The trick is for brands to evolve alongside the regulation and develop smarter thinking about how we reach our audiences and maintain that key customer connection.
GDPR is the latest acronym on everyone’s lips. Marketing conversations are dominated by anxious forewarnings of a cookie-less existence, marked by lost data and crashing consumer insights.
Regulatory changes are encouraging brands to anticipate future implications. There is now a need to employ an agile marketing approach and explore targeting opportunities that achieve the same, if not better, results.
Before resigning to marketing oblivion, remember that GDPR exists for a good reason: to protect and enhance the consumer experience. Cookie-based marketing won’t simply disappear; it will evolve as part of a broader data strategy.
Do cookies still work?
In the past, cookies worked by identifying customers across the funnel to serve relevant messages. Today, they are less effective. Consumers use multiple devices—many of which, like mobile apps, don’t accept cookies. When a user switches from mobile to desktop, they are often treated as a “new user,” leading to fragmented and irrelevant remarketing. This cookie-reliance is now both outmoded and subject to stringent regulation.
Why does EU Privacy law affect Australian marketers?
Privacy laws are finally catching up to the era of Google and Meta. GDPR protects all EU residents regardless of where they live. Since the internet is a global marketplace, Australian companies must comply to maintain legal access to this audience and avoid significant non-compliance fines.
Is it really the death of the cookie?
Not quite. GDPR is an opportunity to think harder about customer connections. With cookies no longer dominating, brands should align with providers offering contextual targeting and data validation. Evolving alongside regulation is the key to maintaining customer trust.
How to connect with customers without the cookie
Marketers can navigate GDPR limitations by shifting toward a people-based targeting approach. Here are two key integrations available to solve this:
Contextual Targeting: Grapeshot
We’ve integrated with Grapeshot to bring contextual intelligence to programmatic marketing. This identifies keywords on a page to serve brand messages in real-time, ensuring relevance without relying on personal tracking.
Offline Activation: LiveRamp
Our partnership with LiveRamp enables true people-based marketing. Advertisers can activate first-party data and identity recognition across channels. As cookies diminish, LiveRamp matches email data to maintain meaningful customer experiences.
For more information on optimising your data reach, contact the team.
