carsales’ Stephen Kyefulumya talks up trust at Adobe Summit 2023
It’s the biggest change in the digital marketing landscape, but no one seems to know exactly when it will happen.
The demise of the third-party cookie is forcing an entire rethink of marketing strategies for literally every company involved in the digital realm, and carsales’ General Manager, Media – Product and Technology, Stephen Kyefulumya, hasn’t been waiting around for an invitation to the wake.
Kyefulumya is part of a wider executive team at carsales behind a reboot of the company’s media marketing stratagem, carsales mediahouse, which culminated in the launch of carsales mediahouse to a packed gallery of media and marketing personalities in late 2022.
MORE: If you build it they will come – building trust in a cookie-less world
A key to carsales mediahouse’s overarching strategy is its partnership with Adobe. carsales is the first Australian-based marketplace to partner and onboard Adobe’s Real Time Customer Data Platform.
The fruitful partnership saw SK wing his way to the US in late March to be part of Adobe Summit 2023.
The huge four-day event in Las Vegas is a global mind hive of the digital economy, with more than 200 sessions, labs, training sessions and networking ops.
With a plethora of speaking engagements already under his belt, SK hosted a session at Adobe Summit 2023 on Personalisation Strategies in the Cookieless Now, accompanied by Senior Product Manager at Adobe, Clayton Smith.
Listen to the presentation here (Adobe sign-in required)
The pair discussed how carsales works with Adobe’s Real-Time Customer Data Platform and just how much change will be required as the world marches inexorably towards a future where trust in a brand will be the key driver of success in the digital marketing campaigns of the future.
People-first data marketing
Sydney-based Kyefulumya – SK to his colleagues – has enjoyed a long career in the broadcast and media spaces that includes stints at Nine Entertainment, Showtime TV and more… which, at first glance, may make him an odd fit with the country’s biggest and oldest automotive classifieds business.
But the 25-year-old carsales business has ambitions far beyond the realm of finding the next set of wheels for Aussie consumers.
It’s those learnings from studying the journey towards that next new car where the power of the carsales brand can be brought to bear on the media sector, thanks to its solid head start with people-first data marketing.
Kyefulumya’s pitch to the Adobe Summit audience was based on the notion that the customer’s bond with a business will likely dictate how much they engage with it.
“Trust is now a buzzword because of changes in the industry, but we’ve been advocating trust for a long time,” said Kyefulumya.
He added that the nature of running a marketplace business has allowed carsales to build strong bonds with their customers over time, grounded in the fact that personal life changes often trigger car purchases.
“We really need to change how we market to people with the third-party cookie deprecating,” he said.
“That first-party data set that we’ve built, and the trust we already have, means we can build personalisation at scale.”
Making things personal
Kyefulumya also spoke about the opportunity and need to personalise relationships with customers, suggesting that “personalisation is the bottom line and the key ingredient for great experiences.”
It’s no accident that Kyefulumya hosted a session at such a prestigious event in the US, either.
carsales’ global ambitions have seen it secure a foothold in America with the acquisition in 2022 of Trader Interactive, a leading marketplace site that reaches more than 13 million unique visitors a month.
carsales has also recently increased its stake in Brazil’s Webmotors by 40 per cent, taking a majority share in the business that marked its first foray into overseas markets a decade ago.
Learn how carsales mediahouse can transform your next campaign here
