Wunderman CEO tells industry to self regulate

Self-regulation is the key to fighting against privacy campaigns that could harm the direct marketing industry claims Wunderman, global CEO, Daniel Morel. DIRECT spoke with Morel who believes that self-regulation is the best approach rather than state or federal government bodies regulating online privacy practice.

“Government bodies don’t have the complete knowledge about the impact that regulations will have on the direct marketing industry,” said Morel.

He advised the need for people to be informed about how their information is being used online such as in the US, where users of Google and Facebook have been concerned about their online privacy. “Industry needs to be on their best behaviour,” he said.

“I’m more concerned with security rather than privacy.” Morel explained that the term privacy is a modern notion riding on the coat tails of people living autonomously in a big city and that knowing a consumer’s preferences or purchasing history is not a threat to their security.

“To know that someone likes black sweaters is not harmful. We don’t know their name, nor social security number and we shouldn’t be given them. Security details have no value for us and we don’t want to keep them.”

Morel is active with industry and government bodies in an attempt to draft new online privacy legislation to prevent a blanket statement or a ‘do not track’ register with potential negative restraints placed on the industry. “It is a topic that as an industry player we can try to solve by self-regulation.”

The Wunderman leader would like to see self-regulation protect the practice of tracking consumers online. “The dream came true with digital, the ability to collect data, listen and learn from the consumer in real time when they are trafficking the web, to know where the potential customer lives, what they have bought or are interested in.”

Locally, self-regulation has been in force with a national cross industry group of advertisers and marketers joining to establish standards for online behavioral advertising and to promote consumer awareness about privacy concerns.  The group, made up of the Australian Association of National Advertisers, Australian Direct Marketing Association, The Communications Council, Interactive Advertising Bureau, Internet Industry Association and Media Federation of Australia are aiming to speak with one voice to develop a voluntary standard.