The Future of Digital Marketing Belongs to Blockchain: The Revolution to Reclaim Privacy

The digital marketing industry has grown significantly over the past decade, and it is now going through a major transformation driven by blockchain technology. Although many people believe the future of Digital Marketing will depend heavily on AI, or artificial intelligence (Facebook Ads and Google Ads both use AI as a core strategy for tapping into big data), blockchain may well be the most important innovation on the horizon. It will change digital marketing in ways we can hardly imagine.

Blockchain is already widely known through the cryptocurrency phenomenon, which in Vietnam people often simply call Bitcoin. At its core, blockchain enables transparent transactions that don’t need a third party. Although Bitcoin kicked off the blockchain revolution, it represents just one of countless applications of this technology. Think of blockchain as a computer operating system (Windows, macOS) and Bitcoin as one of countless apps powered by it. These applications will revolutionize the way we live and the way we do business, and the change in digital marketing will be no exception.

There’s no doubt that AI-driven big data mining helps businesses enormously when it comes to reaching consumers. However, blockchain technology is leveling the playing field because it delivers DATA OWNERSHIP TO USERS. It will certainly require adaptation in the early stages and recovery in the later ones, but blockchain will make digital marketing better by making transactions and communication processes more seamless, at a time when the Apple versus Facebook standoff is leaving the experience disrupted and less than optimal.

Data Power in the Hands of Users

One of the greatest aspects of blockchain is its ability to empower users over their own data. Today, a number of companies benefit enormously from having access to user data (the FAANG group being the prime example). That said, on the flip side, personalized shopping experiences give us an undeniable and wonderful convenience. Most people don’t realize just how far “data invasion” goes, and the companies quietly collecting data don’t want to draw attention to it either. (People keep saying that Facebook eavesdrops on its users. Once, while I was eating a meal and discussing a certain TV model, I interrupted myself to open Facebook, and that exact TV popped up. I nearly choked on my rice.) Data has become the most valuable commodity in the world right now, and some companies have built business models around collecting and aggregating user data to sell to other companies.

Blockchain will give users ownership of their own data and force companies to compensate them if they use it. For example, the Brave browser is changing the way user data is collected by paying users when they engage with ads in the browser. Users are free to opt in or out of any ad they choose, and the reward is BAT tokens (which can be exchanged for money on cryptocurrency exchanges). Brave gives us insight into the future of online advertising once blockchain gets involved, completely changing the model we’re used to. Brave has given users rights and benefits that never existed before: it agrees to share part of its ad revenue with users, and users stay fully in control, with the option to turn ads off if they wish.

Another emerging technology is the Stacks project, a framework built on blockchain technology that lets consumers better protect their basic digital rights. In the past, users sent their data to individual apps and it stayed locked there, leaving users with no rights over their own data. With Stacks, data stays with the user. It works like a key that unlocks data for each app that wants access, and it quickly returns the user’s data as soon as the app is done. The concept is fairly simple, but it is groundbreaking for digital marketing because the scourge of free data will become a thing of the past.

The digital marketing industry could face this challenge in the near future, as the growth of blockchain technology has never cooled down in recent times. This new reality will lead to a sweeping strategic shift and force marketers to start over from zero. Marketers will have to find ways to convince consumers to hand over their data in exchange for better service. This will be a hugely important step forward for consumer protection, but it isn’t great news for digital marketers, because it will bring a lot of change and render many things unusable. New things will be introduced, and digital marketers should start picturing this new reality and prepare thoroughly.

Welcome to Transparency and Authenticity

In the past, people relied on Shopee, Chợ Tốt, or Lazada to buy products that were marketed directly to them based on their online behavior data. Consumers had no choice but to hope that the product information provided by the seller was authentic. To make this easier to understand, put yourself in this situation: could you independently and quickly verify claims like these?

• Made in Japan
• 100% cotton
• 100% organic
• No preservatives
• Eco-friendly

Blockchain technology allows consumers to trace the origin of all product information and everything related to a product’s life cycle. This is a major leap forward in a world of nearly 8 billion people (as of 2022), where consumers are getting smarter and care deeply about the quality and origin of products.

Goodbye to Wasted Ad Spend

Unilever and IBM have built tools to reduce or eliminate the confusion surrounding online advertising. Blockchain provides a reliable, verified framework that shows exactly what ad spend is really worth when it comes to acquiring customers through online ads. This project is estimated to have saved Unilever tens of millions of dollars.

Blockchain is already affecting the digital marketing industry, and adapting is critical because it could wipe out a generation of companies that rely on opacity and confusion over ad spend as a major source of revenue.

The bottom line isn’t about the use cases for blockchain in digital marketing. Instead, it’s about how those use cases will affect the entire network, tools, and methodologies used in traditional digital marketing. In an unpredictable world where everything is moving online, blockchain will completely change our lives, and the “business as usual” mindset around digital marketing will no longer be sustainable. There’s no way around it: digital marketing as we know it today will be disrupted beyond recovery.

Part 2: The Future of Digital Marketing Belongs to Blockchain Technology: The Power of Transparency

Part 3: The Future of Digital Marketing Belongs to Blockchain Technology: Overcoming Misinformation

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