Data-Driven Thinking

Advertising is now a regulated industry. And with enforcement coming at the state and federal level, data privacy standardization is an urgent issue.

URLs and domains – even those of big-name publisher brands – cannot be trusted in isolation. Buyers need to look at page-level data, too.

New requirements with respect to the processing of children’s data are occurring at the U.S. state level and seemingly flying below the radar. Here’s how these changes could impact targeted advertising in the United States.

The third-party cookie actually stymied the development of digital advertising. Here’s what the cookie got wrong and what its inheritors need to get right.

If interoperability, scale and privacy are the goals, how can publishers build a data culture that sets them up for success?

Google and Meta are playing with fire. Their opaque refund practices have already exposed them to customer blowback – and could lead to class-action lawsuits by disgruntled advertisers.

If you’re using retail media or commerce marketing for the bottom of the funnel only, then you’re missing out on major opportunities.

There’s a lot more good than bad in Google’s Privacy Sandbox. Here’s why some of the current criticisms around the cookie alternative don’t hold water.

Out of the 15 features bundled in the Privacy Sandbox, 12 have the potential to stifle ad tech innovation and disrupt advertising use cases. Let’s take a closer look at two of these features: Fenced Frames and IP Protection.

When Google finally stopped supporting third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome users, the ad industry reacted as if the sky was falling. But it’s unlikely that Google’s cookie deprecation plans will ever be fully fulfilled.

Here are five steps that all advertisers should take to strengthen their supply chains, improve transparency and ensure that MFA Freedom Day is a holiday they never have to commemorate again.

There are a number of landmines in the world of generative AI. Here’s what to watch out for and how to avoid them.

As bold and ambitious as Privacy Sandbox is, it’s rolling out with a lot of confusion and ambiguity. And there’s plenty about the new paradigm that we don’t currently understand.

Some marketers failed to heed the warning signs that their relationship with third-party cookies was coming to an end. But the time to move on is now. Fortunately, there are plenty of other addressability solutions in the sea.

The question isn’t whether Google will fall, but whether its time is near. And, if so, what will finally bring it down?

The anonymous alphanumeric string made and lost fortunes in its short but eventful life. It was best-known for something it wasn’t actually designed to do: targeting ads.

“Standard advertising services” shouldn’t include recording intimate patient-doctor conversations to help drug companies guide doctors on how to push opioids.

Are the big players building a more privacy-friendly advertising ecosystem in the right way? Or are they just cementing their control?

How can we establish guardrails for the use of generative AI while supporting creative exploration? As banal as it sounds, the answer is to create a comprehensive gen AI policy.  

The push for more privacy-compliant ad targeting, combined with recent advancements in the use of on-device signals like location and biometric data, could mean the industry is finally primed to unlock mobile’s true value.

Lawmakers are busy playing politics, and it’s getting in the way of creating safety guardrails for children’s privacy online.

With the encroaching reality of AI, marketing professionals should be included in strategic planning, given the roles we play in shaping public image and maintaining a brand.

Crisis is often fertile ground for change. And boy, the marketing world is in desperate need of change.

Until universal standards are set and adopted by retailers, marketers need to ask some boring yet fundamental questions about the metrics currently in use if they want to assess and compare performance across retailers. 

Self-supervised learning is at the heart of generative AI, and it’s perfectly suited to address the signal loss we’re increasingly facing in digital advertising today.

Welcome to Scandi-Land, where the cookieless future has been our online media reality for the last five years. Here are three lessons for media planners, buyers, sellers and platforms who are going to have a tough time navigating the thicket of change.

Google has had to rely on vectors other than an increase in search volume for growth. Without proper protective legislation in place, however, the result could be a dangerous one. 

AI’s speed of innovation and deployment have raised concerns about risks and harm to people and businesses. Here are some tips for how to use it responsibly.

Advertisers’ attempts to engage consumers could end up leaving them cold. After all, not all attention is created equal.

“What frustrates me most about this situation is how easily it can be remedied in a way that will benefit all parties,” writes Lou Paskalis about the Google Search Partner network brand safety debacle.