THE HIGHLIGHTS
A rallying cry for the open internet
To know and grow their audiences online, advertisers must look beyond the “walled gardens” and make use of emerging solutions that illuminate consumer behaviour across the open internet.
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There’s an ‘original sin’ that lies at the very foundation of the internet – the assumption that content is free, when in reality it is largely paid for by advertising. While digital advertising is set to grow exponentially, Konrad Feldman, Quantcast co-founder and CEO, believes that there is too much control in the hands of too few.
Speaking at the Festival of Marketing, Feldman noted that the predictability offered by the ‘walled gardens’ such as Facebook and Google to advertisers is admittedly attractive; they have brought order where “before, there was chaos and confusion”. However, Feldman also believes that they make it harder for new voices to emerge. This ultimately reduces the diversity of trustworthy sources of news and information, creating a less vibrant open internet for the next generation.
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Why, then, should advertisers seek to move outside of this closed world of relative brand safety and predictability? “It’s in a brand’s best interests to maintain a broad range of options for reaching their target audiences,” insisted Feldman. “These audiences are at the heart of the open internet. They are more diverse, richer and more genuine than in the walled gardens.”
“Our job is to find the stories that connect with audiences and engage customers.”
Emily Latham, Channel 4
Cutting through the confusion
At present, the open internet is a “messy patchwork of vendors with competing claims”. The whole ecosystem has become something of a “dark art” to both advertisers and consumers. This confusion must be overcome if brands are to understand who the consumers are, what they want and what they engage with outside of the walled gardens. They must deliver what customers want from them - quality goods, services and content for the right person, in the right place, at the right time.
This will demand greater effort and innovation from brands and ad partners, particularly in the realm of data analytics. This is especially the case for when the deprecation of third-party cookies finally takes place in 2023.
As the industry begins its countdown, solutions are beginning to materialise. Quantcast’s Feldman stated: “Precisely what these alternative identifiers to third-party cookies will look like remains an active area of research. One thing we can be sure of is that our notions of identity resolution, modelling and measurement will need greater flexibility than ever before. The most scalable mechanisms for understanding audiences and measuring advertising results will likely use a combination of techniques.”
In a way, the demise of the third-party cookie is like a blessing in disguise. It is an increasingly weak foundation on which to build an understanding of your customer, especially when compared to the reliable, valuable nature of first-party data. Companies that are able to collect, analyse and use first-party data can uncover more in-depth audience insights and therefore better position themselves to capture opportunities on the open internet.
To give full play to such data, brands must make use of advanced technologies, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, which will enable them to build a more contextual understanding of their customer.
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Quantcast's Konrad Feldman explains the growing importance of first-party data
Prioritising consent
Any true discussion of data and the internet cannot be without the most important part of the puzzle – consent.
“Consent is not a new concept in Europe,” Feldman said. “Just as it has become front and centre following GDPR, similar regulations have been introduced around the world. All businesses are going to have to explain what they need and why, and allow consumers to change their mind.”
Finding a way outside of the walled gardens, adapting to a first-party data world and acting on even deeper forms of consumer permission may seem like daunting tasks, but it is doable - and, as Feldman argued, essential.
“It may get clearer and easier over time, but for the foreseeable future it’s going to be murkier and messier. Fortunately, advances in technology such as machine learning and artificial intelligence can help illuminate the hard-to-see and tame some of this complexity. We can’t take the open internet for granted and it’s worth fighting for.”■
THE HIGHLIGHTS