The digital advertising landscape is undergoing a significant transformation with the gradual deprecation of third-party cookies. This shift necessitates the adoption of new strategies for audience targeting and data management. In our next Ask the Expert segment, we explore this evolution, discussing new strategies for audience targeting and data management in a world without cookies.
We’re joined by industry leaders, Gabe Richman, Senior Director of Data Partnerships at The Trade Desk, and Chris Feo, Experian’s SVP of Sales & Partnership who spotlight The Trade Desk’s innovative approach to navigating a cookieless future. Tune in to our Q&A below to learn more about these topics and learn how the collaborative efforts of Experian and The Trade Desk offer a glimpse into the future of advertising.
Cookieless IDs are the new face of identity in advertising
Traditional tracking and targeting techniques are being replaced by more advanced and privacy-conscious methods. Unified I.D. 2.0 (UID2), led by The Trade Desk, exemplifies this shift, offering a new identifier based on encrypted email addresses or phone numbers. This approach not only caters to the evolving privacy regulations but also places greater control in the hands of consumers. UID2’s design fundamentally differs from cookies since it is rooted in transparency and consumer consent.
UID2: A catalyst for industry-wide adoption
UID2’s journey reflects a rising industry-wide recognition of its value across the industry. The adoption of UID2 by major publishers, demand-side platforms, and advertisers indicates a shift toward more sustainable and consumer-friendly approaches to identity in advertising. This is particularly evident in areas like connected TV (CTV), where UID2 is rapidly becoming a currency and standard.
“The purpose of UID2 is not only to create a better ID for advertisers and publishers to achieve their objectives, but also to benefit the consumers. Unlike cookies, UID2 provides transparency and control to the consumers for the first time.”
gabe richman, sr. director, data partnerships, the trade desk
How Experian and The Trade Desk work together
The partnership between The Trade Desk and Experian goes beyond adapting to the absence of cookies. Our joint efforts highlight a commitment to developing solutions that cater to advertiser’s needs while respecting consumer privacy, a balancing act becoming increasingly crucial in today’s digital ecosystem. The Trade Desk’s emphasis on UID2 as a foundational element in the open web, campaign design, and activation is a testament to the potential of new identifiers in enhancing advertising efficacy. Similarly, our ability to utilize these identifiers to deliver detailed audience insights offers advertisers a powerful tool to remain effective in a post-cookie world.
Experian’s role in the adoption of UID2
Experian’s integration strategies have played a critical role in diversifying the applications of UID2. By partnering with The Trade Desk, we help broaden the reach and effectiveness of UID2 across various advertising channels. In terms of reach – by incorporating a prominent cookieless ID, we further amplify the reach of UID2. The increased adoption of this new ID allows the digital ecosystem the ability to interact using an alternative identifier, thereby broadening the potential audience. In terms of effectiveness – we help advertisers serve relevant ads to the right audiences, ensuring the relevance of the ads and control over their frequency.
Targeting with Geo-Indexed audiences
The Trade Desk works with Experian to ingest and host our syndicated audiences. This partnership gives The Trade Desk’s clients access to over 2,400 syndicated audiences that span across eight verticals. This includes access to our new Geo-Indexed audiences that allow brands to reach consumers and households based on geographic regions that over-index for a common set of attributes, ultimately offering brands a targeting solution that prioritizes both consumer privacy and accuracy.
What a future beyond cookies looks like
Looking ahead, the focus in advertising is not solely on replacing cookies but on a broader evolution of the industry. This includes continuing to apply machine learning technologies, like artificial intelligence (AI), to enhance ad personalization and effectiveness. The interplay between creative content, audience insights, and privacy-compliant targeting will become increasingly important as the industry evolves. As cookies become a thing of the past, the initiatives spearheaded by The Trade Desk and Experian will likely set the tone for the next era of digital advertising, and emerging solutions like UID2 are leading the way.
Watch the full Q&A
Visit our Ask the Expert content hub to watch Gabe and Chris’ full conversation about cookieless advertising. In their conversation, Gabe and Chris share more about UID2, consumer transparency, and the importance of consumer data for targeted advertising.
About our experts
Gabe Richman, Sr. Director, Data Partnerships, The Trade Desk
Gabe Richman is the Senior Director of Data Partnerships at The Trade Desk where he focuses on global identity strategy and platform partnerships as well as driving UID2 and EUID adoption across the broader ecosystem. Prior to joining The Trade Desk in 2021, Gabe held various roles in AdTech at HealthVerity, Wunderkind and LiveRamp. For the last decade Gabe has taken pride in helping advertisers and platforms alike demystify the complex identity landscape and embrace the change needed to preserve the open internet. Gabe is a graduate of the University of Maryland and resides in Los Angeles.
Chris Feo, SVP, Sales & Partnerships, Experian
As SVP of Sales & Partnerships, Chris has over a decade of experience across identity, data, and programmatic. Chris joined Experian during the Tapad acquisition in November 2020. He joined Tapad with less than 10 employees and has been part of the executive team through both the Telenor and Experian acquisitions. He’s an active advisor, board member, and investor within the AdTech ecosystem. Outside of work, he’s a die-hard golfer, frequent traveler, and husband to his wife, two dogs, and two goats!
Latest posts
Mother’s Day may not exactly be right around the corner, but the time to send your Mother’s Day emails sure is! Based on our analysis of 186 brands that sent Mother’s Day mailings in 2013, 75 percent of email volume and 80 percent of email-generated revenue occurred between May 1st and Mother’s Day (May 12, 2013). The highest revenue-producing days were five days before the holiday (Wednesday, May 8, 2013) and Mother’s Day itself. This year, the sentimental holiday falls one day sooner than last year (May 11), but you still have more than enough time consider these quick tips for easy wins while planning and executing your campaigns. Tip 1: Give them what they’re searching for Last year, online searches five weeks before Mother’s Day were dominated by searches for the date of the holiday. As such, we recommend including the date of Mother’s Day in your email subject lines, particularly those early in the season, when customers are searching online for, and opening emails with, that information. Tip 2: Set the tone early with your subject lines A sample of early season subject lines that outperformed the overall unique open rate included: Remember Mom on Mother’s Day, May 12 Get a head start on Mother’s Day (plus a gift for you) Just arrived: Mother’s Day Gift Sets To Mother, With Love Tip 3: When it comes to timing, it’s the thought that counts Think through the timing of your emails depending on order delivery deadlines. On May 8th of last year, the largest revenue producers for email were orders for flowers and gifts placed in time to be delivered by Mother’s Day. Email subject lines on May 8th included reminders of the delivery deadlines: Last Chance: Free Shipping/No Service Charge for Mother’s Day! ENDS TODAY: Enjoy Complimentary Second Day Delivery in Time for Mother’s Day Tip 4: Let them treat themselves On Mother’s Day, the top email revenue generators were “self-gifting” (treat yourself on Mother’s Day only), Mother’s Day online sales and free shipping, as well as e-gift cards: Free Shipping Today Only! Happy Mother’s Day You deserve a treat yourself! HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! Treat yourself to 30% off today only Last Chance: eGift Cards in Time for Mother’s Day Other email performance highlights: Note: All email performance highlights are based on comparisons to Mother’s Day mailings without the highlighted feature from matched brands. To all those in the midst of Mother’s Day campaign planning, good luck and happy sending!
Whether it’s a result of the sky rocketing costs of razor blades, the increasing popularity of Movember or a general trend among Hollywood’s leading men to sport some scruff, it seems that facial hair hasn’t been this en vogue since the mid-70s. Whether you love it or hate it, shaving is big business and any rise in beardedness can shave significant revenue from the bottom lines of companies catering to men’s grooming products. As proof, CPG giant Proctor & Gamble recently announced that its second-quarter earnings were negatively impacted due to the growing preference among men for mustaches and beards. For years, Experian Marketing Services has been measuring the grooming habits of men for marketers via our trusted Simmons National Consumer Study and a recent analysis of the data shows a slight, yet clear, decline in the use of shaving products and an increase in the percent of men sporting facial hair in recent years, especially among the younger demographic. According to our estimates, 17 percent of all men and 35 percent of young men ages 18 to 24 have facial hair today, up from 14 percent and 31 percent, respectively, since 2009. That said, most men with facial hair at least occasionally use shaving products, like shaving cream, disposable razors, razor blades or electric shavers. In fact, the vast majority of all guys (94 percent) still use at least some shaving products, and that number has remained virtually unchanged in recent years. There is, however, a sizable and growing share of young men who are going all wooly mammoth and steering clear of shaving products all together. Specifically, 15 percent of men ages 18 to 24 today say they don’t use any shaving products up from 13 percent in 2009. As younger men’s beards fill in and they move into more professional occupations, most are likely to throw in the (hot) towel and pick up a razor, as evidenced by the fact that only 5 percent of men in the next-oldest age bracket (25 to 34) don’t shave. But the growing bearded trend among young men is hair raising nonetheless. Another trend worth monitoring is the declining frequency of use of shaving products overall, which clearly reflects the increasing popularity of the two-, three- or five-day beard. Among the 67 percent of all men who use shaving cream, for instance, less than a third (29 percent) say they use it seven times a week or more often (the equivalent of a daily shave). On average, men today use shaving cream only 4.3 times per week down from 4.5 times per week in 2009. Young men use shaving cream only 3.3 times a week on average, down from 3.6 times in 2009. Frequency of use is also down among the 36 percent of men who use an electric razor, a popular grooming tool for bearded men who wish to keep things a bit more tame. In fact, just 27 percent of men in the electric razor set say they use it seven or more times a week. On average men use an electric razor 3.7 times per week, down from 4.0 times per week in 2009. On the bright side, Proctor & Gamble, in their latest earnings report, said that despite bad news for their facial hair business, they see potential to offset losses with the increasing popularity of body-shaving by men. And they may have a point. Based on 52-week trend data from our Hitwise online search intelligence tool, searches for “manscaping,” a modern term used to refer to the shaving or trimming of excess body hair, are up a relative 14 percent in the past year.
Once upon a time, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) was primarily focused on their company’s branding efforts. They spent a lot of time thinking about things like look and feel, messaging, ad buys and what their competitors were up to. Of course, those are all still important components of a CMO’s job description, but the role has changed – expanded, really – over the last five or so years. The ongoing proliferation of devices in the hands of empowered consumers requires that CMOs understand things like consumer behavior, channel and device preference, triggered messaging and much more. They must have expertise in various technologies, real-time analytics and, oftentimes, be change agents who move their organizations toward a more customer-centric business model. Today’s CMO must know how their customers want to interact with their brand, then build messaging and execute campaigns that create engagement and ensure ongoing brand advocacy. In a newly published predictions piece: “#7for14: Seven ways digital marketing will change in 2014” several of Experian Marketing Services’ leaders weigh in on the changing role of today’s marketing heads. Check out prediction #1 – Challenges of the CMO and prediction #6 – The CMO as technologist to see more.