The keystone to get better results and support European companies through the Cookieless process will be a Data Strategy connection to Walled Gardens.
Google announced the end of Third-Party Cookies by the first quarter of 2022. The Programmatic Adv Industry, which has been working on this technology over the past ten years, will not be the same anymore.
… and that’s the way the Cookie crumbles!
Digital Adv and Programmatic Adv represent a big portion of Companies’ Adv Annual Budget. When starting a Digital Campaign, advertisers need to bear in mind several aspects: will the Adv format be visible enough, how many people will see the message, will they be in target or not, how will the message be delivered to the right target audience, etc.
Over the last ten years, all of that has been done by Cookies. However, Cookies are a volatile asset. They say Cookies last about 30 days, the average time that passes before a user clears browsing data, and cookies with it. Google Chrome’s decision may now be the occasion of rethinking technologies, strategies, and the market itself.
Today’s recipe still has limits
Companies worry about what changes they will need to introduce in their strategies. For sure, changes will be necessary, however, today’s tracking methodology is not perfect: Brand Safety is often at risk, there are a lot of measurement discrepancies and partiality, there is a high risk of ad fraud, and other limits too. At the same time there are some activities that will be preserved even without Third-Party Cookies, for example Contextual Advertising and First-Party Data usage to target Audiences. Moreover, several other proposals (see FLoC, FLEDGE, Parakeet…) are being discussed and tested.
Google is only the new guy
Google Chrome hosts more than 65% of the Internet browsing traffic worldwide (more information on web browser sharing in here). Therefore, it absorbs most of Companies’ Adv Budget. However, other browsers already banned Cookies recently. In 2016, Ad Blocking technologies started growing; then, the application of GDPR in 2018 furtherly limited user tracking. In 2019, Firefox blocked Third-Party Cookies and Safari followed the year after. 2021 saw MAID restrictions on iOS and 2022 will see empty Cookie jars on Chrome too.
Who is working on it?
There is no secret ingredient, yet, or any perfect recipe. The main three roundtables that are exploring the matter are: W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), a working group investigating privacy and a solution called FLoC (which we have analyzed for you in a specific article); then tha iab. Tech Lab (Project Rearc), that is looking for a way to develop addressability and accountability; the new entry PRAM (Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media), which works with Advertisers, Agencies, Publishers and Ad Tech/Martech industries.
Neodata’s cooking tip
Neodata Group participates in W3C and IAB Tech Lab working groups and is currently testing the first solution on the market, FLoC (first results coming soon). The Company’s vision has a focus on First-Party Data and technologies to enable communication between platforms. Since Third-Party will not be of use anymore, companies need to switch their strategies inwards, looking at their own Audience Strategies and what they can do to take the most out of their information: enriching, sharing – when possible – and, of course, privacy compliancy.
According to Neodata, the keystone to get better results and support European companies in this process will be the possibility to develop Connectors in order to define a Data Strategy that integrates information with Walled Gardens.
