Acxiom (ACXM) headquarters in beautiful downtown Little Rock, Arkansas. Photo: Adam Bartlett
You’d think Acxiom, the world’s largest consumer data broker would have some harsh language to throw down on adblocking. They released a whitepaper that essentially says adblocking is pretty great.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from Acxiom’s adblocking whitepaper annotated to translate industry lingo into a language that everybody here can easily understand.
Their paper is a “free download” if you fork over some personally identifiable data that they can then append to their ever expanding dossier on you. It’s an enjoyable read, especially if you can appreciate it as brilliant content marketing for Acxiom’s data brokerage services to expand the surveillance economy. This research is a service to the field of advertising and publishing to help dial-down the heat on the adblocking crisis and controversy.
⛔️
We were “hyperventilating” and we needed our inhalers.
You may know this as “surveillance” that causes “privacy issues” and “collapsing trust” but these words are not found in Acxiom’s paper.
Um, actually Rothenberg is the “Great Defender of Adtech” whereas Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next has the job of defending “premium publishers” but this is Acxiom’s paper, and it’s Acxiom’s world, we just live in it, because they own our data.
I’m neither a journalist nor an analyst, but a few of us academics have been looking into this but we won’t be cited here. In fact, no peer-reviewed academic study or author is cited in the Acxiom paper. 100% industry research. I wonder why?
Very clever. Where did they come up with this analogy? Maybe Acxiom is reading academics on this topic after all?
They will hypothesize but they will not publish the data that proves it to be true.
But scaring consumers is no big deal, they say. The surveillance economy depends on it. Nothing to see here.
Blew their cover, they did.
They calculated smaller adblock economic impact estimates. No big deal. Acxiom would prefer we move on so we don’t get too mired in the privacy and data rights concerns. Some nations on earth have regulations for this stuff.
They suggest adtech make a valiant effort to “limit tracking” although they imply not to worry about tracking without transparency as the issue that’s “scaring” people about the “invasive” stuff.
They suggest the clever idea of tracking adblockers as a proxy for the adblock user demographic. Our research shows these are the coolest people, a most desirable target, such engagement. Wow. Wait a minute, I suggested this to the industry on a certain podcast, didn’t I?
Keeping stalking people all over the web (and across their devices), but just be a lot more sneaky about it.
Here’s the kicker: They show you how to personally identify people so tracking can be extremely clever in getting to know audiences on a first and last name basis. Then buy Acxiom data because they have also de-anonymized viewers into individuals and when they put their data together they have a dossier on someone that rivals any half-decent government agency.
One last piece of advice from Acxiom: users love surveys. Then you can use that cookie and mobile serial number to track people. They love it when you do that.
