Summary
congstar GmbH is one of Germany’s leading mobile telecommunications companies and a subsidiary of Telekom Deutschland, Germany’s largest telecom. Founded as a startup in 2007, today congstar has nearly 6 million customers, particularly in the youth market, and over 200 employees.
Doing business in Europe, the GDPR is an ever-present consideration for congstar, as are any future privacy regulations. User data is key for the company, as noted by Daniel Renninger, congstar’s Digital Customer Experience Manager.
“The quality of our marketing measures depends on the amount of data available. Therefore, the opt-in rate is a very important metric for us.” Balancing the needs for data, regulatory compliance, and user satisfaction has made comprehensive consent management business critical.
congstar started working with Usercentrics at the beginning of 2022, and they currently run v2 of the Usercentrics Consent Management Platform (CMP) on three domains, including their main site congstar.de and four subdomains.
Challenge
congstar’s main customer base is young consumers, who tend to spend a lot of time online. They are savvy about their data and privacy, so providing great user experiences and developing long-term relationships requires transparency to build trust.
In order to grow its business, congstar also needs to navigate the evolution and increasing interconnection of digital platforms with regards to privacy and data use.
As Renninger noted, “In order to continue data-driven marketing outside of our website, it is no longer sufficient to collect and store the user’s consent; it must also be possible to pass it on to technological third-party solutions (e.g. publishers). For this purpose, we use the TCF 2.2 technology from Usercentrics. Additionally, the requirements for data protection and consent management have increased in recent years. Thanks to the professional solution from Usercentrics, we are now optimally prepared for further legal regulations.”
Goals
Easy implementation and comprehensive functionality
Get the CMP implemented as quickly and easily as possible. Ensure the CMP enables full customization and detection of all services in use on websites and apps.
Flexible and user-friendly configuration
Ensure the team — technical or not — can implement and customize the CMP, as well as enable ongoing privacy compliance as regulations and digital technologies evolve, saving the company time and resources.
Strong support
Solid and ongoing collaboration, with guaranteed high availability and responsiveness, and solutions that solve customer issues quickly.
Peace of mind with regulatory compliance
Meet GDPR and any other international regulatory requirements for consent and data security, reducing legal risk and ensuring the company provides great user experience while getting the data they need.
Making It Work Together
Daniel Renninger, congstar’s Digital Customer Experience Manager, talked to us further about the company’s goals, implementing Usercentrics’ CMP, and the key benefits they’ve seen. The company’s onboarding began in January 2022, and implementation took about 10 weeks.
Regarding what drove congstar’s decision to select Usercentrics, he commented that:
“We looked at several possible vendors in advance as part of the CMP integration. For a number of reasons, the choice fell on Usercentrics:
- located in the EU or Germany
- existing IAB TCF 2.2 certification
- extensive feature set
- good support in the tool selection phase
- good/large reference customers.”
Well supported
“The cooperation with the Usercentrics team was excellent at every stage of the project. One or more contact persons were available at all times, both during tool selection and in the implementation phase. Even during regular operation, valuable exchanges between congstar and Usercentrics still take place on a regular basis.”
Save time and work
Renninger had this to say about the CMP’s Admin Interface: “Many customizations are possible, which can be done easily even by a layman (without programming knowledge). The user interface is self-explanatory and well structured.”
He and his team have also been pleased about the time and complexity saved on the regulatory side. “A major benefit of the CMP is that Usercentrics can make any necessary adjustments, e.g. due to changes in the legal situation, thus saving us valuable IT resources. Another positive aspect is that Usercentrics is constantly developing the CMP further and also implements potential improvements suggested by us as customers.”
Protecting the business
“With the CMP we show which technologies are used on our website. The user has the option to reject these with just one click. On the one hand, this means that we are legally compliant, but it also supports important brand values such as fairness and transparency.”
Going forward, when asked about what congstar hopes to see from Usercentrics, Renninger said that “We expect Usercentrics to continue to provide powerful solutions for legally compliant consent collection. We look forward to our continued collaboration”.
