Consumers can’t be truly “identified” via various data sets. Their feelings and moods can vary as much as the profile of another person. The key to identity in marketing is to reach a consumer who “belongs,” who opts in by providing first party data, says Rishad Tobaccowala, longtime senior advertising executive at the Publicis Groupe, now an independent advisor, author and industry prognosticator.

He says this sort of  permission marketing is essential for success. And there are lessons for publishers and writers like himself who have found greater traction in the process subscription. For his weekly substack newsletter, he notes that the sign-up process has yielded far greater impact for his newsletter versus publishing on social networks where attention is largely built around various algorithms.

In this episode of Beet.TV’s podcast “The BeetCast” he talks about his book Restoring the Soul of Business and how it has proven prescient for the era of the COVID 19 pandemic, including the longterm implications of work from home. He predicts that a full 50 percent of white collar jobs will be done at home. But he warns that work from home has several key limitations.

He shares his advice for the future of advertising which needs to be staffed by a new wave of creative talent, he urges.

This episode of the BeetCast was originally published in November.   We are republishing it over the holiday break as one of our essential podcast sessions.

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The #BeetCast is sponsored by Tru Optik, a Transunion company.