Crossing the Creepy Line: Has Marketing Gone Too Far?

The lure of data-led tactics for web re-targeting and advanced customer experience applications is intoxicating for marketers, particularly when customers demand relevance and reward personalization with increased frequency and volume of purchase. But while this age of data-led marketing has opened up a world of possibility for engagement, personalization and real-time, one-to-one experiences, it has also prompted customers to grab indelible paint to draw the “creepy line”—that point at which knowing the customer turns from creating a relevant experience to exhibiting stalker-like behavior. The magic for marketers is not just understanding their customers, but understanding where that line in experience has been drawn…and knowing that while there are universal truths to engagement, the repercussions of crossing the creepy line can be detrimental to a customer’s desire to engage with a brand. To address where and how marketers must engage and interact in a customer-defined scope of individualization and personalization, the CMO Council, in partnership with Teradata, will host a one-hour webcast to kick off the discussion around just how close we can and should get to the creepy line. Joining the conversation will be brand leaders who have made strides in driving relevant experiences that add value to the customer’s journey, in addition to customer intelligence experts to share key trends, mandates and best practices in moving beyond mass personalization to achieve true individualization.