First Party Data and Adtech to the Rescue in the Cookieless Future

Since the past few years, a clear trend has emerged. Apple has announced changes to IDFA (ID For Advertisers) to be rolled out with iOS 15 this fall, wherein every app will have to ask for explicit consent from users before tracking their data. Mozilla and Firefox have already stopped the support for third party cookies to track users on their browsers. At the same time, Google has announced the deprecation of third-party cookies from Chrome, though it recently deferred the decision by another two years. Nevertheless, these changes have left advertisers concerned about the changes they can expect in the time to come. Online advertising is being pushed to adapt to a more privacy-driven web, giving end-users better control over their data. 

Aroscop, an innovative ad-trade platform that promises unmatched transparency and flexibility, has kept an eye on these developments for quite some time now. Aroscop's data science-driven programmatic platform allows advertisers to onboard, visualize, and deploy their first-party data to empower their online advertising. With seamless third-party data enrichment and contextual advertising solutions, advertisers can exercise better control over their campaigns that deliver better results. 

Last year, Aroscop conducted a study involving 450+ leaders representing brands, agencies, technology providers, and publishers to understand what they believed would be the most significant challenges, fears, and opportunities in the cookieless era. The programmatic advertising specialists released a report in September last year summarizing the findings and insights and shared some recommendations to prepare for the cookieless world.

As the privacy-first vision of the web continues to evolve, Aroscop recently organized an online event on 17th June to provide brands, agencies, and marketers the most current information. Titled "Mobilizing First-party Data For Programmatic Advertising In A Cookieless World," the event brought advertising leaders from India's top brands and advertising agencies on one platform. The event focused on the challenges and opportunities the cookieless era will bring while emphasizing the importance of first-party data to navigate the challenges.

The event started with a fireside chat with Siva Ramamurthy, Executive Vice President, Aroscop, who highlighted the importance of first-party data as a viable alternative to the soon-to-be-gone third-party cookies. He said, "We saw the departure of these cookies coming a few years ago and started building solutions with our clients that rely more on their first-party data." Quoting a study by Oracle, he noted that "Customer data platforms or CDPs will see a huge surge in adoption in the immediate future." 

Adding to that, he said, "But the first-party data isn't scalable on its own. So the advertising solutions of the future will rely on multiple platforms, multiple people, and multiple sources of data that must come together to create a seamless mechanism for advertisers to leverage."

He also mentioned that Aroscop is currently testing out solutions that bring together data from first-party, second-party, and third-party sources and layer it with audiences' content consumption patterns. These robust solutions then onboard the data into data science environments to generate output based on predictive analytics. This output can then be fed into the Aroscop DSP for targeting key consumer cohorts with personalized & contextual messaging.

The event also revealed a report, based on responses from over 300 advertisers from top brands in India, titled "Mobilizing First-party Data For Programmatic Advertising In A Cookieless World," was launched." The report was packed with insights from the study conducted by Aroscop over a period of six weeks. As per the survey, more than 61% of the brands and agencies are already using their (or clients') first-party data to support their online advertising. In addition, 58% of those employing their customer data for online advertising are doing it to create segments to target on programmatic advertising platforms. The report also incorporated key recommendations and probable solutions for advertisers to take note of and devise data-driven advertising strategies. You can get your exclusive copy here.

Two panel discussions followed the report launch. Panelists included media decision-makers & digital advertising leaders from Flipkart, Marico, Madison World, Wavemaker, Nestle, Dyson, Tata Consumer Products Ltd, & Aroscop.

The first panel, titled "Win with Data," focused on the critical concerns of advertisers everywhere. Arjun Som, co-founder, Aroscop, opened the discussion by showcasing just how much third-party cookies have been relied on for personalization, frequency capping, behavioral targeting, and retargeting for some time now. He added, "the deprecation of these cookies will have a major impact on performance campaigns but not so much on brand advertising." Anagha, head, media & digital marketing, Marico added, "a cookieless future will impact all stages of the customer funnel, but the bottom of the funnel will be most impacted." Adding to that, she said, "FMCG as an industry will also see a major impact since it recently started to build upon its first-party data."

Mahip Dwivedi, Head-Mobile Marketing, Flipkart, was optimistic that advertising technology would evolve with time to accommodate these demands. In his words, "Over a period of time, the audience cohorts in the tools we use will get more mature."

Concluding the panel, Arjun Som said, "Organizations need to bring discipline and consistency in gathering customer data. At the same time, they need to invest in good technology partners".

The second panel, titled "Do More with Your First-Party Data," aimed to generate ideas to enrich a brand's first-party data further to succeed in online advertising. 

Gazal Bajaj, Head-Media Management, Nestle, opened the session by saying, "Brands need to pay close attention to why their customers are buying. Given the complex buyer journeys, this becomes challenging and crucial at the same time". Talking about the CPG industry, she added, "Marketers need to keep looking for new ways to capture their customers' data since it's a challenging task in the CPG space.

Ankit Pandey, head of media, Dyson, emphasized the need for an in-house ad stack given that tactics like retargeting are going to change for good in the cookieless era. He said, "Layering your first-party data with DMPs can help get more insights into your customer profiles to create better experiences."

Taranjeet Kaur, Head of Media, Digital, and PR at Tata Consumer Products, asked that marketers watch the changes to come. She drew attention to the possibility of increased ad fraud that might seep in with the changes that the industry is anticipating. Emphasizing on having a clear understanding of one's goals, she said, "Advertisers need to have an eye on managing and utilizing the ad stack and not just building one." 

In summary, the event touched upon some significant concerns that marketers and advertisers across industries and geographies expected to face. That said, all the panelists were unanimous in their belief that first-party data would have a more substantial role in the online advertising space soon and that brands should invest in the right technologies with clear and measurable objectives in mind.  

Author - Arjun Som, Co-Founder, Aroscop

This is a partner content article in association with exchange4media.