How brands can respond to the consequences of a cookie-free world

by Jide Sobo, Director, Strategy & Innovation

Advertisers need to integrate discussions between internal teams, agencies and ad tech partners, to determine what data is currently sourced, from where, and how it’s used.

Brands pursuing contextual targeting should check that agency trading desks have reconfigured internal programmatic technology to reflect best practice in contextual buying.

Advertisers will have more opportunity to tap into consortium-led premium marketplaces, such as Trusted Media Brands in the US and the Ozone Project in the UK.

Since the dawn of the advertiser-funded internet in the mid-1990s, brands have used third-party cookies to track behaviour and target customers. Yet, by 2023, Google Chrome will become the last major browser to phase out the use and sharing of third-party cookies, following Safari, Firefox and Edge. In March 2021, Google confirmed its refusal to develop a replacement that deploys user-specific targeting.

A combination of consumer pressure for greater data privacy, industry self-regulation, and the spread of legislation around the world have accelerated the demise of the cookie. As a result, advertisers will no longer be able to use third-party cookies to build reach and cap frequency, target and retarget consumers, or run meaningful digital attribution. Therefore, brands that use digital media to advertise need to act now.