Perspectives

For years, brands and agencies have been using third-party cookies to track website visitors’ behavior, improve the user experience, and collect trending martech data from across the web to optimize audience targeting strategies. However, this year Google announced that it would be joining Firefox and Safari in removing third-party cookies from its Chrome browser by 2023, ultimately changing the future of advertising. Marketers across the world have spent the last 12 months digesting, understanding, and preparing for this change. In this article, Julie Keating, VP of Digital Marketing and Media at Havas Edge, shares her journey from first hearing Google’s announcement to change the future of advertising, to recent learnings from campaigns that have used cookieless targeting solutions.

Six months ago, during IETF 111, Google engineers made it clear that they were approaching a new iteration of FLoC, which was related to site topics. Yesterday, they finally announced Topics API. The ad topics concept has also been explored by Meta engineers in their Ad Topic Hints proposal, which builds on user feedback to displayed ads. Also, the PAURAQUE proposal from NextRoll was proposed in such a way that users could define topics which are interesting for them and can be used for personalization.

Just two days after publishing Topics API, Google shared more details about the FLEDGE API specification for the upcoming Origin Trials. It is definitely a positive move, as it improves the industry’s understanding of the scope of tests that will be possible in the upcoming months. The specification includes essential features for advertising efficiency and utility, such as those created by RTB House – Product-level TURTLEDOVE and Outcome-based TURTLEDOVE. Sadly, the testing phase timeline hasn’t been updated for months now, so a more detailed timeline is still unavailable.

How will clients assess their marketing services partners amid the decline of 3rd-party cookies, and what strategies can help firms prosper?

The digital advertising industry is facing a precipitous moment on the back of Google’s decision to remove 3rd-party cookies from its Chrome browser in 2023, but marketeers must act now by implementing other strategies rather than waiting for the perfect solution to replace their favourite tracking tool. In this interview, Louise McMahon, Automotive Marketing Communications Section Manager at Honda UK, outlines what changes her business has made and what marketing services partners need to do to stay relevant when it comes to cookieless advertising.

The last couple of years have seen a revolutionary change in online consumer behavior, with some brands needing to adapt quite radically. That, along with tighter privacy controls, has left agencies wondering what the future of advertising holds and how campaigns will look in 2022 and beyond.

For an answer, we asked Desmond Lawrence, Global Digital Activation Director at Havas Media Group, to set out the key trends he sees in consumer behavior and what that means for the brands and agencies targeting them in the years ahead.

Brand messaging is not an exact science – but still many campaigns fail to meet their objectives despite the presence of strong creatives.

For an expert perspective on the most important considerations when designing effective creatives we asked Valeriia Filonich, Digital and e-Commerce Manager at Sisley Paris to outline some of the processes that can be put in place to maximise the chances of success.