The Amazing Power of CitizenData

• October 24, 2022
• StJohn Deakins
• no comments

CitizenData: Using consented 360º life data to understand customers as humans

The aspiration for every good Marketer is simple: Understand customers better, personalise the offering, deliver delightfully, and repeat.

When done well, this cycle grows loyalty and advocacy. It adds value to all. 

And it all starts with understanding people, and the ability to understand has always come from data.

Until now, that data has been limited to three sources: Market Research data; customer engagement data (first party data); and third party data, which is consumer data purchased indirectly from data brokers who hoover it up from peoples data trails. This combined Human Data mix has evolved over decades and is often held in separate silos inside organisations. With our society quickly digitising, and moving into a world of always on connected devices and AR/VR, positive digital disruption is long overdue. 

Upgrading Market Research Data 

Traditionally, Market Research Data has involved asking people to answer questions about what they might want in the future. This basic attitudinal data is, of course, exceptionally valuable as a data stream – but in isolation it is also limited. Today’s Market Research industry has grown to become so sophisticated in large part because of these limitations in the source data:

1. Self-knowledge: People don’t always know what they really need. 
2. Trust: They don’t always care to admit what they truly want and feel. 
3. Say-Do: They don’t always do what they say. 
4. Time: The large gap between a question being answered and the organisation’s ability to act.
5. Quality: sometimes, a respondent is pretending to be someone they aren’t – or they aren’t even human at all!

The CitizenMe Marketplace solves all of these issues with a simple switch in perspective to Citizen first data or ‘CitizenData’.

When we give people the ability to safely and easily gather their own 360º life data for themselves, we can enable them to understand themselves better and share this knowledge with others.

In short, when humans understand themselves better, marketers can understand them better too.

This consented 360º human data is the ultimate data for all consumer marketing, received directly and from real humans. A single and original source of truth.

Insight Uplift 

Marketers gain direct access to rich, consented and safe 360º life data, directly from real people:

1. Self-knowledge: Citizens gain insights every time they import a copy of their data. Connect Spotify data and reveal weekly mood; claim Twitter information and reveal ‘Twitter personality’; reclaim a personal census file to discover similarities with your neighbours; source iPhone (Apple Health) and Android (Google Fit) health data to compare activity and calorie info with people like you. 
2. Trust: Citizens store all of their own data on their own smartphone (backed up to their iOS/Android personal cloud). CitizenMe research has consistently shown that when people feel in control, they are far more likely to share, and to share more candidly.
3. Say-Do: Because Citizens own verified copies of their 360º life data, they are able to share it directly with brands as they choose to. Safely, securely and anonymously. 
4. Time: With direct access to Citizens, brands can finally get deep and accurate insight data in the moment that the decision needs to be made. 
5. Quality: CitizenData includes unique accuracy checks. Banking-grade ‘KYC’ (know your customer) data to provide proof of life – means no more bots. Better yet, in-app algorithms check an attribute against multiple data points. For example, verifying a Citizen’s ‘Country’ includes what people say, plus their Mobile Operator ID, and can extend to GPS, GeoIP, phone language and much more – massively limiting spoofers and fraud. All done in the app, so the sensitive personal data doesn’t need to move and be at risk. 

Impactful Outcomes

The outcomes of this change in perspective are remarkable. Marketers have direct Citizen access to rich, consented and risk free 360º life data directly from real people. The insights are faster, richer and more accurate. 

A simple example: we recently did some research into the ‘Eat Out’ market in the UK and USA. The client was able to combine attitudes with psychometrics (generated in-app using in-app local data) to surface previously impossible insights:

The research quickly showed that, in the UK, people with more optimistic baseline personalities tend to eat out most often.

More specifically, people seeking new Japanese food experiences tend to be more extraverted, and this cohort accounts for 22% of UK respondents. Combined with average monthly spend and other 360º life data, it’s easy to see the depth of immediate insights available in real-time from the platform.  

Interestingly, the same data insights for the US Eat Out market are significantly different to those for the UK, where psychometrics and step-count data throwing the differences in preferences and behaviours between US & UK foodies into sharp relief.

Just The Start

Good consumer insights are simple – it’s about gathering data from people. Technology can now make the process far more human. Ask people to share data directly for fair exchange (instant payment, vouchers, recommendations) – to make faster decisions, to serve them better. Everyone wins.  And we’ve made the process very easy.

In Q4 2022, CitizenMe is rolling out the CitizenMe Marketplace, enabling Marketers, Market Researchers and UX Researchers to get immediate access to previously unreachable data. Check out 

To try it out for free, sign up here  

If you have any questions about the way your organisation can benefit from the next generation in CitizenData insight platform, please get in contact, we’re happy hear from you.