Cookieless Future: A Blessing in Disguise?

Image source: Vyshnavi Bisani via Unsplash

For many marketeers the mere mention of a cookieless future evokes an almost Pavlovian response. Hot sweats, heart palpitations and a sense of impending doom. If that’s you, then fear not, a cookieless future might actually be exactly what you need.

After numerous false starts, on January 4th, 2024, Google finally began testing Tracking Protection, a new feature that limits cross-site tracking by restricting website access to third-party cookies by default. A move that, for many, marks the beginning of the end for 3rd party cookies and with it the highly target digital executions we’ve become accustomed to.

While it’s easy to see how consumers will benefit from the death of the cookie, it’s more difficult to see how it might benefit an advertiser. Afterall, relentlessly chasing consumers around the web did prove to be a pretty effective way of driving consumer action. However, we need to accept that change is coming, and I can think of a few ways that it can (and should) result in some positive outcomes:

An opportunity to restore balance

While we may no longer talk exclusively about a 60:40 split between brand and activation (choosing instead to recognise there may be a degree of flex in this), what we can say is that the balance should generally still fall in favour of brand over activation.

Yet, despite a wealth of evidence in support of brand over activation, we still see brands regularly over investing in digital channels. Choosing to make a fast buck at the expense of long-term growth.

Perhaps the demise of the cookie is exactly the excuse we need to readdress this balance. To bring the focus back to branding at scale. Which of course, means switching some of that investment to proven broadcast channels like out of home (OOH) and TV.

More bang for your buck

While cookies may have afforded us the opportunity to target specific customers, the extent to which those targeted customers saw the ads is questionable. Work from with the Attention Economy has highlighted the limited attention digital ads receive. With some reports suggesting that only 50% of ads are visible and only 9% are viewed.

Re-distributing budgets once bound for digital channels could well see you getting more bang for your buck. For example, investing in a channel such as OOH which accounts for a likelihood to view within its measurement system ensures that you get exactly what you pay for – 100% paid. 100% viewed.

Holistic view of media effectiveness

A cookieless future means we can no longer rely on simple last click or multi click attribution models to ascertain media effectiveness. A method that so often rewarded digital channels for their performance yet gave little or no credit to the wonderful broadcast channels that build the mental availability necessary to close the deal in the first place.

As Dr Grace Kite rightly says, “The enforced changes will also allow advertisers to reconsider the benefits of customer lifetime value and profitability models, rather than media proxies such as clicks and impressions”.

By deploying more holistic measures of effectiveness, like mixed market models that account for all media channels, we stand to learn a great deal more about exactly what works and what doesn’t.

New Ways to Target

According to research by IAB Europe and Xandr, part of Warner Media, nearly three quarters (74%) of advertisers in Europe plan to use contextual targeting to reach consumers after the loss of third-party cookies.

But this contextual targeting need not be confined to the digital world. Advances in digital out of home (DOOH), coupled with the application of mobile data, now make contextual targeting in the real world a practical and effective option.

Real world contextual targeting allows us to go beyond simply recognising what website someone is pouring over. It allows us to tap into the different kind of people we present as in any given social situation.

As Robin Berjon, VP data governance at The New York Times, argues in his wonderful peace on the demise of 3rd party cookies:

“Identity is by nature fragmented: we present ourselves as different people in different contexts…I act as a different person with different interests whether I am at work, attending a philosophy of science conference, or haunting my local dive bar”

Creating and managing these kind of targeted OOH campaigns has never been easier thanks to recent advances in the programmatic space. You’ll now find DOOH inventory connected to multiple omni-channel DSP’s, meaning you can add DOOH to traditional digital buys and optimise messages in real time to reflect changing conditions or audience behaviours – all from one central system.

Obtaining First Party Data

A recent WARC report stated that: “the most important element of a marketer’s cookieless tool kit will be building and maintaining first-party data”

This stands to reason, if we can’t obtain data to identify consumers through 3rd party cookies then we must seek to obtain it ourselves.

However, obtaining this data is no simple task. Our personal data is privilege information, reserved only for those brands that we hold a deep affection for and trust.

Building the levels of brand affection and trust required to facilitate this exchange is achievable but requires media support.

Increasing investment in channels proven to drive key brand metrics and consumer trust, like TV and OOH, will not only grease the wheels when it comes to data sharing, but also deliver all the long term benefits we associate with building a strong brand.

So, while the thought of a cookieless future is certainly daunting, it could well be a catalyst for some positive change. As Oscar Wilde said: 

“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise for which we are later, in the fullness of time and understanding, very grateful for!”