The spread of media consumption across many devices with the use of multiple screens is also changing the balances in the digital marketing industry. On the other hand, when third-party cookies are phased out and mobile IDs become more limited next year, it will become much more difficult to track consumers' media consumption habits. This situation necessitates the need to produce solutions to collect data in the new era, as well as the need to rebuild the user-publisher relationship.
Speaking at The Drum Digital Summit, LiveRamp Europe General Manager Vihan Sharma emphasized the need for a reliable ecosystem to create comprehensive customer data, and explained how brands and media owners can gain trust in channels followed by consumers. Sharma said:
As media is split across more screens, data needs increase
- Digital media used to be very simple when only computers were used. At the time, cookies seemed like a sufficient mechanism for identifying user behavior. The rapid diversification of media has changed all this. Consumers now spread their digital consumption across a range of devices and use them in different contexts throughout the day.
- Since each device relies on fundamentally different identifiers such as mobile IDs, cookies, and IP addresses, it becomes increasingly difficult to effectively connect with users across channels. It is crucial for modern marketers to have a holistic understanding of their customers rather than a fragmented view across devices.
What will change in 2021?
- The further fragmentation of data into each new channel creates challenges in delivering meaningful experiences across channels due to the lack of information on the customer profile that includes all these touch points. Different identifiers for different screens, frequency capping between screens, hiding, segmentation, personalization and measurement are becoming increasingly difficult.
- As third-party cookies are phased out and mobile identities become more limited in the next year, it will also become much more difficult to measure the consumer. Given such updates, it is necessary not only to resolve data loss across screens, but also to rebuild the user-publisher relationship.
Publishers now need to renew their trust
- The industry has failed to provide transparency on how data is used in the past, which ultimately led to a decline in consumer confidence. Regulatory measures come into play to enable consumers to achieve this transparency and to give them choice and control over how their information is used.
- Publishers now need to renew trust, and the way to do this is by offering a clear and fair exchange of value. A trust-based ecosystem will provide transparency for consumers, stronger revenue models for publishers, and better measurement capabilities for advertisers.
- The emergence of solutions that leverage mass authentication may present an opportunity to regain trust. The move away from third-party cookies and device IDs could be the push the industry needs to finally embrace a better solution.
- An important emerging alternative is to leverage publishers' trusted relationships with their audiences and ask for verified user information in exchange for valuable content. It is very important that users are guaranteed transparency, control and choice.
How will this trend develop?
- In 2021, we can expect publishers to test, learn, and accelerate the optimization process of authentication strategies that enable subscriber and ad growth. Beyond just free and metered access, options can include email subscriptions, social sign-in, voting, commenting on stories and participating in community forums.
- The data and information collected here can be used to inform both the subscription and advertising sides of the business. For example, the same audience data set generated by subscriber acquisition in recent years can be valuablely used to improve targeting. Similarly, data consented to by non-subscriber users can play a similar role in the subscription team's customer acquisition system.
0 Comments