The 2022 Global Digital Consumer Trends Index, released by Cheetah Digital, in conjunction with eConsultancy, shows that customers facing tightening regulations are more privacy-conscious than ever online.
The report notes huge rises in those turning to incognito browsing (50 percent increase), a PC cleaner (48 percent increase), password generator (40 percent increase), ad blocking tech (37 per ent increase), paid for premium software (31 percent increase), and a password manager (31 percent increase).
Most consumers are still happy to trade personal data for personalised content, but they prefer brands only use data that they’ve explicitly shared directly to the brand (zero-party data). Anything more than that is considered “creepy”.
Punters think that the creepiest methods are ads based on location data (67 percent), retargeting ads derived from tracking cookies (62 percent), and ads related to something they discussed near a smart device (61 percent).
When it comes to driving sales, email remains one of the most effective channels, beating banner ads, social media ads, organic posts, and SMS by up to 108 percent. Half of the consumers report purchasing a product directly as a result of an email they received in the last 12 months.
The report said that the pandemic’s effects continue to reverberate throughout the marketing landscape.
Cheetah Digital Content VP Tim Glomb said that while some consumer behaviour and attitudes remained the same, many others changed — and quickly.
“Shifts that once took years to emerge are taking place in a matter of weeks, pushing brands to arm themselves with the latest data to keep up and respond appropriately. The path to customer acquisition has evolved from a relatively straightforward train track to a bowl of spaghetti, with multiple channels and formats to navigate”, Glomb said.
“Brands can no longer get away with lumping customers into segments, but rather must treat them as individuals. This requires developing authentic relationships, offering real value exchange, and interpreting the right customer signals at the right time in the right channel.”
“This report offers brands an extraordinary opportunity to assess their ability to create and execute campaigns that meet and exceed consumers’ growing demand for more personalisation, more privacy and a deeper relationship with the brands they know and trust”, Glomb said.
The 2022 Digital Consumer Trends Index can be accessed here.
