Clive Humby: 'Customers are taking control of their data - it's the biggest opportunity we have'

Push marketing is over, it's all about pull now says the loyalty card pioneer

Clive Humby, chief data scientist at Starcount, believes we are about to see a big change in the way that companies engage with customers using data. Humby, who describes his role as helping major brands engage more meaningfully with their customers and understanding audiences, is probably best known his work in developing the Tesco loyalty card.

"Customers are taking taking control of their own data. It's the biggest opportunity we all have," Humby told the audience of business people and marketers at the DataIQ Future summit today.

"We're in a new world. Push has gone and it's all about pull. Customers give reviews of products. You much prefer a review from an individual or group than any recommendation you see in the press these days," he said, illustrating the way that the balance of power around information is changing.

"Ultimately the customer is going to decide what data they are going to share with us or which they won't," Humby said.

"Data protection legislation is actually about two or three years behind the consumer. The ability of the customer to manage their data is getting faster and faster all the time."

Consumers will be much more proactive in the process of sharing their data in the future, he said.

"They will not only decide what data we can see, but they'll want to know what they get in return for it."

This simple change will have a big knock-on effect in many companies.

"Companies say 'it's my data'. No it's not, it's the individual's data, it's not yours. What will happen once the paradigm shifts? What will happen when the only way you can use the data at all is with the customer's permission? That will make us all better businesses, I would argue."

Those businesses that grasp the nettle of the personal information economy will thrive, Humby argued.

Data is valuable at different times, with information about intent-to-buy having a significant value for a short amount of time. However, most of the time it is of limited worth. To Google, which controls almost half of the world's marketing collateral, the value of each user is worth just $80.

Overall the value that consumers receive in exchange for their data is likely to be in terms a better experience rather than hard cash, explained Henry Lawson, CEO of autoGraph, a company rooted in Privacy by Design that creates user generated personal profiles for opt-in marketing.

"The perception in the consumer's mind is that their data is worth a fortune," he said.

"There are some times when it is worth a fortune but most of the time it's not, so customers get disillusioned very quickly when they get their first rebate and it's £2.73. But what we've found is creating great customer experience is what they want: rewarding me for being me; giving me something that's intriguing and interesting to me."

This is likely to be much more effective than offering them money," said Lawson.