AOL’s Bob Lord Wants Facebook and Google to Open Their Data Mines — Now

By Andy Tillman

UCLA Anderson’s Big Data: Big Impact conference was held Friday, November 20, and sponsored by UCLA Anderson’s Center for Management of Enterprise in Media, Entertainment & Sports (MEMES). Speakers included a who’s who of big data players, including the event’s keynote Bob Lord, president of AOL overseeing the company’s unified global advertising operations. Sanjay Sood, MEMES faculty director and professor of marketing, sat down with Lord to discuss the ongoing tug-of-war between advertisers and companies unwilling to share their consumer data.

The keynote focused on a discussion of the collection, access and usage of open data — information to which ad agencies have access — versus so-called “walled gardens,” an industry term applied to companies like Google and Facebook, who use closed systems to keep their user information private, limiting the consumer data advertising agencies are able to access. Agencies would like more specific information in order to build a profile of their clients’ consumers that goes deeper than simply market-segmented psychographics and demographics.

“Currently companies like Facebook and Google, who have huge audiences, offer only segmented reports, limiting knowledge and information about your consumers, so you don’t know your consumer. Agencies need to demand data so they can become a value added service,” said Lord.

Lord feels these walled gardens are preventing real-time information exchange, so that by the time media companies do finally get the consumer information they need, it’s stale and not actionable. “Big media buyers have to say, ‘I’m not buying from you anymore,’ to make Open Net happen,” said Lord. To put this in perspective, when ad agencies and media buyers are able to get robust information on specific consumer behavior in a more real-time fashion, they can more quickly react to the demands of consumers providing them with more relevant information to better meet their needs. When companies like Google, Apple and Facebook don’t share the information, brands don’t know the real reason consumers are making purchases of a given product and they can’t react. Lord feels brands should own and control data so that they can comingle information gathered from many sources to mash it together for better marketing brand development and to build loyalty. This paints a clearer picture of their consumers’ needs and reacts in real-time.

In Lord’s opinion, open data makes a better experience for everyone involved, from the agency to the consumer. Open data allows you to regionalize your marketing to provide relevant products and services to people who want them in specific parts of the country.

“With our new Verizon partnership, we have access to permission based data to serve up advertising like never before,” said Lord.

But Lord is aware of the pitfalls of open data and consumers’ reluctance to it. “Brands need to be responsible, to think about how to communicate with consumers in a responsible way.” When the value exchange is working, brands and consumers do benefit. Lord cited a campaign in which Kellogg’s Special K brand was able to improve products through product customization, leading to the creation of its Special K snack line.

Lord says he is bullish on the advertising business in general. His message to agencies is that they should change their model and break out to merge creative with technology. “The great agencies are already doing it,” he said.