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)
Brands
Balaji Krishnamurthy becomes chief financial officer at Uber
Internal finance veteran steps up as Uber enters next phase of growth
SAN FRANCISCO: Uber has handed the keys of its finance function to Balaji Krishnamurthy, who has taken charge as chief financial officer, marking a promotion from within the company’s strategic finance ranks.
Krishnamurthy steps into the role after more than six years at Uber, where he most recently served as VP, strategic finance and investor relations. Over that time, he worked across the company’s mobility and delivery businesses and led its investor relations efforts, building a reputation as a steady hand behind the numbers.
Announcing his first day in the new role, Krishnamurthy thanked outgoing CFO Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah and chief executive officer Dara Khosrowshahi for their support, calling the appointment both a privilege and a responsibility.
He said he was stepping into the role at a “moment of strength” for the company, pointing to accelerating growth across consumers, drivers, couriers and merchants, along with expanding cash flows that would be used to invest in long term growth while returning excess capital to shareholders.
Krishnamurthy also highlighted Uber’s focus on innovation, particularly in autonomous vehicles, and praised what he described as a “go get it” culture within the company.
Before joining Uber in 2019 as senior manager, investor relations, he spent more than eight years at Goldman Sachs as vice president in equity research, covering US hardware and communications technology companies. His earlier roles included stints at Irevna and iTrust Financial Advisors in India, where he worked in equity research and wealth management.
In addition to his responsibilities at Uber, he also serves as a board member at autonomous trucking startup Waabi.
With an internal finance veteran now at the helm, Uber appears to be betting on continuity as it shifts from growth-at-all-costs to a more measured, cash-generating ride.
