Girl sending a letter to Sears.Roebuck using their catalogue to buy items.

First party data is a new name for an old thing

In the 1920s, you could buy a house through the Sears.Roebuck catalogue. You could also buy pretty much anything you wanted. Sears knew what dress you bought last year and what you might like this year.

The only difference today is scale. We can scale on unimaginable levels, and it comes with its own challenges. Where to store the data, what to do with it and how to use it without being creepy. Not much is new, things just appear to be so.

Author: Clint Griffin has spent 30 years shaping marketing and advertising across Africa, the Middle East and New Zealand. He believes in lifelong education and is dedicated to making marketing that works. Which means making complex things simple.