The phaseout of third-party cookies in 18 months is changing the digital advertising ecosystem and prompting news media companies to accelerate first-party data strategies that redefine what makes advertising relevant to users, according to a report released today by the International News Media Association (INMA). 

“The Third-Party Cookie Trigger” report by INMA CEO Earl J. Wilkinson explores the ramifications to media companies of Google Chrome’s discontinuation of tracking cookie placements in 2022: 

• Data strategies and advertising: How data strategies must adapt to advertising needs as well as the needs of internal publisher clients such as subscriptions, editorial, marketing, and more. 

• Content consumption as primary relevance signal: How the capture of first-party content consumption data is a better signal for relevance than cross-site tracking.

• Authenticated users: How publishers must accelerate the shifting of its browsing audience from anonymous to authenticated to capture first-party data that makes advertising more precise. 

• Audience segments for advertisers: How new creativity in building audience segments for advertisers is rising, along with best practices in data capture that makes these segments more robust. 

Combined, these represent the new digital currency for targeting and measurement for news media companies redefining advertising value with the creative use of first-party data. 

“What we have set out to do in this report is put this complex story in context and make it approachable,” Wilkinson said. “This is a story of how media data practices and the complex digital advertising ecosystem merge into this trigger moment where the phaseout of third-party cookies opens the door to rethinking the best way to serve up precise advertising and what the publisher needs to do to make that happen.” 

The 65-page INMA report looks at the decades-old buildup of data strategies and digital advertising fueled by third-party data. It looks at the ramifications of the third-party cookie’s elimination and possible outcomes for news publishers. It concludes with a look at the emerging publisher playbook for creating new value for advertisers with first-party data, punctuated by best practices.

“The Third-Party Cookie Trigger” is available for free to INMA members and available to non-members for US$795, which includes one year of association membership, all strategic reports, Webinars, and access to all INMA content and peer connection tools. The report may be downloaded or purchased at www.inma.org/reports.

Banner image courtesy of Adrienne Andersen from Pexels.

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