HSE, we completed a practical block on programmatic advertising with a group and drew attention to what is happening now in the USA.

A project with a programmer was initiated in April by AdCouncil. Since the forties she has been specializing in creative solutions for major public problems. Large programmatic networks InMobi, OpenX, Xandr, GroundTruth, TripleLift, Ogury, EMX, Kargo, Bustle and the publisher of the New York Post decided to donate their ad impressions for free. Other large inventory owners joined them. Everyone agreed to give away more than 100 million impressions in 2 months for free. Their goal is to give the CDC and the US government the opportunity to deliver important notifications about coronavirus.

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Targeted video addressing key people of the nation explaining the importance of distance and urging the ambulance not to be overloaded


The largest independent programmatic platform, The Trade Desk, joined in the organization of advertising displays. She quickly organized the so-called “Private Markeplace” with all the listed networks and sites. This is a type of advertising transaction in which an advertiser can target an advertisement to his collected data and make impressions on a selected group of sites. By the way, The Trade Desk is a rare example of the successful competition of an independent public company with Google for the budgets of advertisers.

But showing ads to everyone in a row is an ineffective way in an era of universal segmentation. A massive campaign could be done on TV. And then the same odious Acxiom appeared on the scene with its painstakingly collected data. The company prepared user profiles and uploaded this data for targeting to The Trade Desk for free.

Biggest brother


Regarding the collection of data about users and their sale, US companies are ahead of the rest. The largest data collectors and sellers in the world are here. Although this is starting to change, some states have recently passed laws restricting such companies. This is the California Consumer Privacy Act ( California Consumer Privacy Act ) and the so-called Vermont Data Broker Law (Act 171), forcing a list of all data collectors and making them public. But Europe still looks much more severe for data collectors with its GDPR law , which greatly complicated their lives.

Acxiom is the main data broker, the real data monster that collects data in 60 countries, 68% of the “digitalized" population of the planet, in the amount of more than 10,000 possible attributes per person. In different places, the numbers sound different. In 2012, the NY Times called it the owner of the largest commercial user database in the world. The company does not engage in ad impressions, does not search, and does not build social networks. Acxiom is a professional broker.

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Although the Acxiom business began with the sale of “big iron” - data processing and storage systems, providing critical processes for major buyers. But then, more and more interest in the market began to arouse data, which along the way it was possible to collect. The collection and sale of purchase data, data from voter registration systems, and data from loyalty programs is just what Acxiom representatives themselves called in a rare interview.

And of course, they collect online data! " Our business literally exploded with the development of the web"- said one of the tops of the data broker. Acxiom places its trackers on millions of sites, buys data from other people's trackers, collects each of your clicks, compiles a map of your interests and intentions from them. Then to instantly ship it to Internet advertisers. It seems like Netizens hate companies the most. “Data for good” is what Acxiom called his initiative to donate collected money, but most of it was collected without particularly asking the user directly.

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Acxiom CEO statement about “data for good”.

Useful targeting


Advertising always works better if it delivers something important specifically for a specific segment of the audience. AdCouncil, using Acxiom data, launched a campaign for 65-year-olds at risk explaining safety principles for the elderly. An active young audience launched an advertisement with a different meaning and a different advertising creative. She explained why it was important for them to stay at home and not go out.
In the first week of the campaign, a million people were reached with banner and video ads. The organizers note that on average 88% of all who saw it see such a targeted video - this is a high figure compared to the average (60-67%) for the advertising industry. So targeting was effective.

New campaigns are coming up in the coming weeks. Part will be addressed specifically to young parents. “Multicultural audiences” will receive a separate message - taking into account the main language of the sites they visit and with individual banners that take into account their features.

They did not forget about the audience of mentally unstable people - they are now especially susceptible. This means that they can be addressed to advertisements that do not cause additional anxiety, and even vice versa, reassure with the help of targeting.

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An example of a "calming" campaign in the spirit of "We are in quarantine - all together, you are not alone, we can handle it."

Acxiom can identify such users by what content they read most often (for example, articles on how to deal with anxiety), what they look for on large resources (for example, a user ziggles through pages about antidepressants) - and this is only a small part of the examples.

This is a huge breakthrough that the entire industry has taken a step from competition towards each other. Now, from the idea and the drawn banner to the start of the targeted campaign, only a few hours pass!
- Liz De Angelis, vice president of AdCouncil A

well-established mechanism for data collection and quick targeting today works in the United States to help people. I don’t think that when it’s all over, it will change people's attitude towards data collectors for targeting. Still, people on the network do not want to be monitored, collect their data for free and influence their preferences. Public scandals around this, for example, around Facebook and Cambridge Analytica or data leakage from Equifax, were too loud.

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But it cannot be denied that targeting technologies are enormous in scope and effective, and in critical cases they can help. In addition, I am amazed at the duality of ethics and morality in different contexts of using user data. When Cambridge Analytica profiles users on Facebook to show them political ads more effectively, it causes a huge scandal. When similar (and even crawling much deeper!) Technologies are used by CDC and the White House - this is an occasion for pride and press releases.

As for Russia, alas, such examples of donating traffic and data are not visible - basically, companies in the public field are discussing the fall of the advertising market and are thinking of what kind of discounts to achieve the goals stated before investors. But, probably, it would be great if the giants took similar steps in other countries too - they shared free shows, shared data and knew how to negotiate so quickly, despite the competition.

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