Carrie Timms, Director of Global Customer Marketing, EMEA at Meta
According to IAB Europe’s Annual Flagship Event Interact, 2023 is the year of action for our industry. But when the world feels so uncertain and the pressure to unlock efficiencies and generate growth is greater than ever, how do you know what action to take?
The key lies in understanding what’s driving people today to anticipate what will matter to them tomorrow – and this is where Meta’s annual trends report, Culture Rising 2023, comes in.
With more than 3 billion people using at least one of our apps daily, Culture Rising uses today’s insights to predict tomorrow’s opportunities. Drawing on rising conversation topics and hashtags across Facebook and Instagram, we bring you 20 trends to watch, grouped into four themes in this global survey. In this blog, I unpack these four themes to give you an idea of what’s shifting, what’s sticking, and what we can expect next.
1) Exploratory identities
How we see ourselves defines how we view the world and our place in it. Yet our identities aren’t fixed but constantly evolving, just like we are. This is something we heard from IAB Europe’s Chief Economist, Daniel Knapp, during our IAB Europe Industry Insiders webinar on Culture Rising. With people exploring and building identity throughout their lives, what brands think they know about their audiences is always shifting. This is an opportunity for brands as their customers tend to be receptive to new ways of thinking, new habits, and new products over their lifetime.
2) Refined relationships
Our relationships have long been one of the core drivers of our happiness, but how we connect with each other or the things we love is changing. We look for a date on one platform but keep in touch with our friends on another. We join online groups to further our passion but look to creators for inspiration. Similarly, brands should be rethinking their key relationships and the channels through which they can be nurtured. Whether your brand is looking to deepen existing relationships, broaden its reach, or deliver a more authentic experience for customers, seeking out diverse creators or harnessing new technologies like AR can help you meet your customers where they are.
3) Assertive aspirations
In good but especially in bad times, hope is what keeps us going. The ambition to do more, to be better, to find meaning, and to leave our mark is not only part of who we are, but what keeps us going. Tough economic times coming on the heels of a global pandemic means we could all use a little boost from unexpected places and that includes from brands we love. Whether you draw on your brand’s expertise, the causes you champion, or your unique personality, now is a time for brands to speak to people’s aspirations and feed their ambition.
4) Lived values
People are increasingly looking to translate hashtags into action and live up to their values. Whether it’s wellness, sustainability or mental health, we’re looking for ways to walk the talk. We want our choices to be in line with who we are and what we care about. We hold ourselves, our friends, and increasingly, the businesses we choose to support to a higher standard. We expect brands not only to have the same taste as us but also to anticipate our preferences and share our aspirations - not unlike we would a friend. And whilst it’s unlikely that anyone will call customer service just to hang out, customers do expect brands to be responsive to their needs, respectful of their time, and mindful of their shifting preferences. As tech evolves and expectations rise, might you want to consider “BFF brand” status a new, potential north star?
Beyond the four trends we’ve outlined above, our Culture Rising report shows that our wants, needs, and preferences are complex and ever-changing, just like we are. But whilst we once lacked the tools to appreciate what motivates us today and why, we can now use data, analytics, and emerging tech like artificial intelligence (AI) to anticipate with increasing accuracy what will drive us tomorrow. And for brands, that could change the game.
If these themes have sparked your interest and you want to learn more, you can download the full Culture Rising 2023 report with all 20 trends.
On 23rd and 24th May 2023, IAB Europe hosted its flagship annual event ‘Interact’ in Madrid, Spain!
Thanks to the support of our sponsors and media partners, and the wonderful team at IAB Spain, we enjoyed two days of keynote speeches, panel discussions and networking under the central theme of ‘Innovation, Sustainability & Growth’.
We unpacked a whole host of topics from the attention economy, CTV, and retail media, through to premium publisher’s advertising models, sustainability, and more.
Thanks so much to everyone who joined us and thank you to all of the amazing speakers who came together from across Europe and beyond to share their incredible insights and expertise.
Coming soon - Catch Up on Demand
With over 275 people joining over the two days, we are delighted to call it a great success.
If you didn’t have the opportunity to join us, fear not! We will soon be sharing a full wrap up of Interact soon with videos and images of some of the key sessions so you can view in your own time.
In the meantime, why not check out some of the Interact highlights below..
Interact 2024 – Stay Tuned!
We hope you will be able to join us next year! Stay tuned for the reveal of the next location and get ready to pop the date in your diary as we prepare for Interact 2024.
In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about IAB Europe or how you can get involved in Interact 2024 please do reach out to communication@iabeurope.eu
We’re teaming up with DoubleVerify to invite you to participate in an exclusive survey that aims to understand more about Connected TV Advertising in Europe. What are your key priorities in CTV? What is Driving your investment? Or are there any challenges without an active solution?
Have your say in our survey before 2nd June and be in with a chance of winning a €200 Amazon Voucher!
CTV advertising is continuing to gain traction across the region and the aim of this survey is to gather both buy and sell-side perspectives on the challenges, drivers, measurement approaches and future of CTV advertising.
The survey will take less than ten minutes to complete and all responses will be treated with the strictest confidence. All respondents will receive the research results directly to their email if provided.
The results will be used to provide insights into how CTV is developing in Europe and what areas still need to be addressed. Take part in the survey here today.
We will be selecting a participant, at random, to win a €200 Amazon voucher. So what are you waiting for? Share your expertise and enter for your chance to win.
On the 4th of May, IAB Europe hosted its first Virtual Programmatic Day to discuss and debate the latest trends, drivers, and barriers impacting programmatic trading in Europe.
This event brought industry experts together to discuss the value and evolution of programmatic, programmatic omnichannel, the programmatic angle of Retail Media and commerce, and what the future holds for programmatic, including AI.
A big thank you to our event partner Xaxis for hosting this hybrid event.
In this post, you will find an overview of each of the sessions as well as links to the video recordings for you to view in your own time. Enjoy!
Panel Discussion with Audience Q&A: The Value and Evolution of Programmatic – From Header Bidding to SPO to Conquering AV & TV
Programmatic advertising has transformed the way digital ads are brought and sold. First introduced to the market in the mid-2000s through the advent of real-time bidding (RTB) technology, advertisers can now target specific audiences with greater precision and efficiency through automation. Something that adds immense value to any media plan. But what is the real value of programmatic today and how has it evolved from Header Bidding and Supply Path Optimisation (SPO) to tackling new and emerging channels and formats such as AV and TV?
Jaidev Kakar, Director, Advertiser Solutions, EMEA at PubMatic, moderated this session and was joined by:
Watch the session recording here
Panel Discussion with Audience Q&A: Programmatic Omnichannel
In this session, a panel of experts discussed the challenges and opportunities of programmatic omnichannel campaigns. They addressed how the programmatic ecosystem has evolved to enable the delivery of effective omnichannel campaigns and what we can expect to come in this area.
Rebecca Rose, Head of Clients EMEA, Verve Group moderated this session and was joined by:
Watch the session recording here
Panel Discussion with Audience Q&A – Retail & Commerce Media – The Programmatic Angle
Retail media is no longer an ‘emerging’ channel and is expected to reach 25bn in ad spend by 2026. But what impact do programmatic capabilities have on retail and commerce ads? This panel of experts discussed this plus how retail and commerce media can be planned, bought, and sold programmatically.
This session was moderated by Nick Welch, Head of Programmatic, EMEA, Integral Ad Science (IAS) & Chair of IAB Europe’s Programmatic Trading Committee who was joined by:
Watch the session recording here
Panel Discussion with Audience Q&A – AI & The Future of Programmatic
AI is widely adopted and utilised in the programmatic space, with DSPs creating machine learning algorithms and buyers adopting key processes to help optimise toward campaign success but what does the future look like and how will AI technologies help advance programmatic trading and the digital advertising industry?
In this session, a panel of industry experts discussed the role that AI and new technologies play in programmatic advertising, the current opportunity and challenges in this space, and what the future holds with new technologies and innovations on the horizon.
Chloe Nicholls, Head of Ad Tech at IAB UK moderated this session and was joined by:
Watch the session recording here
If you’d like to find out more about programmatic and view some of the work of our Programmatic Trading Committee, please check out the links below:
Just like last year, the OMR Festival is expected to draw more than 70,000 visitors to the Hamburg Messe on the 9th & 10th of May, 2023. On over 100,000 sqm of space, #OMR23 offers the digital and marketing industry a robust program of Conference keynotes, Masterclasses, Guided Tours, Side Events and Expo on both days. More than 800 experts will take to the six OMR stages for keynotes, panel discussions and interviews. The speaker lineup at this year's OMR Festival once again offers A-listers from Europe and beyond.
Serena Williams is coming to OMR Festival 2023
Headlining #OMR23 is Serena Williams, who has made a name for herself far beyond the tennis court. A native of Los Angeles, Williams has more singles titles than any other player in history on-the-court, off of the court she has built up a personal brand with worldwide pull. With her fashion brand "S by Serena" and jewellery brand "Serena Williams Jewellery," she provides a platform to issues of body positivity and female empowerment. Since March 2022, she has been active as an investor by founding Serena Ventures. A USD 111m fund, Serena Ventures already has 60 companies in its portfolio and focuses on supporting entities with diverse founding teams. Among them are fintechs like Propel and Cointracker, the billion-dollar company Masterclass and smoothie delivery service Daily Harvest. In addition, Serena Ventures has a stake in Esusu, one of the first tech unicorns with Black founders at the helm. Visitors to #OMR23 will be able to hear Williams discuss her career post-tennis on the OMR Conference Stage.
Climate activist Luisa Neubauer at #OMR23
She is probably the most-prominent face in the German climate movement. She’s the co-organizer of Fridays for Future and one of Time Magazine’s TIME100 Next—a list of the top 100 up-and-coming individuals. We are talking about Luisa Neubauer.
In 2018, Luisa Neubauer met the Swedish student Greta Thunberg at the UN Climate Change Conference, was inspired and, together with other activists, launched the “Fridays for Future” movement in Germany, following the example of the Swedish original. Listing the full scope of the movement’s impact would require a standalone article to do the movement justice. The very brief synopsis: Neubauer has helped organise hundreds of climate strikes, regularly confronts politicians, meets global heads of state and government officials and has attended four UN climate conferences as an activist. Her goal - and that of the global climate movement - to meet the UN’s 1.5-degree target agreed to at the 2015 Paris Climate Conference. To inch closer to meeting this goal, Luisa Neubauer and Fridays for Futures have cleverly weaponized the rules of the attention economy. For starters, Neubauer is the host of the Spotify climate podcast “1.5 degrees,” she’s published three books detailing the ecological crises from different angles and in 2021 she and others won a formal constitutional complaint against the German government, which was historic to say the least.
Media mogul, innovator, CEO and entrepreneur: Scooter Braun
We are so excited we got him: Born and raised in NYC, Scooter Braun is one of the most-successful and recognizable music managers and businessmen in the world. As a manager, his artist portfolio features a who’s who of the world’s biggest superstars. But it would be reductive to label him as merely a music manager. A serial entrepreneur, investor, film producer, dedicated philanthropist, innovator and investor in companies like UBER and Spotify, Braun’s broad scope of expertise makes him one of the most intriguing speakers ever to come to OMR. On the #OMR23 Conference Stage, Braun will discuss his work, success, failures and vision, while also sharing insights into his prolific career and talking about the importance of giving back as much as possible.
The man, the Kith, the lifestyle legend: Ronnie Fieg
Ronnie Fieg’s lifestyle brand Kith is flying higher than ever. Kith just dropped lookbooks with Jerry Seinfeld, Edward Norton and Bryan Cranston and in addition Fieg took on a little part-time gig in November 2022 as the first-ever creative director for the New York Knicks. Simply put, he knows what’s up in fashion and has an acute understanding of which levers and hype mechanics to activate for his clothing. One strategy: Kith stores are an experience unto themselves and have become a sort of place of pilgrimage for many fans - granola and ice cream on the house.
Find out more and get tickets here
A note from IAB Europe's CEO, Townsend Feehan on her remarks for delivery at the DG Just Stakeholder Roundtable on the Initiative for a voluntary business pledge to simplify the management by consumers of cookies and personalised advertising choices.
Thank you for the invitation to attend today (Friday 28th April) and the opportunity to participate in DG JUST’s reflection over the coming months.
In my speaking time, I would like to call out two assumptions in the Discussion Note circulated in advance of today’s meeting that are worth bearing in mind, and two ways that IAB Europe can support the reflection.
First, the Discussion Note helpfully acknowledges that personalised advertising delivers benefits to both consumers and advertisers. The reality is that personalisation is attractive to advertisers because it offers the prospect of less wasted spend; the Discussion Note explicitly suggests that consumers understand and accept this fact.
Second, the Discussion Note’s focus on improving information to consumers seems to confirm DG JUST’s continuing faith in the information-and-choice paradigm for European consumers on which existing privacy and data protection law are based (as opposed to contemplating a different paradigm that would take choice and control out of consumers’ hands).
These seem to us to be important and positive foundational assumptions.
With respect to how IAB Europe can support the reflection that is being kicked off today, we believe we are well-placed to contribute to each of the two key areas of focus laid out in the Discussion Note.
First, with respect to information to be provided to consumers, IAB Europe can help give practical effect to a future DG JUST pledge by ensuring that its Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF), which is implemented on hundreds of thousands of EU websites, integrates additional information disclosures. TCF is a best-practice minimum standard that helps websites solicit, establish, record, and signal a GDPR legal basis and ePrivacy consent for data processing for advertising. The TCF dialogue box that opens when a user visits a website or app for the first time could be modified to include an explicit reference in the first layer to the site being “ad-funded”, or “partially dependent on advertising revenue”, or “ad-free and subscription-based”. The dialogue box could also explicitly state that content is offered in exchange for a willingness to receive advertising. TCF UIs already indicate what “trackers” or other personal data the website or app is asking for user agreement to process, for what purpose(s), and the legal basis/es for processing (whether consent or legitimate interests) if the user agrees.
Second, with respect to exploring “alternatives to tracking-based advertising” that are also personalised in some way, we can provide insight into the state of play on the industry’s own work to identify and further develop alternatives to third-party cookies and help the stakeholders participating today understand the implications of that work for consumers. As DG JUST and other colleagues here today will be aware, there are already alternatives (for example, personalisation based solely on context) and work to identify means of personalising advertising that do not involve the use of cookies has been accelerated in recent years by technology and business decisions taken by browser and operating system manufacturers.
It is important that this reflection be clear-eyed about there being winners and losers in any evolution of the paradigm. As an example, arguably contextual advertising works for eCommerce platforms, single-topic or ‘niche’ sites, and large news sites that have the resources to run sports and lifestyle feature sections, but less well – or not at all – for smaller news sites that do not have those resources. Even large news organisations using only contextual would need to let a great deal of content go “unmonetised” as it is difficult to match advertising content to serious news content. Similarly, certain news media platforms cannot build commercially attractive audience segments based solely on first-party data due to their content being limited to “serious” news, user engagement with which reveals nothing about a product or service that someone might be interested in buying.
And when specific categories of online actors “lose”, the consumers that have benefited from free or low-cost access to their content and services also lose.
IAB Europe would be pleased to host a workshop to which DG JUST and all attendees of today’s Roundtable would be invited to present the state of play on the development of these alternative models. I hereby formally extend that invitation.
We are looking forward to participating in this important reflection between now and the end of the year.
Thank you again,
Townsend Feehan, CEO, IAB Europe
On the 18th of April, IAB Europe hosted its first hybrid Great Debate event of 2023 to discuss and debate Retail Media.
This event brought industry experts together to discuss how the Retail Media market in Europe is developing, how a Retail Media solution can be developed, key measurement principles to consider, and how Retail Media investment can provide effective closed-loop measurement.
In this post, you will find an overview of each of the sessions as well as links to the video recordings for you to view in your own time. Enjoy!
Keynote Presentation: The Retail Media Landscape in Europe with IAB Europe’s Chief Economist Daniel Knapp
In this keynote presentation, Daniel shared the latest stats and facts on the Retail Media landscape and the opportunities available in Europe today. He shared why he feels too many marketers are still seeing retail media as nothing more than a dedicated channel and instead that it is “an infrastructure that will bring about great change in digital advertising”.
If you’re a member of IAB Europe and would like to receive the presentation deck, please email Marie-Clare (puffett@iabeurope.eu)
Watch the session recording here
Panel Discussion with Audience Q&A: The Retail Media Landscape in Europe
A panel of industry experts discussed the key trends and developments happening in the Retail Media market across Europe. They shared how Retail Media is brand safe and a win win win for advertisers, and how it is a good way to reach engaged audiences. They also addressed key challenges around transparency and technical implementations that still need to be overcome.
Giles Longhurst, Managing Director, EMEA & APAC, Connexity (e-commerce division of Taboola) moderated this session and was joined by:
Watch the session recording here
Panel Discussion with Audience Q&A: Retailer 101 – What You Need to Know
In this session, a panel of retail media experts came together to share insights and best practices from their own businesses. They discussed the need to be bold to monetise the retail media space, as there is such high demand for it, and the importance of opening up the opportunity to purchase and creating standardisaton to establish a successful retail media solution.
Babs Kehinde, Senior Director, Commerce Media at PubMatic moderated this session and was joined by:
Watch the session recording here
Panel Discussion with Audience Q&A – Closing the Loop – Retail Media Measurement
Our final panel of industry experts rounded up the above-mentioned conversations to discuss how Retail Media offers the promise of closed-loop measurement. They discussed the importance of first-party data for measurement, the advantages for advertisers being able to optimise in real-time - “By directly matching customer ID data with impressions, it is transforming how we are optimising our advertising budgets.” Laura Badea, Partner eCommerce at Wavemaker - and the value of data clean rooms in this process.
Salvatore Cospito, CEO, Reetmo & Head of Retail Media Group, IAB Spain moderated this session and was joined by:
Watch the session recording here
If you’d like to find out more about our Retail Media event and access other available materials on the topic, please follow the links below:
Dated: 24 April 2023
In order to respond to the changes and needs of the market, while continuing to help players in the online ecosystem comply with certain requirements of the ePrivacy Directive and the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), the Transparency and Consent Framework (“TCF”, “Framework”) needs to be updated on a regular basis. In particular, constant evolutions in case law as well as in guidelines of Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) place ever higher demands on market participants in terms of data protection requirements. The TCF instances have therefore drawn inspiration from them to bring new iterations to the Framework. In addition, some changes are related to the Action Plan submitted to and validated by the Belgian Data Protection Authority (more information here).
IAB Europe, in partnership with IAB Tech Lab, is committed to continuous improvement and development of the Framework through industry collaboration to meet the needs of users and regulators. The iterations brought by the TCF v2.2 aim to bring further standardisation of the information and choices that should be provided to users over the processing of their personal data, and to how these choices should be captured, communicated and respected.
TCF v2.2 will be launched mid-May and TCF participants will have until the end of Q3 2023 to make the necessary changes to their respective implementations. All iterations have been developed to avoid breaking changes to the existing v2.1 Technical Specifications and facilitate their adoption in a timely manner by CMPs and Vendors.
To help the market anticipate these upcoming changes, this article provides an overview of the different amendments to the TCF Policies and Technical Specifications. In the run up to the launch of TCF v2.2, IAB Europe is hosting a series of webinars to offer full support and guidance to CMPs, Vendors and Publishers. Recording of previous webinars can be found at the end of this blogpost.
1) Removal of the Legitimate Interest Legal Basis for Advertising & Content Personalisation
The current version of the TCF Policies allows the use of legitimate interest or consent to carry out data processing operations for Purposes 3 (Create a personalised ads profile), 4 (Select personalised ads), 5 (Create a personalised content profile) and 6 (Select personalised content). The TCF Policies will be amended to remove “legitimate interest” as an acceptable legal basis for these Purposes. As a consequence, within the scope of the TCF, Vendors will only be able to select consent as an acceptable legal basis for these Purposes at registration level.
2) Improvements to the Information Currently Provided to Users in CMP UIs
The Purpose names and descriptions will change. CMPs will be required to present improved user-friendly descriptions, replacing the current user-friendly text as well as the (currently) mandatory legal text. CMPs will also be required to make available illustrations based on real-use cases, which aim to explain to users how TCF Participants’ data processing operations relate to the Purposes.
In order to improve transparency over the means of processing used by Vendors in support of the TCF purposes, Vendors will be able to declare additional features at registration level.
3) Standardisation of the Additional Information About Vendors Provided to Users in the Secondary Layers of CMP UIs
To provide greater transparency, Vendors will now be required to provide additional information about their data processing operation at registration level - so that this information can in turn be disclosed by CMP to end-users in secondary layers UIs.
The new TCF Policies will include a standard taxonomy of categories of data, from which a Vendor can select from at registration level. The Policies will include a new UI requirement for CMPs to disclose for each Vendor the categories of data collected and processed.
Vendors will be able to declare, at the time of registration, how long (in days) they keep data for each declared purpose. Accordingly, the new TCF Policies will include a new UI requirement for CMPs to disclose for each Vendor how long they keep data to achieve each declared purpose.
Vendors will be required to declare what their legitimate interests at stake are, by providing at the registration level a dedicated URL where with this information can be found (e.g. a bookmark of their existing privacy policy). The amendment to the Policies will require CMPs to make this information available to users through the secondary layers of their UI.
Vendors will be able to declare during registration differentiated URLs to their privacy policy or legitimate interest statement for each TCF-supported language, where available. Publishers and their CMPs will have the option as a result to direct users to Vendors’ privacy documentation in the relevant language to improve transparency for users.
4) Greater Transparency for Users About the Number of Vendors
CMPs will be required to disclose on the first layer of the CMP UI the number of third-party Vendors that are seeking consent or pursue data processing purposes on the basis of their legitimate interests. The TCF Policies do not impose any specific maximum number of Vendors, but Publishers are strongly encouraged to ensure that they only work with Vendors that are (most) relevant to them. The TCF Policies will include a warning that an unjustifiably large number of Vendors may impact users’ ability to make informed choices and increase Publisher and Vendor legal risk.
To assist Publishers in the process of selecting the Vendors for which they establish transparency & consent, an additional Vendor Information List has been published (“B2B GVL”). It contains information that can make it easier for a Publisher to determine which Vendors are relevant for it. Information contained in the B2B GVL can be used by Publishers to, for example, avoid requesting user’s consent for Vendors that operate in technical environments and jurisdictions that are not relevant to their online services, as well as generally better understand each TCF Vendor’s scope of operations and whether it transfers data outside of the EEA.
5) More Specific Requirements to Facilitate Users’ Withdrawal of their Consent
Publishers and their CMPs will be required to ensure that users can re-access the CMP UI easily to manage their choices (e.g. from a floating icon or a footer link available on each webpage, or from the top-level setting of the app).
If the initial consent request presented to users contains a call to action that enables user to consent to all purposes and vendors in one click (such as “Consent to all”), an equivalent call to action should be provided when users re-access the CMP UI to withdraw consent to all purposes and vendors in one click (such as “Withdraw consent to all”).
Additionally, the TCF Technical Specifications will mandate Vendors (rather than only recommending) to use event listeners to ensure that any changes to TC Strings are proactively communicated to them and other Vendors. In the web environment, Vendors with access to Javascript will be required to register an event listener function (addEventListener) instead of using the getTCData command of the TCF API. In the app environment, Vendors must listen to IABTCF_* key updates to retrieve TC Strings from NSUserDefaults (iOS) or SharedPreferences (Android).
6) Enhanced TCF Compliance Programmes
Since 2019, IAB Europe has developed Compliance Programmes to verify compliance of TCF Participants with the Policies and Technical Specifications. These programmes will be expanded, with new auditing mechanisms and differentiated enforcement procedures.
All auditing mechanisms and verifications susceptible to be performed in the context of the TCF Compliance Programme will be described and published in a public Control Catalogue, to help TCF participants in assessing and reviewing the compliance of their TCF implementations. In addition to the Control Catalogue, IAB Europe will release a new version of the CMP Validator Chrome Extension that will be publicly available.
IAB Europe will increase the volume of proactive auditing of CMPs and Vendors that will be randomly selected each month, and will also act upon reports of non-compliance from the market or from end-users by making available a dedicated form to submit a complaint.
Vendors and CMPs will be subject to differentiated procedure according to the nature of the non-compliance. In particular, any tampering with or falsification of TC String will result in immediate suspension from the Framework for a minimum of four weeks, and will be notified publicly.
7) Reminder: Revocation of the consensu.org Subdomains
Support for Global-scope was deprecated in June 2021 due to negligible use by Publishers (less than 0,5%) and compliance considerations. The deprecation required CMPs to delete all existing euconsent-v2 cookies associated with the consensu.org domain. IAB Europe will now remove all consensu.org subdomain delegations to CMPs’ nameservers (which had previously been provided upon registration). As a result, CMPs will no longer be able to host their scripts on their consensu.org subdomain, and this in turn technically prevents them from setting and accessing cookies on the consensu.org domain.
CMPs currently hosting their scripts on their consensu.org subdomains will need to host them on a different domain. Their Publisher clients will need to redeploy a new script on their digital properties before July 10th (see notification here).
How Should TCF Participants Prepare ?
Changes to the TCF Technical Specifications
The changes to the TCF technical specifications are open for public comment until May 12th, 2023 and can be found here. Comments may be submitted via email to transparencyframework@iabtechlab.com. The technical changes included in TCF v2.2 are also outlined in IAB Tech Lab's blog post here.
Support Workshops for TCF Participants
Hosted in 1 hour-long webinar formats, TCF experts went through everything that is needed to fully implement TCF v2.2. All webinars featured Q&A sessions and have been recorded.
[Video Recordings]
Session 1: Overview of the main differences between the TCF policies 3.5 & 4.0
An overview of the main differences in policies between v2.1 & v2.2. This session is for all TCF stakeholders. Watch the recording here.
Session 2: Overview of the changes to the TCF technical specifications between v2.1 & v2.2
An overview of the changes to the TCF technical specifications between v2.1 & v2.2. This session is to help CMPs and Vendors navigate the different technical resources. Watch the recording here.
In order to respond to the changes and needs of the market, while continuing to help players in the online ecosystem comply with certain requirements of the ePrivacy Directive and the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), the Transparency and Consent Framework needs to be updated on a regular basis. In particular, constant evolutions in case law as well as in guidelines of Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) place ever higher demands on market participants in terms of data protection requirements. The TCF instances have therefore drawn inspiration from them to bring some new iterations to the Framework, including some changes related to the Action Plan that was submitted to and validated by the Belgian Data Protection Authority (more information here).
These new iterations will be released as part of the Transparency & Consent Framework v2.2 in the next few weeks, and TCF participants will have until the end of Q3 2023 to make the necessary changes to their respective implementations. All iterations have been developed to avoid breaking changes to the existing v2.1 Technical Specifications and facilitate adoption in a timely manner by CMPs and Vendors.
In the run up to the launch of TCF v2.2, IAB Europe will publish background material and host a series of webinars to offer full support and guidance to CMPs, Vendors and Publishers. Registration links can be found below.
Session 1: Overview of the main differences between the TCF policy 3.5 & 4.0
Thursday 20th April| 15:00 CET – Register here
An overview of the main differences in policies between v2.1 & v2.2. This session is for all TCF stakeholders.
Speakers
Session 2: Overview of the changes to the TCF technical specifications between v2.1 & v2.2
Thursday 20th April| 16:00 CET – Register here
An overview of the changes to the TCF technical specifications between v2.1 & v2.2. This session is to help CMPs and Vendors navigate the different technical resources.
Speakers
We’re teaming up with GroupM Nexus to invite you to participate in an exclusive survey that aims to understand consumption habits and the development of Digital Audio Advertising in Europe.
Have your say before 12th May and be in with a chance of winning a €200 Euro Voucher!
Back in 2019, we conducted a survey in partnership with Xaxis to understand the changing landscape of Digital Audio Advertising in Europe. Now, four years on, we’re keen to see how the landscape has evolved and if key challenges and barriers have been overcome and we are inviting those involved in audio media buying, planning, and selling to get involved!
The survey will take less than ten minutes to complete and all responses will be treated with the strictest confidence. All respondents will receive the research results directly to their email if provided.
The results will be used to showcase the audio opportunity and how audio can be used to enrich media strategies. Take part in the survey here today.
We will be selecting a participant, at random, to win a €200 Amazon voucher. So what are you waiting for? Share your expertise and enter for your chance to win.
The impending termination of support for third-party cookies on Google Chrome means that many of the metrics that marketers use today to measure their digital media performance will soon become obsolete. So how will we measure in a cookie-less future?
Josephine Howe, Sr. Marketing Manager, MSA, Daniel Godoy, Microsoft Global Programmatic Evangelist, MSA: There is no silver bullet solution for measuring programmatic outcomes. However, industry ID solutions will add a valuable layer to measurement of digital campaigns with authenticated IDs. Advertisers will also need to rely on non-addressable signals, for example how website visits changed during the campaign, and metrics like attention measurement.
Raman Sidhu, SVP at Verve Group: The objective of third-party cookies was to enable cross-channel (multi-touch) tracking and measurement. However, they have not been perfect for a while as the environment in which they run is already limited, most notably for Apple users. So we need to remember that cookies are already not doing what they were designed to accomplish.
As a result, new models must be considered:
When we’re talking about conversions, we need to think about the type of conversion and where it’s taking place. Whether it be ecommerce, leads, sales, app downloads, etc. All of these have alternatives without cookies, IDs or PII which are proven & measurable. One of the main differences is that it’s focused on the last touch or via a data-driven model.
Alex Berger, Senior Product Marketing Director, Adform: The third-party cookie is already a shadow of what it once was. New solutions have been introduced and scaled that are ready to cover the majority of targeting and measurement use cases. At times they’re more precise; in other situations, more complex. But, the key is that advertisers retain the ability to be strategic. Today, they have to navigate a more complex and strategic technology landscape to do that while the industry goes through a period of unbundling. As the third-party cookie further erodes, and technologies continue to come online I think we will see the trendline bottom out and reverse towards a re-bundling which will translate into significant scale 2–5 years from now. Ad performance for branding doesn't really change radically from third-party cookies. Measurement for Branding campaigns is a matter of quality of exposure with the right reach and frequency. Quality of exposure doesn't need third-party cookies. To measure reach and frequency, you need cross-identity measurement to unpack the effectiveness of your strategies. But this is generally the same regardless of if they are based on contextual, cohorts, first- or third-party IDs. For Performance you need an approach that still relies on real-time decisioning, but further validates that against longer-term, deeper reference and additional data.
Louise Mbugua, Sr. Product Manager & Go-To-Market Lead, Teads: We must first acknowledge two realities. The first being that with over 50% of web supply today missing 3P cookies (3PCs), cookieless is not near, it’s here. Secondly, not all cookies are equal, with 1st Party cookies (1PCs - created and stored by the website a user visits) surviving into the “post-cookie” future. So how do we define whether ads are working in a post-cookie world? Let’s first define success. The success of an ad can be viewed through two lenses: “engagement” (user interaction with the ad) and “outcomes” (post ad engagement value such as brand uplift & sales). Ad engagement, as measured with traditional media metrics including ad viewability, completion rate and clicks, is minimally impacted by the deprecation of 3PCs. As an aside, however, with up to 20% of programmatic ad spend distributed to Made For Advertising (MFA) supply, it’s increasingly vital for marketers to evolve these metrics to include attention-based measurement - e.g., ‘dwell time’, ‘attentive seconds’, ‘attention CPM’ - with studies proving attention to be strongly correlated to outcomes and 3x more effective than viewability as a predictor of consumer behaviour. Unlike ad engagement, outcome measurement, specifically attribution measurement that relies on 3P consumer-level data, will be challenged by the deprecation of 3PCs. Here the industry is still in an experimentation phase and there is no single replacement solution, but key options marketers are likely to explore include:
With a broad range of post-cookie measurement initiatives - complexified by nuances in the way different types of media and devices are measured - it will be key for the industry to collaborate to facilitate cohesive, effective and efficient measurement in a post-cookie world.
How do we think about using post-cookie solutions for campaign targeting and optimisation and looking across the consumer journey? Not just display, but mobile + CTV as well?
Josephine Howe, Sr. Marketing Manager, MSA, Daniel Godoy, Microsoft Global Programmatic Evangelist, MSA: In the post-cookie world, there will be two groups of users on the internet: identifiable and unidentifiable. For identifiable users, first-party data combined with consent is key to precise measurement and modeling. For unidentifiable, or anonymous users, contextual targeting through keywords, topics, and moments is optimal. Curated deals are a powerful way for buyers to benefit from these solutions at scale. With the population of identifiable users shrinking, there will be more emphasis on first-party data, especially in channels like Connected TV. There are innovative tools to address this shift, for example advanced frequency management. It is crucial for marketers to balance identifiable and unidentifiable groups and understand the opportunity to target and optimize towards each.
Raman Sidhu, SVP at Verve Group: At Verve Group, we often talk about how moments are the new cookies. Brands know the moments that matter to them, especially those which drive interest, intent and sales. We help brands deliver omnichannel campaigns which include web, app, CTV and DooH in meaningful moments across the consumer journey. Furthermore, through a real-time feedback loop we can optimise performance towards specific outcome goals. That forms the basis of our strategy. With the availability of first- party data or cohort data, we can further improve performance.
Alex Berger, Senior Product Marketing Director, Adform: Marketers need to embrace dual thought streams; real-time and long-term. Nothing new here, but the focus and importance has been amplified by third-party cookie deprecation. Real-time decisioning and strong algos don’t replace the need for a robust planning phase or deep post-campaign effectiveness analysis. You’ll still need strong media mix modeling to study the effects of omnichannel advertising. This hasn’t been replaced - quite the contrary, a hybrid approach is now more important than ever. Skip the real-time and you miss out on the value of programmatic. Skip the analysis, and you break the flywheel, which is driving incremental value creation.
Louise Mbugua, Sr. Product Manager & Go-To-Market Lead, Teads: There are many ways to answer this question and they are timing dependent. Any targeting powered by addressable identity will extend targeting reach capabilities across multiple mediums (web, CTV etc). Some of these solutions, however, will take a long time to create significant scale. As an alternative, there are other forms of targeting using contextual and panel based intelligence and those solutions will perform across several mediums.
Other alternatives include:
Digital advertising campaigns in environments devoid of third-party cookies will run on a mix of emerging alternatives, including first-party data, consent, contextual approaches, cohorts, identifiers, and more. How can we ensure that these solutions still align with user preferences and future regulations? With data privacy legislation becoming more complex, how can we future-proof?
Josephine Howe, Sr. Marketing Manager, MSA, Daniel Godoy, Microsoft Global Programmatic Evangelist, MSA: Microsoft Advertising is focused on an audience first approach and iteratively building to prepare for the next chapter of digital advertising. Technology platforms must enable the industry to build and connect solutions in a compliant way. Looking ahead, we think that there will be a shift from client-side solutions to more server-side solutions, increased employment of data clean rooms and consolidation of Identity solutions. Multiple identity solutions will be needed as long as they are interoperable. The limited number of ID’s, based on the direct relationship with the user, means that there will be less reach but better authenticated traffic, better controls on consumer data, and maintenance of targeting and measurement use cases.
Raman Sidhu, SVP at Verve Group: As digital advertising campaigns move away from third-party cookies and towards alternative solutions using first-party data, consent, contextual approaches, and cohorts, it is important to ensure that these solutions align with user preferences and future regulations. Very often, I hear the same feedback from expert buyers, product and strategy leaders at brands and agencies. The future will be a mixture of first-party data and context. That means mapping 1st party data, for example to advertising ecosystems/walled gardens. Whilst creating audience lookalikes using contextual signals and predictive models in the instances where no identifiers exist. Consent must be explicit in all cases where any form of identifier or PII is involved. Ensuring double opt-in is imperative for brands and advertisers. For sellers, the ecosystems with the largest addressable consented audiences will benefit from buyers looking to engage with current or prospective customers.
For buyers, capturing of consent should include the channels where they want to activate.
Clean rooms aim to help here with the movement of data. However, there is still some way to go in scaling the network.
Alex Berger, Senior Product Marketing Director, Adform: While this is a major concern for the industry, it’s much less of an issue for technologies that were already thinking in a consented / localized way. We started pivoting our tech stack to support this approach as GDPR was starting to gain momentum and found that a focus on transparency, interoperability, and clear consent signals really paves the way for scaling post-cookie without major issues. At the end of the day, it’s about choosing technology that gives you a lot of transparency, ownership of your data, and that clearly supports delivering consented value to the end user. If you work back from that, you’ll consistently find these changes are more a case of fine-tuning vs ground-up reinvention with exorbitant switching costs.
Louise Mbugua, Sr. Product Manager & Go-To-Market Lead, Teads: The impending deprecation of 3P Cookies, set against a backdrop of increasing data privacy legislation, is rightfully forcing a re-examination & redress of the balance between user privacy and ad performance, which has often tilted in favour of the latter. The most important variable here is that the consumer must be involved in the consent process and permission obtained to use their personally identifiable data. Any form of identity or targeting/measurement that relies on inference of identity will be subject to scrutiny for the simple reason that consumers can’t opt-out of said mechanism.For contextual based and technographic based solutions, these have longevity as they don’t target any individual or PII. In doing so they provide a privacy safe scale that we - at Teads - have found performs as well as, if not better. The key will be the balance of finding a strong enough ‘truth set’ of known information from consumers who have opted-in to their data being used to power models and AI to find scale into identity-less environments.
Finally, what conversations are you having with media buyers and brands? What advice would you give them to get ready for programmatic outcomes without the cookie?
Josephine Howe, Sr. Marketing Manager, MSA, Daniel Godoy, Microsoft Global Programmatic Evangelist, MSA: As an end-to-end technology provider, we advise buyers and brands that relevant advertising will increasingly rely on contextual solutions for unidentifiable users. Investment in first-party data assets and partnerships will be needed. Advertisers should seek out data platforms and tech providers equipped to work with authenticated user IDs. It is important to think about how to leverage proprietary data assets while ensuring privacy compliance.
Raman Sidhu, SVP at Verve Group: We encourage brands and media buyers to consider the moments that are important to their business. We help them plan media to capture the largest share of these moments, whilst always identifying interest and intent. It is crucial for companies to comprehend their target markets and pinpoint the meaningful moments when those audiences are most likely to interact with their goods or services. Avoid focusing on cookies and instead focus on audiences and moments to drive demand to your products and services. Redesign your media planning strategy and concentrate on the moments that matter most to your business. This will support your efforts to increase sales and succeed in your marketing campaigns.
Alex Berger, Senior Product Marketing Director, Adform: What’s needed for media buyers and brands is more control, more transparency and ownership, and solutions that can bridge the gap in a consented way. Your activation on CTV or DOOH is going to be a bit different from premium display or mobile. You’re also going to have different IDs that are better suited to certain geographies or channel types. We’re already seeing and working with 40+ IDs on a regular basis, and I think it’s the job of the technology to create tools and solutions that really elevate and solve this complexity for buyers. Of course, the buyers also have to embrace these new approaches, and will need to re-train and re-prioritize workflows somewhat to make this happen.
Louise Mbugua, Sr. Product Manager & Go-To-Market Lead, Teads: Firstly, don’t wait to act! Delays to the deprecation of 3PCs on Chrome belie the fact that a predominantly cookieless environment is a reality today across many major markets. Secondly, understand your exposure by identifying the volume of media budgets dependent on marketing capabilities such as cross-site tracking that rely on 3P cookies. Thirdly, develop a plan to test and integrate cookieless-ready solutions into your marketing strategy.
IAB Europe have worked with the teams at CIMM, egta, EACA and WFA to curate this International Knowledge Exchange on Audience Measurement. The Exchange of knowledge will help to stimulate collaboration and better understanding in an increasingly international, interconnected marketplace.
The International Knowledge Exchange provides an opportunity for the international media and advertising industries to share insights about the latest measurement innovations, initiatives and solutions in the US and European markets. This meeting will take place on the 11th April at 15:00 CET.
