MAM
GUEST COLUMN: How a cookie-less environment will affect the digital space
Mumbai: For the past decade, marketers have been experimenting in the digital environment to enhance brand-customer interactions. In the B2C and B2B spaces, the growth of social platforms has changed how marketers communicate with their clients. In addition, advances in big data and artificial intelligence have enabled marketers to better target and communicate with customers and analyse the impact of their efforts. Third-party cookies are crucial for such advancements.
The advertising/marketing game now stands on the verge of groundbreaking change. Google plans to stop supporting third-party cookies on its Chrome browser by the end of 2023, ultimately ending two decades of media and data-driven performance-focused marketing. As a result, marketing executives and their teams must prepare for a world without cookies by focusing on consent-based advertising and adopting digital transformation strategies for a world without cookies.
We have boiled down the entire marketing plan fitting for a cookie-less world into five steps.
Shift to the first-party data strategy
The websites visitors visit place first-party cookies on their browsers, which the website owner owns. They assist in collecting vital analytical data, language preferences, and the overall delivery of a positive user experience. Companies must make changes in their digital transformation strategy and start investing in developing the ability to acquire first-party data precisely. Businesses must be early adopters and ensure that their first-party cookies are mature enough to gather critical data elements.
According to a Deloitte survey, 61 per cent of high-growth enterprises are shifting to a first-party data strategy.
Start developing second-party relationships
Sharing second-party data is standard among organisations in related domains, and it may be highly advantageous to all parties involved. The company’s first-party data is shared under a contractual arrangement as second-party data to another company. Such mutualistic ties may become increasingly significant for enterprises with a considerable audience overlap in the near future.
This change will only come to fruition once the marketers are willing to rethink their digital transformation strategy for enterprises.
Focus on building rapport with tech giants
Marketers may need to explore outside their boundaries to expand their first-party data. For example, marketers should establish connections with tech giants like Google and Facebook and other media publishers to acquire access to their ‘walled gardens’ of corresponding insights and data to ensure internal data creation.
This step will require exceptional digital transformation services at your business’ disposal.
Reinvent your media spend strategy
Cookie obsolescence would aggravate existing digital ad measurement difficulties, such as transparency and integration standards and attribution accuracy. Instead, reinvent measurement baselines, engage in market research, and lock in essential resources to prepare for an era of advertising experimentation.
Revamping your brand marketing is not a piece of cake. You will require a robust and streamlined process for your digital transformation strategy. Many digital marketing agencies in India offer remarkable digital transformation services for B2B and B2C firms.
Practice contextual targeting
Behavioral targeting tries to collect data on a visitor’s behavior to ensure that the ad is relevant to them while ignoring the context of the ad. Marketers must evolve this strategy and shift to contextual targeting practice, which targets visitors based on the page’s content where the ad appears. As the number of options for giving individualised advertising to audiences decreases, marketers must return to the basics and concentrate on contextual targeting to get their messages to the right audience.
Adapting, surviving, and thriving in a cookie-less world is possible with specific finetuning measures in your digital transformation strategy.
(About Author: Ambika Sharma is the Pulp Strategy founder and managing director)
MAM
Lego brings Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappé, Vinicius together
Campaign clocks 314 million views ahead of FIFA World Cup 2026 buzz.
MUMBAI: Four legends, one frame and not a single tackle in sight. Lego has pulled off a crossover few thought possible, uniting Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior in a single campaign ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026 only this time, they’re building dreams brick by brick.
Titled “Everyone wants a piece”, the campaign features the quartet assembling a Lego version of the World Cup trophy, before placing miniature versions of themselves atop it, a playful nod to football’s ultimate prize. Shared widely across social media, the ad carries a pointed disclaimer: it is not AI-generated, a subtle but telling signal in an era where even reality is often questioned.
The numbers tell their own story. The campaign has already crossed 314 million views on Instagram across the players’ accounts, with fans hailing it as a rare, almost nostalgic moment particularly for the reunion of Messi and Ronaldo, whose last shared campaign ahead of the 2022 World Cup became one of the platform’s most-liked posts.
Beyond the film, Lego is extending the play with exclusive, player-themed sets tied to each of the four stars, part of a broader football-led programme designed to ride the global momentum building towards 2026. The idea, as echoed by the players themselves, leans into the parallels between football and play experimentation, creativity, failure, and triumph.
Messi described the sets as a way to bring on-pitch moments into an imaginative, hands-on world, while Ronaldo called the transformation into a Lego figure a rare honour, blending sport with storytelling. Vinícius, meanwhile, struck a more personal note, recalling childhood moments of building with Lego and framing creativity as a universal language that transcends borders.
The timing is no accident. With the 2026 World Cup set to run from June 11 to July 19 across the United States, Canada and Mexico, and featuring an expanded 48-team format, global anticipation is already building. Argentina, led by Messi, will enter as defending champions, adding another layer of intrigue.
For Lego, the campaign does more than celebrate football, it taps into its mythology. Because when icons become figurines and rivalries turn into play, the beautiful game finds a new kind of pitch. one built, quite literally, by hand.
