First-Party vs. Synthetic Audiences

First-party data collection vs. synthetic audience generation presents a critical marketing dilemma. Tom Chavez, Founding General Partner at super{set} and serial entrepreneur with exits to Salesforce and Microsoft, shares his expertise on navigating this challenge. He explains why the "AI arms race" may be misleading marketers and demonstrates how combining first-party data as seedlings for synthetic audience creation delivers superior results while maintaining data integrity. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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  The Martech Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast? I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth, and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iHereEverything.com.

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  From advertising to software as a service to data, across all of our programs and clients, we've seen a 55% to 65% open rate.

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  Getting brands authentically integrated into content performs better than TV advertising.

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  Typical lifespan of an article is about 24 to 36 hours.

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  If we're reaching out to the right person with the right message and a clear call to action, then it's just a matter of timing.

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  Welcome to the Martech Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. In this podcast, you'll hear the stories of world-class marketers that use technology to drive business results and achieve career success. Here's the host of the Martech Podcast, Benjamin Shapiro.

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  I'm Benjamin Shapiro, and joining me today is Tom Chavez, a co-founding general partner at Superset. Tom has built and sold startups to some of the biggest tech companies in the world. And now he runs a venture studio that funds data-driven AI applications to deliver practical business results. And today, Tom and I are going to delve into what's real and what's not when it comes to AI's impact on marketing. All right, let's move on to our second question. As cookies disappear, are you prioritizing first-party data collection or diving into synthetic audience generation?

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  Yes.

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  So I mistook clarity for proximity. One of those earlier companies, Crux, I'll do a quick little story. I was so adamant and passionate about the topic, about the possibility of first-party data, that we got into market with a data management platform that was weak when it came to turnkey integration of those third-party data sets. And we lost some deals because we weren't providing enough third-party data. So we learned quickly, fixed it, and the rest is history. But the point is that there wasn't enough first-party data and/or the brands and publishers we were working with didn't have enough confidence in their own first-party data to really invest properly. I think that's evolved considerably in the last decade.

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  So I see many more consumer-facing brands stewarding their first-party data and coming up with really clever techniques to generate and maintain first-party data. But it can't be one to the exclusion of the other, Ben, which is why I say yes. I think you've got to take that first-party data and use it as seedling for the creation of larger synthetic data sets.

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  Yes is a great answer, and I think one begets the other. I don't think you can lean into synthetic audience development without real first-party data, right? Garbage in, garbage out. And if you don't have the ability to find your first customers, capture data, fundamentally understand some of the why, then you can't amplify it effectively using the synthetic tools. I am kind of in the, you still need the first-party data. The synthetic data is the amplification of what you already know works. When you're ready to scale, synthesize the thing that works. So I'm kind of in that first-party data camp. But then again, I'm a podcast host. And that wraps up this episode of the Martech Podcast. Thanks to Tom Chavez, the co-founder and general partner at Superset for joining us.

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  If you'd like to contact Tom, you could find a link to his LinkedIn profile, which is in our show notes, or on martechpod.com. Or you could visit his company website, which is superset.com. You can also find Tom on his podcast, which is Closed Session. If you haven't subscribed yet and you want a daily stream of marketing and technology knowledge in your podcast feed, hit the subscribe button in your podcast app or on YouTube, and we'll be back in your feed next week. Okay, that's it for today. But until next time, my advice is to just focus on keeping your customers happy.

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  Thanks for listening to the Martech Podcast, an I Hear Everything production. Looking to launch or scale a podcast like this one for your brand? Then visit iHearEverything.com.