Digital Governance Exchange: 2016 Year in Review

This is of particular importance in light of the speed in which digital innovation is occurring and the increasing inability of traditional legislation to keep up. In this relatively unchartered environment, the ability for brands to exchange risk mitigation practices with peers across critical areas – from data management to IP challenges when crowdsourcing content – becomes very valuable. Some of the recurring themes in our 2016 meetings included:

Consumer vs. compliance: the inability of policy to govern rapidly evolving developments has resulted in situations where a brand can easily be legally compliant without being aligned with consumers’ expectations. Discussions around how brands can effectively secure sustainable data flows have repeatedly highlighted the need to look beyond compliance in order to strengthen relationships with consumers.

Privacy & data protection: data protection has been high on the agenda following the adoption of new, stricter privacy rules in Europe. Discussions focused on what the new regime will mean for the relationships between brands and their consumers. Whilst many brands want to get closer to their consumers, the new rules will push marketers to be more creative in how they communicate complex privacy policies and terms and conditions in an understandable and transparent way.

Control vs. creativity: the number of risks presented by the online ecosystem has led many brands to implement robust governance standards across their operations. However, these standards must have sufficient flexibility to allow marketers the freedom to remain creative and dynamic. Strategies relating to digital security and copy approval processes have demonstrated the need to balance risk and commercial considerations.

For more information, contact Catherine.