cookieless

Cookies aren’t going anywhere. Behind Google’s third missed deadline to remove third-party cookies from Chrome. And what it means for ad tech.

The industry is “at a critical inflection point in our digital evolution,” David Cohen told attendees at the 1,200-person-strong Annual Leadership Meeting in Florida on Monday.

It takes a publisher around six weeks on average to test and deploy a new identity solution, not to mention the maintenance they have to do over time. No wonder publishers are stressed out.

The end of third-party cookies is upon us, and independent ad tech is diverging on the best approach for cookieless targeting. Meanwhile, agencies and marketers are zooming out from programmatic to a bigger picture that’s focused on first-party data.

Yes, Google pushed back the deadline twice. But barring action by the UK’s competition regulator, which has oversight over Google’s rollout of the Privacy Sandbox, third-party cookies in Chrome are dunzo.

We share our 2023 New Year’s resolutions. We’re cracking down on the terms “cookieless” and “privacy safe.” And for the sake of experimentation, we’re cautiously embracing ChatGPT.

The slow dismantling of cookie-based tech had its fingerprints all over our coverage in 2022 (if you’ll excuse the mixed metaphor). Data privacy supplied the drumbeat, from stories about clean rooms to new privacy-forward ad tech products to the rise of retail media (a data safe haven).

“‘Cookieless’ is just a buzzword,” said Sanup Pillai, DHL’s global head of digital marketing and mar tech tells AdExchanger. “I wouldn’t say we’re getting ready for the ‘cookieless future’ as much as that we’re taking this opportunity to future-proof our technology stack.”

Everyone in our industry has been on the edge of their seat since Google first began developing the Privacy Sandbox more than three years ago. But things have been moving slowly, writes Lukasz Wlodarczyk, VP of programmatic ecosystem growth and innovation at RTB House. The cookieless future is virtually here, and the time to experiment with alternatives is now.

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…