The Forrester Consulting Opportunity Snapshot study, which was commissioned by Permutive, explored brands’ and publishers’ concerns around data deprecation. The study charted their priorities and efforts in developing first-party data strategies.

The fact that brands most likely won’t have the ability to achieve their marketing goals at the expense of customer trust means that gaining this trust is a top priority. The study showed that 42% of publishers are prioritising improving customer satisfaction and trust ahead of increasing subscriptions. More than a third of brands stated a priority to improve customer trust (36%) and satisfaction (33%).

In unsurprising figures, the data reveals that 73% of brands are concerned about increasing privacy regulations, and over two-thirds (70%) are concerned that consumers will decline consent to use their data for marketing, which will disrupt business as usual for many brands.

How can brands and publishers work together to overcome the loss of data?

Interestingly, one of the key findings was that while data deprecation will cause havoc in terms of brands’ marketing strategies, it could also present an opportunity to build and strengthen direct brand-publisher relationships. Half of publishers (50%) said they see data deprecation as an opportunity to work more closely with advertisers.

It seems brands are starting to adopt publishers’ first-party data in an effort to kickstart their new marketing strategies as a result of the death of data as we know it. However, the study showed that only 39% of brands currently use publishers’ first-party data in half or more campaigns, with 41% still relying on third-party data to properly target their audiences. It seems there could still be a long way to go…

95% of publishers said they have already started building their first-party data monetisation strategies, with hopes of increasing their subscriptions and gaining even more first-party data.

This has meant that stronger relationships with brands have been built; 90% of publishers stated they have at least one direct brand relationship in place, while a further 60% said they have five or more direct relationships with brands to sell first-party audience data.

Joe Root, CEO and Co-founder of Permutive commented: “This research only goes to highlight that publisher first-party data will be paramount to tailored and relevant digital advertising and will drive trusted, direct relationships between brands and publishers.

“…It should be seen as a tremendous opportunity to build privacy-safe solutions that empower publishers and ensure brands can reach their audience while building trust with consumers.

“Publishers’ first-party data will be the new media currency in the future of digital marketing as a privacy-safe foundation for brands to continue targeting consumers — without identifying and tracking them across domains. But brands and publishers must partner if they are to tackle data depreciation.”

It seems publishers are in the best position here, as they will have brands galore relying on their first-party data in order to strategise in a privacy-friendly way. Do you think this is the solution, do you think brands can achieve the same results themselves, or by using other solutions?

We’d love to hear your opinion on this. Please do get in touch and let us know how you think the loss of cookies can be tackled.