Observed Signal · Jun 9, 2022 · Other · Source: CMSWire · Impact: 2/5 · Sentiment: Positive
5 Ways Transparent Personalization Can Win Over Customers
This CMSWire feature article outlines five strategies for marketers to practice transparent personalization, balancing personalization with consumer privacy. Citing a 2021 McKinsey statistic, 71% of customers expect personalized interactions and 76% get frustrated when it doesn't happen. Bad personalization can drive customers to unsubscribe or switch brands. Recommendations include keeping customers informed about data collection, focusing on zero-party data, allowing customers to control communication preferences, ensuring personalization is relevant, and working with privacy-compliant partners. Expert commentary comes from Hunter Montgomery of ChurnZero, Sandy James of Zoox Smart Data, and Daniel Englebretson of Phononic. A 2022 Cheetah Digital report found 92% of consumers will trade personal data for loyalty points, while 59% remain uncomfortable sharing location data. The article also suggests establishing a central data hub and regularly checking in with customers.
Editorial providing best practices for transparent personalization; relevant to marketers and data privacy, but not industry-shifting news.
Track Canva Signals & Market Shifts in Real-Time
Polaris7 autonomous intelligence agents track regulatory filings, primary sources, executive changes, and deal flow 24/7. Create your free Explorer workspace to monitor these entities.
Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- 71% of customers expect personalized interactions, according to McKinsey data from 2021.
- 76% of customers say they get frustrated when personalization does not happen.
- 92% of consumers will trade personal and preference data for loyalty points, per a 2022 Cheetah Digital report.
- 59% of consumers are not comfortable sharing location data even for better service.
- The article recommends five transparency strategies: keeping customers informed, using zero-party data, enabling preference controls, ensuring relevance, and working with compliant partners.
Connected Companies & Entities
2 Entities mapped“An email from design software Canva was cited as a good example of preference-based personalization....”
“Statistics on customer personalization expectations were sourced from McKinsey....”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
Related Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
LinkedIn says don't treat leads as finish in B2B
At LinkedIn's B2Believe event in its new Empire State Building space, executives and practitioners called for a shift from lead-centric B2B marketing to a 'full journey' approach that links signals, targeting, creative, full journey, and measurement. Jae Oh, senior director of product management, revealed that fewer than 10% of upper-funnel audiences make it into bottom-funnel campaigns, urging marketers to connect awareness with demand capture. Research from LinkedIn's B2B Institute with eMarketer showed 77% of marketers say they no longer target individuals, yet only 31% have a playbook for activating audiences down the funnel. Practitioners from Canva, SAP, Mastercard, and others shared examples of aligning marketing and sales on common signals. LinkedIn also outlined a product roadmap focused on cost-per-opportunity targeting, multi-format campaigns, agentic workflows, and incrementality forecasting.
Streaming UX: Key to Subscription Retention
A new analysis highlights that poor user experience (UX) is a major driver of streaming subscription cancellations. According to a study by CTAM and Hub Entertainment Research, 36% of viewers have cancelled a subscription due to UX frustrations, rising to 43% among under-25s. Gracenote data shows users spend an average of 14 minutes searching for content, with 49% saying they would cancel if search remains difficult. The Deloitte Digital Media Trends 2026 reports 39% of US users cancelled a subscription in the last six months because they couldn't find content quickly. As competition intensifies, providers are advised to improve content discovery, personalization, and navigation to reduce churn, which is at 6.3% monthly average in 2026.
Sona8: Former Consultants Join Y Combinator with AI Interviews
Sona8, a startup founded by former BCG and McKinsey consultants, has been accepted into Y Combinator's current batch. The company uses AI voice agents to interview entire workforces, capturing how work is actually done to build a knowledge base for AI automation. With over 10,000 interviews conducted, Sona8 serves consulting firms and corporate transformation teams, including one of the three largest management consulting firms. The startup raised over $500,000 from angels alongside Y Combinator. Sona8 plans to become a 'context layer' for other AI tools, integrating with systems like Slack and email. The founders—Anton Hantel (CEO), Thilo Tamme (CPO), and Madeleine Malmsten (CTO)—aim to help companies manage change programs and guide AI implementation, with a focus on data privacy and employee consent. Competitors include Listen Labs and Celonis.
Track Real-Time Market Signals & Shifts
Set up custom watchlists to receive automated, evidence-grounded executive digests whenever material signals or shifts occur across your tracked landscape.