The future of advertising in a cookieless world

As third-party tracking is phased out, marketers should adopt new technologies, processes, and skills to acquire and retain customers. Deloitte leaders share strategies for CMOs

For more than two decades, marketers have relied on third-party cookies – snippets of code that track users’ activity as they browse the internet – to deliver targeted ads based on consumers’ online behaviours and preferences. While cookies give marketers an effective and efficient way to acquire and retain customers, they can raise privacy concerns, which the industry is now closely examining.

“Consumers have become much more aware of their privacy rights and may feel that being tracked is kind of creepy,”

said Tanneasha Gordon, a principal at Deloitte Risk & Financial Advisory, Deloitte & Touche LLP, in a recent episode of “The CMO Podcast.” “It’s very important for brands to be transparent about how they collect and use data,” Gordon said in the conversation with Kelly Leger, managing director at Deloitte Digital and Deloitte Consulting LLP, and host Jim Stengel.

Recently, some countries have passed more rigorous consumer data privacy laws, and major technology companies have discontinued, or have announced plans to discontinue, their support of third-party cookie tracking on their web browsers. During the podcast, Gordon and Leger discussed how these changes likely will affect brands and how marketers can adjust their advertising strategies.

“The entire ad-tech ecosystem is built on third-party technology – and that is about to get blown apart,” Leger said.

“Brands are now grappling with how these changes will impact their media spending, campaigns, and revenue – and if their teams have the right skillsets to start making necessary pivots.”

Gordon noted that third-party data has made some brands lazy as they rely on aggregate data providers rather than cleaning up their own first-party data and integrating data across call centre, online, and in-store channels, among others. “The phasing out of third-party cookies will force brands to really up their games from a data governance and management perspective and to be more intentional with customer engagement and relationships,” Gordon said.

Leger and Gordon discussed steps CMOs can take to navigate the digital ecosystem as they lessen their reliance on third-party tracking technology.

“These changes will push brands to reevaluate which technologies they need in their stacks and whether their agencies have the right skillsets to act on their behalf,” Leger said. “Most agencies are really good at third-party technology. But do they understand how to work with first-party data all the way through to paid media, and can they actually measure it?”

She said two technologies likely will be essential as organisations rely more on proprietary data to target consumers: customer data platforms (CDPs) and clean rooms, which are secure platforms that aggregate anonymised data from multiple sources. “Clean rooms will be the future for understanding data and acquiring customers once third-party technologies are sunsetted,” Leger said.

Gordon said CMOs are well positioned to drive change as their organisations transition to this new environment. “CMOs need to form relationships with the heads of data, technology, and privacy functions to form an integrated vision and plan,” she said. She noted that CMOs are responsible for understanding which first-party data will be required for customer acquisition, retention, and relationshipbuilding. Data and technology leaders can help implement technologies such as CDPs, and privacy leaders can help marketers understand relevant laws and develop compliance guidelines.

“This is a really good opportunity for brands to figure out how to manage risk and drive value for the consumer and the bottom line of the company,” Gordon added. She noted that compliance, brand, and reputational risk should be managed strategically as companies shift from third-party to first-party data.

“From a value perspective, the CEO wants to know how to capture more market share and break into new segments,” Gordon said. “With digital transformation predicated on how dataand tech-savvy an organisation is, CMOs are at the centre of keeping the brand out front and building customer relationships.”

Deloitte sponsors “The CMO Podcast,” which is available on most podcast platforms.

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