VIA BEETCAM– The digitization of the world has sped up across the board as a result of coronavirus. In an interview via BeetCam, Matt Spiegel, EVP of Marketing Solutions and head of media vertical at TransUnion explained how this rapid learning curve will have longer effects.
Ad tech has been on the front end of that curve for some time now, but there has been a shift in the speed at which every industry and individual has had to adapt to this digitization, from food delivery and subscription services to streaming services.
“When you’re forced to make a choice between not having access or accessing these types of goods and services through a digital perspective, it changes the game,” Spiegel says.
As a result, Spiegel believes that the industry has fundamentally altered the trajectory of consumer behavior for both short and long term. Now that people have picked up these digital behaviors, they likely will not ditch them once the world returns to normal.
“I think the more that we demonstrate to people that you can interact in this digital way and more people get comfortable with it, it’s just going to stick,” Spiegel says. “And I think that has implications not just for the short term but for the long term as well.”
For digital companies like TransUnion, part of the leadership process right now is accepting that there are more unknowns than knowns, and being transparent and honest organization-wide. It also means being active in seeking out more information.
“For my section of the industry within TransUnion that means how do we get a handle on what does the ad spending look like over the next six to twelve months, what categories are clearly going to go dark and what categories might replace them?” Spiegel says. “What’s the impact of the fact that there are no big TV tenpole events right now and how does that impact how spending will change?”
It all comes down to prioritizing information and figuring out what the trends are going to be for the remainder of the year, and from there making product and market decisions based on those realities. Spiegel recommends that companies be “conscious capitalists” in the near future, not simply chasing the dollar at all costs but rather providing value to clients and partners in information, analysis, and assessment.
“There’s a marathon aspect to this and not a sprint,” Spiegel says. “We’ve got to do right by all constituents and that will, at the end, all work out.”
