Consumer attitudes changed significantly during the pandemic, according to this Merkle survey. While quality and price are still the most important factors in purchase decisions, their weight fell while customer service, personalization, and brand became more important. Even more intriguing: consumers became more willing to share personal data in exchange for greater convenience and personalized experiences.
Ready to give up on universal IDs and retreat to a walled garden? They have plenty of news too. Target has just connected its Roundel digital ad network with the CitrusAd self-service media buying tool. And Comcast’s FreeWheel adtech group is piloting a new system that creates combined audiences across linear and digital video platforms.
Consumers’ demand for convenience extended to financial services as well, FICO research found. While 41% are more likely to open an account using digital channel, 25% will actually abandon the process if they have to use a non-digital channel to complete the process. Concern about identity theft is so high that 75% will provide their bank with a biometric such as facial scan, fingerprint or voiceprint to secure their account.
Microsoft has confirmed that Reddit has blocked its Bing search engine from crawling content; Reddit seems to have blocked DuckDuckGo too. Reddit content will still appear in Google search results, but then Google has paid Reddit $60 million to allow it to train its AI models on that content. Reddit says the block has nothing to do with the Google deal: okay.