For decades, consumers, publishers and brands aligned around this premise: seeing an ad is a fair exchange for free content. The popularity of ad-free streaming platforms and ad blockers speak to the fact that this value exchange no longer works for consumers. The more free content, the better, and the only ads that should be shown should feel welcome and don’t give even a hint of the data trail it took to serve that ad.
Consumers are wary and empowered
Recent research from Forrester confirms consumers’ wariness. In the report, The Future of Advertising is Imminent Upheaval, 65% of surveyed respondents disagreed with this statement: It’s OK for companies to track my activities across multiple devices to send me more relevant ads. Roughly the same percentages disagreed with statements about being OK with location tracking (63% disagreed) and sharing personal information in service of greater ad relevance (60% disagreed).
As data access transforms, so does the ad ecosystem brands depend on
Given consumers’ heightened awareness and sensitivity to data collection, it’s no surprise that third-party cookies will no longer exist. Taken with the CCPA, GDPR and other privacy laws, this is a major step toward giving consumers the privacy, transparency and choice they want. That’s the good news.
The not-so-good news is that cookie-based technologies will become obsolete, as will marketers’ current methods of targeting, measuring and optimising their ad campaigns. While major browsers continue to third-party cookie usage, smart brands will start to migrate off cookie-based technologies now in parallel with finding new ways to authentically communicate the value they are providing to consumers and partners. If you’re one of the 400+ brands we work with, you’re already set up to buy and measure media without cookies.
To learn more about the evolving advertising ecosystem and how you can prepare for imminent changes, download the Forrester report.
For more information around building a new, better ecosystem with LiveRamp, reach out to [email protected].