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Street Fight’s July Theme: Data’s Next Era

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This post is the latest in our “Data’s Next Era” series. It’s our editorial focus for the month of July.

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As Covid-19 slowly recedes into the background of our collective consciousness (geography-dependent of course), we at Street Fight continue to return our attention to all of the other important topics in the local commerce sphere. Covid dynamics and impact on local business have been top of mind, but other topics haven’t gone away.

This notion leads our thinking as we enter a new month and thus a new Street Fight editorial theme. When asking ourselves about the non-Covid topics that are most impactful, one bubbled to the top: Data. Related to – but broader than – privacy, it’s all about the rapidly changing state of martech and consumer data collection.

Street Fight Editorial Themes

To invoke the “P” word again, much of the volatility in the world of data collection does indeed stem from privacy reform. Part of that is from legislative measures like GDPR and CCPA … but greater impact will come from the private sector. And those who hold the greatest sway in that world are mobile platforms, namely Google and Apple.

Apple’s ATT initiative has been the source of much handwringing. The company’s disruption of mobile identifiers is causing the adtech and martech worlds to scramble for alternatives. Google meanwhile continues cookie deprecation (though delayed) and its FloCs campaign, an alternative to cookies about which many in the space are less than optimistic. 

Altogether, the result will be an upending of the unfettered systems of targeting and placement that the ad world has enjoyed for most of the smartphone era. But for a more positive spin, this will also mean that a morphing environment creates opportunity gaps for those who can adapt to it or innovate around it.  

Those gaps will be filled by a new class of AI-driven privacy and data management vendors. There will also be a learning curve for brands to better understand and facilitate data transparency, not to mention AI utilization. And there will be new success factors and best practices for effective marketing.

What will those success factors be? Among other things, we’ll see a rebirth in contextual advertising as well as elevated value for first-party data. Notably, Amazon could continue its conquest of advertising market share by attracting marketers to its scale and targeting capabilities as the world’s largest first-party play. 

Google Postpones Cookie Day of Reckoning

But how will all of the above play out? We’ll tackle this question throughout the month. Look out for the tag Data’s Next Era.” We’ll label posts so you can discover them or actively browse them. Coverage will include our own daily reporting as well as that of our growing network of columnists and contributors.

Speaking of which, we’ll take this chance to remind you about our editorial contributor program. If you have unique perspectives, we’d love to hear from you. We’ll prioritize submissions that make concrete assertions about the future of the industries we cover, especially the monthly theme.

We’ve also begun a new ritual in 2021. Each month, we’ll be aggregating comments from thought leaders that align with the monthly theme (like this). If you’re a data science or consumer data collection expert, we’d love to include your voice in the chorus. 

Reach out to us with suggestions for monthly themes, opportunities to contribute, or to amplify your brand messaging alongside this thematic coverage. This includes Street Fight’s new Thought Leaders program. Meanwhile, we’ll continue bringing you insights and market coverage on Streetfightmag.com and Street Fight Daily

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