Now, marketers can relive the excitement and ideas of the conference (or encounter them for the first time) in a new documentary. THE GAME features insights from speakers—including Vice President of Data Services and Technology (EMEA) Doug Hall and Senior Director of Analytics, EMEA Julien Coquet—to discuss how recent developments in data collection, activation and regulation are reshaping the strategies of brands and their partners.

For a clear understanding of where the industry is headed, find the documentary in full below. Look forward to more Superweek next year, running from January 30 to February 3 in Egerszalok, Hungary!

We might speculate as to other reasons why the deadline has changed, but we can be confident that—whether from a privacy or commercial perspective—the proposed solutions haven’t met expectations. This is actually encouraging because we should expect a 2024 solution that doesn’t compromise on privacy or commercial performance.

But what does this mean for digital marketing? What changes? How do we position ourselves with this delay? There are things we know and things we don’t, but we can prepare for both. And one thing is for certain, the worst possible tactic is doing nothing. 

Here’s what we do know:

• Marketing on Google owned and operated properties (Search, YouTube and Maps) remains unchanged given its use of first party, rather than third party cookies.
• Audience (re)targeting, measurement and attribution will change, but we don’t know when or how.
• Life goes on within walled gardens, but with an increased focus on the value of first-party data across industry leaders like Google, Meta, Amazon, LinkedIn and TikTok.
• Elsewhere in the industry, there’s an expectation that the adoption of so-called “solutions”—clean rooms, ID resolution, SaaS marketing clouds, contextual—will slow down.

We agree that increased first-party data focus is the best move for marketers and agencies. This is a gift that cements the foundation of fully consented first-party data as part of the overall data strategy. 

The postponement is not an excuse to just keep doing digital marketing as we’ve always done it.  That’s a “fat and happy” symptom and a one-way ticket to extinction. Indeed, any lost opportunity to explore and learn new avenues is a waste.  That’s not to say we need to spend this extra time trying to maintain the status quo. Embracing regulatory and tech change as a driver rather than a business impediment is a competitive advantage.  

Here’s a recap of the Death of the 3P cookie timeline:

• 2018: DoubleClick ID files redacted
• 2019: Privacy Sandbox is announced
• 2020: Third-party cookie deprecation announced (targeting 2022) 
• January 2021: Google commits to Privacy Sandbox and Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC)
• March 2021: Google announces that it will not allow “alternate identifiers”
• June 2021: Google announces Chrome will stop supporting 3P cookies by end of 2023
• July 2022: Google Chrome has delayed 3P Cookie deprecation to 2024

How many more delays do we face? It doesn’t matter.  We’re already in a precarious situation that common sense says we don’t leave untouched.

One of the most recognizable personalities in the digital analytics industry, Avinash Kaushik, said, “Most browsers have allowed you to block third-party cookies since the dawn of the internet. A cluster of people (like me) have taken advantage of that option.” (Chrome is the last of the most popular browsers to have no restrictions on third-party data storage like cookies). “So your current third-party cookie tracking based audience and measurement at the minimum already has a signal quality degradation built in,” Kaushik goes on to say.

These are the unignorable signals of change. More than ever, be prepared.

Think of, let’s say, a multinational holding company with about six subsidiaries in retail and banking, operating in seven countries with physical stores and both website and app platforms. Not all subsidiaries are present everywhere, and not all platforms use the same language. Now imagine wanting to unify all of that into a scalable system that provides updated, accurate information about your consumers—processed through reliable metrics that allow you to get a better grasp of their needs and interests. Not exactly child’s play, is it?

Our partners at Falabella, one of the largest retail companies in Latin America, were faced with that exact challenge in their ambition to develop their technological capabilities and strengthen their logistics to support the rapid growth of their online sales. The ultimate goal was simple: to better serve customers through personalized solutions and increase the company’s overall efficiency. The path to get there, though, required considerable expertise in the use and implementation of data. 

Growing Its Technological Muscles

Falabella’s flagship department stores, as well as its shopping centers and supermarkets, have crowned it the largest retail company in Chile, and one of the most important ones in Latin America. But while this long-standing brand was built on the foundations of a traditional physical store, the importance of having a strong online presence has never eluded them. 

Today, Falabella is in pursuit of becoming one of the region’s top ecommerce players. In other words, to take the relevance it’s built in the physical world and replicate it in the digital space. But to become the go-to ecommerce platform for a variety of needs, it had to integrate its four pre-existing platforms and their data into a single marketplace and a measuring system.

Our Head of Data Growth, South Cone, Walter Rebollo, was there to support them on that journey. “We put together a dedicated team that worked side by side with the brand’s, serving as a technological muscle,“ he says.

For a company of this magnitude, any technological miscommunication between properties could hinder the accuracy of their data analysis, which explains the need for a foundational transformation. “Our team of analytics experts, consultants and engineers helped the brand design measurement plans that were aligned throughout the organization. They developed dashboards, documentation, manuals and provided technical support for their implementations,” adds Rebollo.  

It’s More Than Just Statistics

In addition to serving as the technological muscle, the team introduced the brand to a more analytical and data-driven mindset. After all, being cognizant of the potential that lies in one’s first-party data is the first step towards building a sharpened customer experience. And it’s not about playing with statistics to see what sticks. Think of first-party data as a source of truth that illustrates our customers’ personalities and behaviors; a roadmap of sorts to support your audience across the entire customer journey.

Javier Fernández Morales, Falabella’s Regional Head of Performance & Growth, puts it plainly, “As one of the sites with the highest traffic in the region, our first-party data is a key asset in order to provide a better shopping and browsing experience.

In retail, consumers expect an omnichannel experience that’s tailored to them. They want to be able to switch between app, web and devices across the purchase journey from start to finish. We designed the analytics framework to capture that information, creating a setup that eased the understanding of how audiences behave and what they are interested in. 

“The digital transformation of Falabella encompassed a bunch of steps that led to the final goal,” explains Gastón Fossati, our VP of Data Growth SPLA. “For example, the implementation of the web ecommerce funnel for all countries, assessments to define the attribution model to be used, baking in machine learning for audience prediction, the implementation of enhanced conversions in Google Analytics and a monthly consulting service to work on the Firebase project for the app, among other things.” 

An Empowered Team Leads to Fast Decision-Making

Beyond providing a seamless customer experience, having a single measurement system aligned throughout the organization can be as helpful internally as it is for customer-facing interactions. Think about it: refined measurement leads to effective automated models, which can then save the team time and energy. “From a backend standpoint, having a better data management system has made it possible for us to develop a well-executed product scalability model,” says Fernández Morales. By allowing marketing technology tools to be executed with greater agility, we empower specialists to make better decisions, faster.

That said, the development of an integrated measurement system from the ground up is not something that happens overnight. In this year-long project—which stemmed from a three-year partnership—both teams worked in lockstep to create a measurement strategy according to each unit’s goals, integrate Google Analytics and train the brand’s team to act upon the information. “Our approach is one of democratizing knowledge, so we always make sure we’re not just delivering but also teaching our partners how and why we do what we do,” says Rebollo. 

Throughout that process, both teams blended with one another to the point where there was almost no distinction between each. “I find it truly remarkable that we’ve created a single team with not only a common goal but also a shared spirit,” says Lorena Alva Salazar, Head of Growth & Martech at Falabella.

Today, they can bank not only on a solid, unified team, but also on reliable metrics that are immediately available for quick decision-making. The phase-out of third-party cookies poses no threat, and they are in fact better prepared to forge a closer relationship with consumers. First, an integrated framework and multiple data collection points provide invaluable information on their consumers. And second, the brand can now empower users to choose how much information they want to share, thus safeguarding their privacy.

Enter the New Frontier for Business Growth

Virtualization is the transformation of digital: a set of new audience behaviors, cultural norms and technology paradigms resulting from 30 years of digital transformation, hyper-accelerated over the past five years. It follows previous eras of globalization and digital transformation. While digital transformation now focuses on the pipes and plumbing to connect digital touch points, virtualization concerns the experience layer on top of a brand’s digital investments. In the overlap of new consumer engagement and the possibilities of tech transformation, new business models are emerging to better support digital-native audiences and accelerate growth.

Virtualization Is Launching New, Lasting Legacies

The traditional customer acquisition model is over saturated and highly competitive, yet virtualization is a white space that provides room for early movers to outcompete. At the same time, it’s essential we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past as new ethical standards take hold. Through innovative ways of creating community, meaning, and value, virtualization is a new canvas to engage in culture upon which brands can mint their legacies, fuel longevity and define a new era.

Begin Your Virtualization Journey Now

We’re already partnering with the world’s most valued brands to drive incredible growth through virtualization, and we can help you do the same. Connect with us to explore the emerging consumer behaviors of the virtualized era, the influences that shape them, and how you can learn from them to better connect with your audiences.

But the product is not the subject of the ruling; the transfer of data, its use and safeguarding measures must warrant scrutiny. If Google Analytics is held to be illegal, the verdict will also have an immediate impact on all products and services that transfer data outside of the EU.

While this article is not intended to be legal advice, I intend to share potential future areas of discussion for EU-US data transfer—and immediate steps to take in light of the recent decision from Austria.

The Evolution of Privacy Regulations

Understanding how and why calls for a history lesson. Long before GDPR came into effect, there was the “Safe Harbor” agreement made between the EU and the US. The 2000 agreement allowed companies to self-certify they would protect EU citizens’ data if storing it within US data centers. The agreement stood for 15 years until it was invalidated by the European Court of Justice.

Safe Harbor was followed by the “Privacy Shield” agreement in 2016, which imposed stronger restrictions on US businesses in accessing and transferring EU citizens’ data. But in 2020, the Privacy Shield met the same fate at the hands of the Court of Justice via resolution C-11/18— colloquially called “Schrems II,” a reference to Austrian lawyer and privacy rights advocate Max Schrems.

Schrems began his privacy battle based on the testimony of Edward Snowden in 2013, regarding the PRISM program that gave the United States National Security Agency (NSA) unfettered access to data. Schrems argued that Facebook aided the NSA, violating the rights of EU citizens to have their data processed fairly.

At this time, the basic principle is that when personal data leaves the EU, the law travels with it. It’s referred to as the transfer of personal data to third countries. For example, Third Countries might be the US, Australia, the UK or anywhere outside the European Union. Recent violations of GDPR, then, are not specific to Google or even data housed in the US; it’s equally applicable to Adobe, Facebook, Amazon and all third parties who function as data collectors across geographical boundaries.

What Does This Mean for the Internet and Data?

The issue that Schrems II (PDF) raises fundamentally applies to the internet as a whole: analytics data collection uses basic internet technologies that are no different than those used when a browser loads an image. The image request still sends cookies and exposes the user’s IP address to the request endpoint.

Still, how analytics are used and how data is managed requires attention and respect for regulation. Increasingly, data protection authorities (DPAs) are ordering the suspension of personal data transfers to third countries. In March ’21, the Bavarian DPA found an unlawful transfer from Germany to the US by MailChimp. A month later, the Portuguese DPA ordered a suspension of personal data transfer to the US and other countries outside the EU by Cloudflare.

Ensure Your Data is GDPR-Compliant

How Google Analytics is used has always been subject to scrutiny and regulation. As a result, it is prudent to make sure all your data collection and activation is compliant with the most current regulations. Consider these basic steps as possible actions and repeat them at least each quarter:

1. Anonymize IP addresses in Google Analytics. This will impact geographic reporting, but is a relatively small trade-off.
2. Ensure your cloud data storage is located in the EU. This is an opportunity to review all data storage locations.
3. Make sure your consent banner is compliant. Implement an automated scanning process that runs on a regular cadence to quickly identify the setting of cookies without consent.
4. Review your cookie and privacy policies regularly for compliance.

Get third-party legal advice to ensure compliance or address any questions you have. A data partner like Media.Monks can also provide support in implementing changes to Google Analytics and providing automated solutions to measure and analyze data collection with respect to consent banner functionality.

Where Do We Go from Here?

The subject of the Austria DPA’s complaint is the transfer of personal data to the US that lacks adequate protection from US authorities who gain access to it. Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) have been used previously to allow data transfer, however, questions have been raised regarding the feasibility of SCCs with respect to FISA (PDF). New SCCs have been published that require supplementary measures that go beyond encryption, referring specifically to scrutiny of the destination country’s legal regime. Google maintains these measures have been met (PDF).

Currently, there appears to be difficulty where both encryption and transparency requirements seem to contradict each other. Revised SCCs or a successor to Safe Harbor and Privacy Shield appear to be the favored solution by Google, although the practicalities and timing of such solutions remain unclear. Until then, following the steps above to regularly review compliance goes a long way to ensure your brand remains in good graces.

What’s topical about Chrome’s Topics?

The Chrome browser currently has a strong market foothold with above 50% in market share, despite not really having a solution following Safari’s (Apple’s) crusade to kill third party cookies. While it hasn’t gone for marking the cookiecalypse yet, like Safari and other browsers have, Chrome has attempted to address the needs of marketers with ideas to alter some marketing capabilities to work in a privacy-safe way. 

Google has sought solutions which would enable some form of safe profiling and data exchange between martech players as ad revenues continue to be mission-critical for the health of many businesses. These solutions are going to be built into the Chrome browser, packaged as the Privacy Sandbox.  

The most recent announcement introduces Topics, which are an updated version of FLoC (federated learning of cohorts). The initial idea behind FLoC was to create a mechanism which would classify users based on their behavior into cohorts which guarantee privacy (through entropy). By design, cohorts would be more generic and would remove 1:1 targeting, but at the same time would restore interest-based targeting. The main issue of the initial solution was in mathematics, as algorithms were translating domain names into numbers without a clear understanding of “topicality” of the site. 

As FLoC did not win hearts of the industry, Google went to the drawing board and came back with Topics. The idea of cohorts still persists, though the mechanism of translating domain names into “topics” for further targeting was updated along with some privacy assumptions. Even though the proposal is not yet fully developed, there is a consistent approach of using domain names in order to classify users into cohorts. Google envisions some form of a dictionary and set of rules that determine which domain name translates to which topic. Current documentation points out that usage of sub domains is encouraged to support mapping into topics. 

How does the third-party cookie crumble crush my current domain name strategy? 

The main issue with third-party cookies is that they enable “foreign” actors to collect information about individuals as they travel between different sites. Though as everything in a binary word of computers, the definition of a foreigner is very black and white. All cookies set by a different domain are considered third parties. Computers do not care much about the structure of your organization, brands, subsidiaries and ownership. 

Multibrand businesses which operate across multiple domains face challenges in building user profiles without third-party cookies. As data management platforms (DMPs) and many marketing solutions struggle to exist without third-party cookies, it is becoming more difficult to create a single customer view across brands one may own. As first-party data strategies are picking up steam, there are some critical decisions to be made. To operate in a first-party cookie context and be able to exchange data between their own brands, brands need to operate under the same domain name. 

The most apparent manifestation of this situation are media outlets which own multiple mastheads. As publishers try to build value propositions around their audiences, every piece of information counts. Without a DMP or third-party cookie, it would be impossible to achieve scale across different sites they own today. 

So, how can I make a name for myself?

As it is possible to register your own top-level domains or TLDs (though they are expensive and it takes time), and we observe ongoing pressure on first-party data collection (meaning you need one universal domain across your whole business), it's time to consider your new universal domain name! 

Let's assume you run a business called “Example” together with two brands, “Big” and “Small.” It’s likely you have example.com, big.com and small.com as domain names. With the lack of third-party cookies, it is hard to exchange information about prospects between the sites. With help of a customer data platform (CDP) or a good data team, you may join first-party data between the sites to research the level of cannibalisation or overlap. 

To simplify your life (and data), you may want to consider big.example.com and small.example.com as primary addresses. This will enable all sorts of integration and will load your first-party data strategy with rocket fuel. If you are big enough, you can go for your own top-level domain to create something like big.from.example and small.from.example. Coming back to Topics, if your brands operate with multiple categories, more subdomains enables better profiling, like automotive.big.from.example or sport.big.example.com. 

How do I get started now?

Well, FLoC did not survive long enough to become a thing and Topics are still quite nascent themselves. Though everyone is pretty committed to getting rid of third-party cookies, and some businesses already operate in a world where over 80% of traffic comes from browsers that no longer support them by default. Google has postponed the moment of putting the final nail into the cookie’s coffin, so the timelines seem rather floaty. 

Today we operate with the assumption that hour 0 will come around next year or the year following. All things considered, there is not much time to prepare for such big decisions. Now, it’s time to plan.