BRANDS ARE UNPREPARED FOR THE THIRD-PARTY COOKIE PHASEOUT, RESEARCH REVEALS
Data from customer engagement experts, Braze, shows that UK brands are unprepared for the phaseout of third-party cookies. New privacy measures presented by Apple and Google present the untapped opportunity for anonymous user data, but comms teams must be aware of poor management negatively impacting stakeholder relationships.
The report combines data from Braze with a global survey conducted by Wakefield Research involving of 140 marketing decision makers from B2C brands in the UK with an annual revenue of over $10m.
Privacy updates from Apple and Google are anticipated for the year ahead, with Google announcing plans to phaseout third-party cookies in 2023. The 2022 Customer Engagement Review shows that despite the phaseout, less than a third of brands are planning to reduce their reliance on this data.
UK marketers cited data management as the top concern for 2022, specifically managing compliance and risk for 36%, applying data to business decisions for 33%, and collecting, integrating and managing marketing data for 32%.
Warrick Godfrey, VP of Industry Solutions at Braze, says, “Brands are facing their most significant data management challenge since GDPR was introduced three years ago. The ever-changing privacy restrictions from the tech giants—in addition to the vast growth of data being created by digital channels—are making it harder than ever for marketers to optimize the way they communicate with customers."
The introduction of new privacy measures will likely lead to an increase in marketing and comms budget, with 98% of new brands expecting to increase their spending in 2022 to cope with the privacy changes presented by Apple and Googles updates.
Comms professionals are looking to use budget to increase the number of channels used or to boost the frequency of communications. However, poor data management will have a significant impact on brand’s communications as consumers may feel bombarded with constant or irrelevant information.
The Braze report points to the untapped potential of anonymous data, from users that take action on a website but opt to ‘continue as a guest’ or do not have an official identifier. The research found that 57% of new visitors in 2021 were anonymous users, yet 80% of them received no comms from the brand.
“It’s never been more critical for brands to take control of first-party data and their customer relationships. Successful customer engagement in 2022 will mean improving the use of first- or zero-party data to personalize communications and bring harmony to cross-channel messaging,” adds Godfrey.