Lotame Study: Marketers Plan For A Future With Multiple Identity Solutions

Lotame has today announced the findings of an in-depth survey on “Beyond the Cookie: The Future of Advertising for Marketers & Publishers.”

The report examines how digital publishers and brands are addressing consumer engagement in the post-cookie landscape. 200 senior decision-makers in digital media and marketing across Australia were polled during December 2020.

Key findings include:

Future of identity solutions – More than 60 per cent marketers favor using multiple identity solutions

The findings show both marketers and publishers plan to use an identity graph solution to map audiences – 28 per cent plan to use one within the next 6 months, followed by 26 per cent with plans to use such a solution within the next year, while 18 per cent are already using a solution. For marketers, only 16 per cent believe one identity solution will suffice, while 13 per cent said only walled gardens will be needed as identity solutions.

For publishers, over a third (35 per cent) are still searching for an identity solution while 25 per cent reported they already have one in place. When asked about budget, 21 per cent of the respondents (marketers and publishers) consider that to be a key constraint for implementing an identity graph solution while 5 per cent are open to working with external partners that use such a solution.

“As the industry grows closer to the third-party cookie phaseout, brands and publishers are in urgent need of privacy friendly, people-based tools to understand and engage audiences at scale,” said Luke Dickens, Managing Director – ANZ at Lotame. “What’s telling is that marketers know interoperability is key, which speaks to the need for options. Driving growth and value across the ecosystem is one of the reasons we developed our interoperable Panorama ID.”

“Context alone” strategy divides marketers and publishers

When asked about the ability of contextual targeting alone to reach desired consumers, 3 in 4 marketers don’t believe it’s a sufficient replacement for audience targeting and 18 per cent expressed zero confidence in the tactic as a replacement. In contrast, 61 per cent of publishers feel quite confident about their company’s contextual targeting capabilities in replacing audience targeting and addressing marketer’s needs. Meanwhile, more than a third lack confidence in their contextual targeting capabilities.

“Context is critical but it’s not the only piece of the puzzle and our study shows that,” said Dickens. “To enable relevant, responsible, and resilient advertising on an individual level, both marketers and publishers need to work together on a variety of options to meet diverse consumer journey touch points.”

First-party data strategies are important but over half of marketers have concerns about the accuracy of their assets post-COVID

Among other concerns over their first-party data assets, 46 per cent of marketers cite siloed data as a roadblock while 44 per cent rely on supplemental data and 43 per cent said they don’t have enough data to scale. Marketers are also looking for more from their publisher partners to meet the stressors of a post-cookie world. Nearly half want greater transparency in measurement (47 per cent) followed by confidence in consent management (42 per cent) and more scale across channels (40 per cent).

Meanwhile, publishers are relying on various methods to enrich their first-party data. Half (50 per cent) responded to using marketer data, followed by 44 per cent using survey and panel data and 38 per cent using third-party data from reputable vendors. Two in five publishers also admitted they need help in finding quality data partners.

“Data enrichment is still front and center for marketers and publishers as our findings reveal,” added Dickens. “With fast-changing consumer behaviors and shifting lifestyle choices — especially amidst COVID-19 — marketers and publishers need to enrich their data to scale and engage with customers meaningfully. An enriched identity solution like Panorama ID is advantageous for marketers in search of consumers and for a publisher’s ability to make more of their audiences addressable.”

In October, Lotame launched Lotame Panorama ID, the only enriched global solution bringing identity to open web traffic. Instead of relying on email addresses from logged-in users, Panorama ID joins together web, mobile, CTV, and customer data. Panorama ID is earning support throughout the ecosystem.