Publishers embrace a bright new future as the digital advertising market rebuilds
Welcome to this month’s Spotlight. In this edition, we’re taking a deep dive into publishers and what the future has in store as the digital ad industry continues to evolve. Over the past few years, publishers have had to deal with much uncertainty as the withdrawal of third-party cookies has pulled the rug on their advertising business models. Today, however, the market is rebuilding itself and a bright new future is emerging for digital publishers.
What we have for you today: The low down on new market options for publishers, nascent telco propositions for the digital ID market, and a potentially promising alternative to sourcing customer consent for data use in the UK.
Missed our May’s newsletter? Don’t worry, you can read it on our blog here.
Future-proofing digital publishing
We all know that the writing is on the wall for third-party cookies, but this month there was a timely reminder that fingerprinting also has a limited shelf life. Apple has made it clear that it aims to stamp out the practice, and it’s likely that other tech companies will follow suit given the privacy implications of the approach.
As AdExchanger’s Allison Schiff points out “device fingerprinting for measurement purposes is probably the least future-proofed thing a company can do – other than perhaps basing their product road map on third-party cookies.”
Trial and error
It’s therefore encouraging that publishers are presented with so many alternatives for the future of digital programmatic advertising.
For its part, Google is continuing the origin trials for its Privacy Sandbox, which includes products like Topics, Fledge and the Attribution Reporting API. Reports suggest that the trials are not without hiccups, and many publishers lack the resources to take part. However, progress is being made and with every bug that’s identified and resolved we come a step closer to the post third-party cookie world.
Of course, the key here, as with other emerging solutions, will be to ensure interoperability so that publishers can draw on a wide range of tools to build their advertising propositions.
The publishers strike back
It would be wrong to think that publishers are simply sitting by and waiting for a solution to their woes. As highlighted in the recent IAB Europe Interact 2022 conference, many are driving innovation and looking to pioneer new business models.
The Telegraph is a case in point. As outlined in its keynote, the publication is using premium publisher insights gleaned from its first-party intelligence to encourage advertising investment in journalism. Premium publisher advertising models were also the subject of a panel debate at the conference, which focused on first-party data strategies as well as innovations in areas such as branded content, eCommerce, and partnerships.
Novatiq has argued for some time that first-party intelligence holds the solution to the end of third-party cookies, and it’s great to see this message getting argued so widely across the industry.
Back to basics
Others are attempting to make do with as little data as possible. Meta, for example, is reportedly developing a new type of ad that will rely on less user data for targeting. These ads will likely be measured using metrics like engagement and video views.
It remains to be seen what will come of these plans; but if effective, Meta’s innovation could well prove a useful new approach for publishers everywhere.
Telcos enter the fray
Another major development this month is the news that Vodafone is piloting a new advertising ID that will work as a persistent user tracker at the mobile ISP level. Novatiq believes that telcos will lie at the heart of the new digital advertising ecosystem, and so we are delighted with at this significant play by a major telco.
However, reports note that there will continue to be privacy concerns over Vodafone’s tracker. Our view is that telcos absolutely should be making moves into this market, but they need to ensure they take a privacy-first approach. See our latest blog to learn more (details below).
Consent made easy
Where customer data is used by publishers for advertising, consent will remain a key challenge. June brought some good news in this regard, with the announcement that the UK government is looking to reduce pop-up cookie alerts as part of its upcoming Data Reform Bill. The proposal is for a simple opt-out system where users can set their data permissions in their web browsing settings. If this works and maintains the privacy promise, this would be a very welcome innovation, and one which will make consent management exponentially easier for publishers and consumers alike.
More ways to get inspired
As always, Novatiq has been hard at work this month as we look to make our telco-based identity solution a core component of digital advertising on the open web. We have, however, found time to publish some more thought leadership. This month, we’re looking at the many differences between data clean rooms and telco-verified IDs. As we set out, the latter are just the sort of privacy-first solution that will give telcos a strong play in the digital advertising market.
Circle back in July for more news and inspiration.
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