Brands need to get their data houses in order to prepare for the coming collapse of the cookie and new regulations around consumer privacy online.
There are data clean rooms and identity products meant to replace third-party cookies. If the current timeline is to be believed, Google plans to ditch cookies on Chrome at the end of 2024, marking the end of the web trackers used to target ads. There also are gaps in marketing data on mobile, after Apple cut off the ability to track consumers from an ad to a sale. Marketers have lost access to data that gave them insights into whether media buys on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter lead to sales, but there are new measurement products helping with that.
Elsewhere, data is being opened up to allow for better targeting on connected TVs, in video games and within retail media networks. There have also been advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning that are allowing data to guide how marketers create ad campaigns.
This summer, Gartner, the tech research and consulting firm, advised marketers about a “hype cycle” in digital advertising, outlining what tech is closest to solving the industry’s problems. With data clean rooms, for instance, Gartner predicted they are five to 10 years away from reaching their full potential. Also, segment-based advertising, which replaces individually personalized ads with groups of audiences in order to preserve anonymity, is two to three years away. Retail media and connected TV are still two to three years out from achieving their promise, too, Gartner said.
“Everything is changing fast,” said Eric Schmitt, research director at Gartner, the tech consulting firm. “The two major forces in play here are changing consumer behaviors and new norms around the use of data. Those are the two fastest-changing vectors in the marketplace.”
At the heart of these changes are brand, tech and marketing leaders who are helping to usher in advancements in data and ad tech to make advertising more efficient and personalized. Here’s a look at some of the executives who are helping to shape data and ad tech advancements in the industry.
