How Privacy Is Becoming a Big Part of Brand Positioning
Privacy is an afterthought for a lot of us if we’re honest with ourselves.
For folks in my age group, giving up some access to personal data has been a standard value exchange for access to free platforms. I lump myself in that mindset - or at least did. I mean, who cares if someone had some of my personal data. I wasn’t doing anything nefarious or illegal…what did I have to hide?
Then there are some older generation folks on those same platforms. They may be more privacy conscious in ideology but honestly have no idea what’s being tracked on them, what platforms are safe and maybe not even understand that it’s not really a Nigerian prince emailing them. They may be afraid a vaccine is going to plant a tracking chip on them…all while posting this from their Facebook mobile app.
I think that pendulum is shifting. And fast. What’s changed?
When Harold Macmillan became Prime Minister of the UK in 1956, he was asked what would determine the course of his government, he replied “events, dear boy, events!” In the same way today, it has been events that have re-shaped our thinking and general approach to privacy.
Maybe Cambridge Analytica’s ability to breach our personal data and online behavior against us to shift perception. Millions of other people watched The Social Dilemma on Netflix and learned how powerfully tech products can influence how we think and interact with our communities. Others may have read about the dystopian practices of other countries (or even Edward Snowden’s take on how our own country does). Hacks, cyber attacks, identity theft and other scams have affected a lot of people.
All in all, we’ve had a lot of events in a relatively short amount of time that have raised awareness of the importance of online privacy, whether for your own personal safety or, if we’re honest, the greater good of society.
Brands are taking note of that trend and trying to give customers what they want.
Signal’s Instagram Campaign
Signal is a private messaging app (even trusted by the aforementioned Snowden) to send encrypted, not-spied-on-by-big-tech messages to friends. To effectively illustrate their value prop, or rather how much their big tech competition spies on customers, they launched ads like this one to show how creepy ad targeting can get.
Of course, Facebook took these ads down in short order. Signal, likely understanding this would happen, published a blog post written about their eliminated ad campaign and received a lot of earned media in the process.
Signal executed a great PR stactic. What better way to raise awareness on the importance of privacy and the value of Signal’s product?
Apple’s iOS Improves Privacy….And Lets Everyone Know
If you’ve opened up or installed an app on your iPhone lately, you’ve seen the pop-ups that ask you to grant explicit consent on if ads can track you. It’s a new privacy feature in iOS that’s honestly a great value-add for their users. While some privacy settings just appear as a footnote on an FAQ buried inside a link somewhere, Apple has made a point of calling this feature out as part of their overall brand proposition.
Check out the latest ad from Apple re: privacy:
I think this does two things very well:
It illustrates in a direct way how apps used to work and how Apple’s new privacy impacts your own personal data
Of all the things an iPhone can do, it calls out this piece front and center
Brands add value propositions that they think consumers care about. To spend millions of dollars spelling out exactly how their new privacy features work, Apple is betting on data privacy being a premium for consumers.
I think they’re right. So does DuckDuckGo.
A Brand Built On Privacy
DuckDuckGo has been around a while but only recently has surged in popularity. In the last 12 months, they have seen a 55% surge in traffic and are the #2 search site on mobile phones in North America. They are also finding ways to remain profitable using contextual ads based on what your searching rather than sending you ads based on your personal internet history/activity. They’ve been profitable since 2014 and have annual revenues of over $100M.
Not a shabby company at all.
They’ve prioritized their customers’ best interest in sacrifice of potential increased margins and/or revenue. While Google is a behemoth, they have chosen not to compete head on. DuckDuckGo has differentiated themselves for NOT being Google. To provide searches without being creepy.
Putting your customers’ interests firsts may cost something up front but usually pays off in the long term. I am willing to bet that DuckDuckGo will only continue to grow and see their privacy bets pay off with time.
DuckDuckGo hasn’t been greedy - they have found a way to truly serve people’s best interests while still being able to make a profit.
Good for them.
Will Privacy Continue to Reign?
Do you think prioritizing privacy will continue to grow? Will more and more brands continue to call out how they’re protecting customers?
Or is this all a fad that will fade away?