At GALE, we keep audience connection at our core; we understand that we are entering a new age of data – one that comes with a heightened awareness of the consumer, and with less room for questionable data capture.

Today, brands know that there is immense value in understanding each customer’s pain points to create a tension-free customer journey. But in order to do so, many are frequently in search of the most reliable and accurate data sets in the market. Few have a robust first-person data strategy, with many reliant upon dated and soon-to-be obsolete data solutions to operationalize their marketing efforts.

The good news is that there are many alternative data solutions today, with zero-party data as an increasingly preferred solution for brands.

If you are a marketer seeking to better understand the impact and importance of zero-party data, you should first look at what it means in relation to the other types of data:

Types of Data:

First Party: data acquired directly from customers – either through direct transactions with your brand or opt-in moments

• Example: identifying which products a consumer buys consistently versus ad-hoc to offer educated subscription offerings

Second Party: data acquired by a highly trusted outside party, typically through a brand partner

• Example: taking audience demographics data from ISO-compliant vendors to connect and understand consumer life stages

Third Party: data acquired through an outside source

• Example: broad housing information to be paired with other relevant data sets to better understand home improvement trends

Zero-Party: data acquired intentionally from willing customers for a mutually beneficial exchange of goods and services

• Example: Satisfaction survey results given by willing purchasers used to build a more personalized recommendation engine that rewards them for their loyalty

These days, brands like Nike, PepsiCo, and Delta Airlines are collecting and leveraging zero-party data via customer polls, surveys, quizzes and other methods, but the really exciting opportunities lie in the future of how these brands will use zero-party sources to enhance incentives for customer data exchange. Imagine a world in which a customer is paid every time a brand activates marketing against the data they collect from them, bypassing media platforms as data brokers and putting incentives back in the consumer’s hands.

Zero-party data is a powerful vehicle for capturing information, including preferences, opinions, and personal needs to craft customized experiences, while building trust through data transparency. However robust your audience strategy and journey, neither can realize their full operational potential without deeply understanding how to connect to customers and what they want. Utilizing zero-party data is a productive way to find out–and we’re just scratching the surface of its potential for brands and the marketing industry at large.

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