Privacy Act implications, demise of cookies and AI uncertainty dominate marketing challenges for 2024

ADMA CEO Andrea Martens recently appeared on Nine’s new ‘Talking Media’ podcast, hosted by Nine CMO Liana Dubois, to discuss the challenges marketers are facing in today’s data-defined landscape.

In the words of ADMA CEO Andrea Martens, 2024 is the “most pivotal year for marketers in decades”.

With cookies already on the wane, data privacy legislative reform, increased regulator focus on spam and consumer law, not to mention the host of other structural challenges from new technology - there’s a lot of items jostling for position at the top of every marketer’s ‘to do’ list already.

This issue is exactly what Martens delved into during her appearance on Nine’s new podcast series, Talking Media, hosted by Nine Chief Marketing Officer Liana Dubois. She appeared on the show alongside Nine’s Chief Data Officer, Suzie Cardwell.

The trio came together to discuss and dissect all the implications of the current data and privacy landscape - from the ongoing demise of third-party cookies to the approaching outcome of the Privacy Act Review, recent Spam Act investigations and the broadening ramifications of AI-uptake.

As the episode makes clear, it is no longer good enough for marketers to assume that data and privacy falls in the remit of someone else in your organisation, but rather a time for them to actually engage in the shifts within it.

We strongly encourage you to listen to the full episode to get the full context and some expert tips, but below is a wrap-up of the key points discussed.

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The Privacy Act Review prepares to shed its skin

This is undoubtedly one of the key topics that was discussed on the podcast - and for good reason. The Privacy Act has not had such a comprehensive review since 2001, points out Martens. And while there is a certain degree of uncertainty around which changes will ultimately be included in the Review, there are some that we know for certain will become law in some form.

“The definition of personal information will expand, and there's going to be a lot more certainty about which information does or doesn’t fall into the scope of the Act. Also, the removal of the

Small Business exemption is very likely to go ahead, and that's going to have such a huge impact on the small and medium business cohort,” says Martens.

“There will be new types of data that will be considered personal information,” says Cardwell. “Data like precise geolocation data or IP addresses have not previously been considered to be personal information. It's likely under the new legislation that it will be.

“So from an operational point of view, that puts a lot of onus on us to be very, very clear about exactly what sort of data we're collecting,” she adds.

This is something that Martens also agrees with - the fact that with the Privacy Act reform, there will be a shift of responsibility to place more weight on the actions of marketers. And while marketers have undoubtedly become more conscious of their obligations in regards to collecting and using data, they will have to be much more proactive about it in order to avoid falling afoul of the new rules.

The long farewell to third-party cookies

Dubois points out that at the heart of challenges marketers are grappling with today is the conflict between needing first party data to navigate a cookieless world whilst regulations around that data become tighter than ever.

“The sunsetting of third party cookies means that first party data is actually more important than it has ever been for a marketer to effectively target and present their communications to the right person at the right time. And yet, there’s increased regulation around data capture and data usage. These are two really conflicting topics,” she says.

Central to the solutions for this issue, both Martens and Cardwell point out, is consumer trust. This is a resource that is invaluable to marketers, and is something all must hold in mind when developing strategies in how to prepare their business for the deprecation of third party cookies.

“Nine is highly trusted by consumers, so from a data point of view, it's imperative that anything that we do with consumers’ data not only maintains that trust, but actually increases it. The way that we do that is to make sure that we are extremely transparent about how our consumers' data is captured and used,” says Cardwell.

“There’s a process that we recommend that our members go through, based on preparing their business for what is likely to be the expanded definition of personal information,” says Martens. “First, assume that the change is already here. Map out the data that's held by your organisation. Where is it collected? Why did you collect it? How are you going to use it in the future? Identify the kind of data that the organisation holds broadly.”

It’s clear that the road ahead is bumpy - but the guidance from all these leaders is that preparing for those challenges early and proactively will make any business much more likely to flourish rather than fumble over coming months.

Continuing to grapple with AI

The challenges to do with generative AI have been well documented. But where many businesses may continue to struggle is with the lack of governance in the space as the technology begins to far outpace the existing regulations.

In the absence of government regulations, Martens advises businesses to get ahead of any potential issues by implementing their own rigorous frameworks.

“Businesses do need to establish comprehensive frameworks around AI usage and what the ethical standards are, and should look to mitigate risks related to brand reputation and data security,” Martens says.

She continues to explain that businesses should consider the ramifications of their decisions today in the broader context of the future.

“Yes, we're modelling today. Yes, we're inputting data today - but how's that data going to be used in the future?” she questions. “What’s the impact for our current consumers and customers in the future?”

Veracity, as Cardwell points, is another major issue that marketers are having to contend with in this space.

“We've all heard about hallucinations and gen AI’s propensity to present information that is just not true. For marketers who are starting to think about gen AI for things like content generation, we've got to think about the ways we can accurately train the models and verify any of the information that the AI may create,” says Cardwell.

As the regulatory landscape shifts, marketers must anticipate and adapt. While the Privacy Act Review is one of the most significant changes in the data privacy landscape, it’s clear that this is the time for marketers to lean in and go beyond the basics in order to truly prepare for upcoming challenges.

This is an overview of the conversation between Liana Dubois, Andrea Martens and Suzie Caldwell on Nine’s ‘Talking Media’ podcast. If you’re interested in learning more, listen to the full episode here.