Marketers share concerns, solutions for post-Cookie world in new study

Findings of an in-depth survey on ‘Beyond the Cookie: The Future of Advertising for Marketers & Publishers’ have been published by data enrichment solutions provider Lotame. The report examines how digital publishers and brands are addressing consumer engagement in the post-cookie landscape.

200 senior decision-makers in digital media and marketing across Australia were polled during December 2020. Key findings include:

Future of identity solutions

More than 60 percent of marketers favour using multiple identity solutions. The findings show both marketers and publishers plan to use an identity graph solution to map audiences – 28 percent plan to use one within the next six months, followed by 26. percent with plans to use such a solution within the next year, while 18 percent are already using a solution. For marketers, only 16 percent believe one identity solution will suffice, while 13 percent said only walled gardens will be needed as identity solutions. 

For publishers, over a third (35 percent) are still searching for an identity solution while 25 percent reported they already have one in place. When asked about budget, 21 percent of the respondents (marketers and publishers) consider that to be a key constraint for implementing an identity graph solution while 5 percent are open to working with external partners that use such a solution.

“As the industry grows closer to the third-party cookie phaseout, brands and publishers are in urgent need of privacy friendly, people-based tools to understand and engage audiences at scale,” says Luke Dickens, Managing Director – ANZ at Lotame. “What’s telling is that marketers know interoperability is key, which speaks to the need for options.”

Context alone strategy

Findings show that marketers and publishers are divided here. When asked about the ability of contextual targeting alone to reach desired consumers, three in four marketers don’t believe it’s a sufficient replacement for audience targeting and 18 percent expressed zero confidence in the tactic as a replacement. In contrast, 61 percent of publishers feel quite confident about their company’s contextual targeting capabilities in replacing audience targeting and addressing marketer’s needs. Meanwhile, more than a third lack confidence in their contextual targeting capabilities.

“Context is critical but it’s not the only piece of the puzzle and our study shows that,” says Dickens. “To enable relevant, responsible, and resilient advertising on an individual level, both marketers and publishers need to work together on a variety of options to meet diverse consumer journey touch points.”

First-party data strategies are important

But, over half of marketers have concerns about the accuracy of their assets post-Covid.

Among other concerns over their first-party data assets, 46 percent of marketers cite siloed data as a roadblock while 44 percent rely on supplemental data and 43 percent said they don’t have enough data to scale. Marketers are also looking for more from their publisher partners to meet the stressors of a post-cookie world. Nearly half want greater transparency in measurement (47 percent) followed by confidence in consent management (42 percent) and more scale across channels (40 percent).

Meanwhile, publishers are relying on various methods to enrich their first-party data. Half (50 percent) responded to using marketer data, followed by 44 percent using survey and panel data and 38 percent using third-party data from reputable vendors. Two in five publishers also admitted they need help in finding quality data partners.

“Data enrichment is still front and center for marketers and publishers as our findings reveal,” adds Dickens. “With fast-changing consumer behaviours and shifting lifestyle choices – especially amidst Covid-19 – marketers and publishers need to enrich their data to scale and engage with customers meaningfully.”

You can read more on our special series ‘…and that’s how the Cookie crubmles’, here.

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