Will FacebookGate Actually Change Anything?

The 'FacebookGate' data scandal poses huge and difficult questions about who has our data, what they use it for, and marketing's complicity. We ask what this crisis means for brands and consumers, and if, indeed, Facebook can change its ways even it it wants to.

IN THIS EPISODE ⇩

Ben Shaw, Head of Strategy and data strategist Jack Colchester discuss:

- What FacebookGate is and where it came from

- What micro-targeting is

- The difference between demographic and psychographic micro-targeting

- Attempting to micro-target the hungover

- The type of data Cambridge Analytica accessed

- How this was an excellent use of platform, but a questionable use of data

- How the public don’t understand the quantity of data they give up and how platforms are using it

- How this could be the beginning of the end of the advertising funding model of the internet

- The trend towards subscribers paying for quality content

- FB shifting from micro-targeting to broadcasting at scale with reach and frequency buys

- Twitter’s openness about data

- Procter and Gamble’s dramatic $140m reduction in online ad spend

- Byron Sharp versus micro targeting

- Why data on its own isn’t enough and the role of an impactful message in creating behaviour change

- Whether micro targeting actually works and where

- What FacebookGate means for brands?

- The impending impact of GDPR

- The need for brands to consider their social impact

- Purpose vs trust in brand comms

- Whether media is killing social media by allowing brands to disrupt the ecosystem

- How brands have reacted - Mozilla and Elon Musk (and Cher)

- YouTube and brand safety - can brands trust the programmatic model and are brands using data in a responsible way

- The reasons most brands won’t walk away from Facebook

- How Facebook is turning into a massive site for banner ads and why brands aren’t seeing results

- Consumer apathy and outrage, and whether consumers even understand how their data is being used

- The staggering amount of data tech giants have on us

- How it could all get much worse with AI and Voice

- The weirdness of AI creating its own AI babies

- The prospect of further skeletons in Facebook’s closet

- Whether it’s possible for Facebook to change

- A hope that we will see a rebalancing of media to creative