Verizon Media’s Dan Richardson reveals most consumers unaware of Google’s cookie changes
Google announced last week that it is delaying its plans to phase out third-party cookies in the Chrome browser for campaign management, targeting, and measurement to mid-late 2023.
Google said the delay would give publishers, advertisers and regulators more time to adapt to the “new technologies it’s creating” to enable targeted ads after cookies are phased out, providing the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) signs-off on Google’s commitments and updated timeline.
How will Google delaying Chrome’s blocking of tracking cookies affect the consumer?
Dan Richardson, head of data AUNZ at Verizon Media (Yahoo), told Mumbrella that rather than focussing on how it will affect advertisers, we should also bring it back to the consumer and how they will be affected.
“It’s about creating that relationship with the consumer and having it be an ongoing relationship rather than a transactional harvesting of cookies. The main thing would be addressing the education gap, as it’s actually a gaping hole at the moment.”
Richardson said that his research found that 79% of consumers are actually unaware of the changes to third-party tracking, cookies, data privacy, and ad IDs, but at the same time, 76% of consumers said they’re very concerned about data privacy, which is up 27 points from two years ago.
“There’s been a huge level of concern by the very low level of education. And I think what Google’s announcement does is it gives marketers and publishers the chance to really double-down on that education strategy and to demonstrate the value exchange of their consumers in an ongoing way. That’s the real positive. The industry wasn’t ready for this. Google wasn’t ready,” Richardson said.
“They were under immense pressure from the marketplace over its cookie substitute blocks as well as from governments around the globe and potential antitrust violations. I think Google put the industry in a tight spot with the original timeline. This delay is definitely a positive.”
Richardson added: “A couple of things we’re watching keenly, first of all, is it doesn’t necessarily have to be Google’s way or the highway. We’ve heard from Amazon that they are looking to block the Google code, block that from their website and they’re going to back their own first-party data and ecosystem, which I think is an interesting consideration for any other big publishers that have valuable first party-data and a great relationship with consumers.
“Our strategy remains the same. We’re really focused on our own identity solutions, connect ID, working with industry IDs, and our next generation contextual audiences, which are already turned on, and working at scale.”
