Despite Google’s latest third-party cookie announcement, delaying deprecation from 2023 to 2024, identity is still the heart of a brand’s ability to deliver great customer experiences in a privacy-safe way. And the smartest brands are preparing now to gain competitive advantage. But what are the core capabilities that must be adopted to gain a competitive advantage in the evolving advertising ecosystem?
What’s the problem?
Due to these industry changes, technology that relies on third-party cookies to enable activation and measurement is becoming obsolete. Many organizations have begun to heavily invest in identity, data, security, and more advanced ways to activate and measure media spends. Beyond that, brands need the core components that fill the gaps left by a cookie-less world to ensure that they have the tools to succeed in a privacy-safe way going forward.
What’s the solution?
The solution to these changes is a fully integrated connected identity platform. These platforms provide several key features that help solve common challenges now and when third-party cookies deprecate. A connected identity platform combines information with other partner or third-party data sources to build the clearest picture of each customer’s preferences, likes, habits, etc. for a holistic view and understanding to be used in personalized marketing efforts. But it doesn’t end there. To meet customers where they are requires accurate data and the right tools. Both are critical for scaled, privacy-safe, measurable activation of customer interactions across channels.
Organizations must get an end-to-end view of the customer with connection throughout the entire tech and ad stack. This is much different than thinking about identity in the silo of a specific channel or a single part of the customer lifecycle; this is connecting the individual identity across channels, devices, and in-person interactions, and weaving them together based on a common identifier.
It is also important not to confuse identity platforms with a customer data platform (CDP). A true connected identity platform will manage data and identity outside a client’s walls, while a CDP’s strength is within the walls of an organization. Read more on how they work together here.
A connected identity platform should include these components:
1. Identity
Unsurprisingly, these platforms provide an identity solution using a person-based ID. This identity anonymizes the individual person but also enables an organization to act on the ID across the ad ecosystem (i.e not cookies). This also provides the ability to leverage the identity graph of the provider, enabling greater reach (or matches) in media endpoints.
2. Data enhancement
These platforms can supplement and enhance first-party data with second- and third-party data stores. This combined data also uses a person-based ID to bolster what you understand about customers, helping you generate positive consumer experiences with potential customers and build better media audiences.
3. Turnkey connections and insights
These platforms are built with the marketer in mind. They offer several ways that someone without coding skills can build and manage audiences across data sources and provide high-level insights and sizing before activation. These platforms have a long list of turnkey integrations with media end point to make media planning/activation scalable while shorting time to market.
4. Clean room
A clean room is a privacy-safe environment where data sources can be meshed at the individual customer level. The cleanroom enables an organization to combine different data sources or signals of their own and/or of other partners in a privacy compliant manner. The two main use cases of the connected identity platform clean room enable an organization to perform advanced audience analytics insights, modeling, longitudinal analysis, closed-loop measurement (connecting online exposure to offline conversions) Having this advanced analytics workbench connected to data sources and end points is a key advantage of an integrated clean room.
Bringing it all together
One of the key features of connected identity platforms is the ability to bring all these disparate data sources into a privacy-compliant analytics workbench where closed-loop measurement, advanced insights, and custom modeling can be done on persistent person-based ID.
All these features help a marketer address the changes of the evolving ad tech ecosystem. While post-cookie digital ecosystems might bring new challenges, organizations that employ a transactable identity backbone and analytics tools will be in a strong position for the future.
Brands must find a solution that allows them to use these capabilities while also building their own identity graph consisting of all identifiers and signals while they can. The graph will get smarter over time, making it easier for brands to recognize and connect with people in a more personal and relevant way, wherever they are. We know more change is coming. This is the time for brands to invest and prepare.
Want to learn more about connected identity platforms? Need help with your analytics? Contact our team here.